I really appreciated all of your comments, thank you.

I wrote this big, long post and was just adding pictures at the end. I highlighted all the text to cut and paste it so I wouldn’t lose it. Then without thinking, I added the image, but since all the text was highlighted, it put the image in place of my text. I didn’t realize this, thinking that it had just been put at the very end of the text, so I highlighted it and cut it to move it. But when I tried to scroll up, and couldn’t, I realized what had happened. At that exact moment, the automatic saving feature on my software kicked in and saved the image in place of my text, and I didn’t have the text cut to paste anymore, ’cause I’d cut the image. And my “undo” button didn’t undo.

I’m so completely annoyed.

I’m going to begin to recreate my stupid post. Some of it was in an email, so I’m going to cut and paste that to get me started…..

Sigh…

The most amazing thing happened today.

I’ve been thinking about Charkhas again. I borrowed a Bosworth Book Charkha a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Teaching spinning to 75 elementary students during a month long medieval unit at my girls’ school has started a lot of spinning conversations with non-fibery folk. Or “muggles” as I think someone on a Yahoo group said recently. I really laughed about that one.

So, I’m talking to a friend of mine whose parents are from India. I believe she was born here. I told her about the Charkha and she had never heard of it. She said her mom is going to India real soon, and she’d have her pick one up for me ’cause she thought it’d be much cheaper there. I emailed some links to her, as she was trying to get information to be able to tell her mom exactly what it was that I wanted. In talking to another relative who studied in India for a few years, my friend learned that they’re hard to find, and I told her not to worry about it.

But all this got me really thinking about charkhas again, so I was poking around on the internet. There really isn’t much info, but I saw a reference to two Spin Off articles in the early ’80s. When I bought my first spinning wheel, a Clemes and Clemes, it came with a plastic bucket full of old Shepherd’s newsletters (I don’t remember which one specifically), and a bunch of old Spin Off magazines. I have never looked through that bucket, but when I was in the garage this morning trying to find a dowel for something else, I saw the bucket and started digging through it, remembering that one of the articles was Spring of 1983.

There it was, right on top of the Spin Offs, under the newsletters. It’s 25 years old! And in perfect condition!

Now I need to find where I saw them referenced, so I can see if I have the other one. How incredible would that be?

Back to cleaning… I’ve been working really hard and have made great progress. I feel productive now, instead of hopeless and reactionary. Today, I’m tearing apart Veronica’s and Clark’s room. I can’t begin to describe the scene I discovered under her bed. Eww. We’re setting up bunkbeds, and will paint and organize. They need a new dresser. It’s been ugly and inefficiently arranged in their room since we moved in 3 years ago, and it must be fixed.

Dear Susan, who reads here and who I adore even though I never see her and don’t even know that well, said that when she needs to get rid of old, sentimental things she takes a picture to remember them by. I took that advice today. I have this old music box (I am SO resenting having to write this twice) that was given to me by Italian relatives I don’t know for Christmas when I was 5. It’s a rabbit, that watches a bunny spin and dance in a circle in front of him. It’s completely broken, the bottom has fallen out, the music box doesn’t work and it’s not made well enough that I can disassemble, repair and reassemble it. I tried. I haven’t been able to get rid of it, though, but today, I took a picture and now it’s gone.

Thanks, Susan! I feel lighter already.