Yesterday's adventure...

I left the trailer at 6:30 and went to the store. I filled up the left tank with gas and bought a pack of cigarettes and a soda. I decided to see the downtown proper of Abbeville. Wow. It's beautiful. At 7:00 am, the Catholic school children are just leaving the church, they attend 6:30 mass every morning. It was quite touching to see all the beautiful children in their uniforms pouring out of the church at that early hour. I saw a lady with a hair net looking for something that fell into the dumpster. She looked embarrassed to be seen rummaging through the dumpster, but you could tell she was searching for something important. I almost wanted to stop and help her, but I didn't. I mean, who wants to rummage through a dumpster at that hour of the morning? Poor lady, I should've stopped anyway.
It was one of those beautiful, misty early mornings. The sun wasn't really up yet, but it was light enough to see and the streetlights were still on. I was expecting a sleepy little downtown area, but instead I saw lots of children in their cute uniforms, between the ages of 8 to 16, being let out of church. They all had bright faces and misty halos, their wings disguised by backpacks. It was truly lovely. I wish I'd had the foresight to take my camera. The girls had knee high socks and short plaid skirts, white shirts and vests. The boys had khaki slacks, button up white shirts with sleeveless sweaters and ties or suit jackets. The picture was perfect.
Then I drove around for a while. I deliberately took all the backroads I could find and I rarely knew which direction I was going except for the sun. I took one road all the way as far as it could go and then it just dead-ended on me, so I turned around and followed it the other direction. I came upon a toll-gate that said I was on Avery Island. I turned back around and found another road heading North. I went to Lafayette and bought a newspaper, sat in my truck and read it cover-to-cover. I stopped in a used appliance store and asked about wringer washers. The owner said he never sees any and has no idea where I'd find one. I went to a pawn shop and looked over their sewing machines. I selected a Brother XL-5130 and took it off their hands for $50. (I know, I paid too much.) I went to the fabric store and bought a bunch of swatches of material and some thread, needles, bobbins, etc for the new machine. I got back to the trailer at 1:30 pm. I made a paper pattern and tuned up the machine. In my experience: the reason people pawn or get rid of their sewing machines is because they screw something up and don't know how to fix it. This particular machine had problems which they tried to fix with oil. The needle was stuck and the bobbin tension screw had been loosened by 2 full turns. It was no big deal, but I had to sew around and around a dishtowel 3 times before my thread came out clean. Nothing worse than a machine that makes the thread dirty. I got my tensions adjusted and the machine works great. I'll still do a good amount of sewing before I attempt anything white. It just needs to be run for a few hours to get all the residual oil out of the bobbin casing.
I should have been in the sewing machine repair business. I have a great machine now, and it hums right along beautifully.
So, today I'm going to hang out here in the camper and sew. I think I'll soak a pot of beans, and cook them with the bacon tonight.
You have a great day.
Thanks for listening.
MsAmber