Spotted lantern fly has arrived

Yesterday we got a plumber to come. Everything’s fixed; turns out we have a too-large wastewater line (6”) and need to be flushing it more regularly. Can do.

I oiled the bejeezus out of all the moving parts on the White, removed the face plate and the needle and presser bar assembly, and the shuttle and feed dogs, and got everything moving! There’s still a slight sticky spot in one part of the movement but I hope to resolve that with a thorough cleaning. Got out an old toothbrush and a bag of cotton balls and toothpicks and started in on all the surface grime on the under carriage. Turns out the rod that drives the feed dogs is not in fact brass but aluminum coated in scunge 😕 — thankfully regular sewing machine oil seems to be taking care of it. Bunches of gunk on the shuttle race too. Like dissolves like, and toothbrushes are magic.

I finished Ancillary Sword and started in on Mercy.

Did some research online and tracked down an explanation of the top tensioning mechanism which is apparently weird. Vague references to a service repair manual outlining an inflexible eleven step procedure for reassembling one, which is worrying. I haven’t been able to find an actual service repair manual, though I’ve looked a fair bit. May be time to call Husqvarna soon.

Lunch was good; forgot about snack so had an early dinner before DS9 and a proper snack and sleep. Dreamt of a square dance convention, dancing as a lead, and having my (adorable) 8yo partner repeatedly turn into a glass of milk, and having difficulty finding help with that. Selling a house, and rain, and dogs, and horticulture.