Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Still Here!

Willow
After several hours of tinkering last evening I went to bed despairing of the blog.
The whole thing 'locked up' while I was playing with colors, changing the header photo, experimenting.
I've done this before, not always liked the result and simply put things back.
I admit the options available have all the temptation of a big box of colored pencils when I was a child--one wants to see what all the pretty colors look like!
One of those nasty notices came up informing that my browser did not support blogger [blah, blah, etc, etc] and that I must install goggle chrome.
I did so and still couldn't get into the blog.
I lay awake fuming.  I am not of a technical turn of mind--don't especially care about the HOW of things.  I simply want things to WORK!
A bit before midnight I padded out by the fire and turned on my laptop.
I immediately found that the blog dashboard appeared in the upgraded format.
I scratched away at the 'gadget' page and sorted the photos for the sidebar, feeling that I had conquered cyber-world.
Of course when I turned on the desktop PC this morning that was still in a bind.
I reinstalled Chrome.
I updated Internet Explorer.
I downloaded and ran a 'Fix-It' tool
It seems that a Yahoo toolbar which activated without my permission locked up everything else.
Toolbar de-activated, blog saved. Temper soothed.
Now I have to become familiar with the new posting format.
At least this one lets me view the photos I've selected for upload.
Hopefully later in the week I'll have time for comments and something more creative than a 'rant!'
The photo above is Willow.
Dear, naughty, stripey Willow--who removed the buds from the new Christmas cactus during the night and left them in a neat pile on the table.
How do I know it was Willow?
[I just know!]
This has been a day of mild dampness.
I harvested two lovely cabbages from the garden this morning.
J. split wood.
The grand accomplishment of the day was resurfacing the backsides of two pair of jeans for grandson D. and patching a long three-cornered tear in the leg of one.
D. wears his clothes hard!
I've always believed in patching jeans--a finicky job, as you'll know if you've wrestled them around on your sewing machine.
There's something about the soft, much-washed denim and the raggedy patches of an old pair that is very suited for hard work in the garden--or painting--or grubbing.
I daresay mine may be the last generation who patches and mends!

Grampa Mac as he looked when I was a child [left] and later when he was about 70 years of age.
My dear Grampa Mac, a widower, used to patch his denims on Sundays.
He used a huge darning needle threaded with the white twine he saved when he opened sacks of chicken feed or cow grain.
He sat in the rocking chair which is now my favorite, the radio blaring at his elbow.
His big calloused hands which had mended harness, groomed his horses, planted garden seed, hovered over the worn denim trousers, setting large firm stitches.
At any given time he surely  had newer denims neatly folded away, but his sense of frugality would have been insulted to discard that which could be mended and made useful.
When I learned to use my first sewing machine I took over the task of patching.
My parents and grandparents had survived the great depression and they passed on the
ethic of frugality and Yankee thrift so foreign to a later 'throw-away' mindset.
My current sewing machine is 'state-of-the-art' with capabilities we couldn't imagine even two decades ago.
There is still satisfaction in a job of mending accomplished--and the sense of being appreciated by a young man who clattered down the stairs to my sewing area to say, "Thank you, Meme, for mending my jeans."


9 comments:

  1. All the technological terms are Greek to me. You're light years ahead of me! Love your story about the patches. Should see the fancy one on my favorite flannel nightgown.And I'm glad I patched it too. A good flannel nightgown is as scarce as hens teeth.

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  2. My new sewing machine is not as heavy duty as my old one and I no longer tackle jeans on it. A blessing in disguise as I used to quake when my grandson used to ask for alterations. He is now at Uni in London and gets them done by a friend.
    Years ago my Mum had a lovely treadle machine, I actually made my wedding dress on it, it would sew through anything from chiffon to leather without having to bother about needles and thread thickness. Have we improved with the new machines? I think not....

    Briony
    x

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  3. Glad you got your blog going again. Computer glitches always get me flustered. DH is a computer geek which is a blessing for me.

    Willow looks so innocent. :-)

    Great story about your Grandpa patching his own jeans.

    Enjoy your Christmas season.

    FlowerLady

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  4. I redesign my blog very little because I'm afraid I'll mess it up. Glad you got yours working ok.
    Sorry about your Christmas cactus, my cat eats plants, but she only wants the green parts.
    I have a very simple sewing machine because I'm a very simple sewer, nothing complicated.

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  5. I still mend and darn and patch too, and have taught Tam to do the same. (Well, mend things, not sure if she darns).

    I'm like Mac 'n' Janet, always worried about messing my blog up and losing things if I try to improve it!

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  6. well done sharon!! you conquered it!!

    Leanne x

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  7. I'm with you. I don't care HOW things work, only THAT they work.

    Anyway, I like the updated look!

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  8. You were brave to try any changes in my view. I`m sure if I tried then my blog would disappear into the ether!

    Naughty Willow. Lucy Cat has just brought a vole home, so maybe a Christmas Cactus is the lesser of the evils...

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  9. Must say I tend not to mess too much with my blog because I can see me losing the lot - like you I'm not technically inclined.My mending these days is confined to turning up fallen hemlines and sewing on buttons. I cqan clearly remember my mum turning my dad's shirt collars and purtting old sheets ends to middle to give them a new lease of life. I could d o the sheets if I was pushed but I'm afraid turning a collar would be well beyond me.

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