infryq

Yesterday I finished disassembling the attachments on the rear of the machine, and started in on the head and bobbin area. There are a couple stuck screws and joints, and I’m using sewing machine oil as a gentle penetrating oil to start. Building up an order for parts and supplies, including a more serious penetrating oil called liquid wrench, a new rubber friction pulley for the motor drive wheel, a new rubber friction pulley for the bobbin winder, an LED replacement lamp, and some updated cabling. My goal for this repair is similar to how I treat my antique spinning wheels: not a purely faithful restoration but to bring it back into workhorse order. Learned a new word: rheostat.

I went to a doctors appointment after lunch for a meds follow up, which went fine (don’t touch your face). When we got back, I helped P debug and verify his remote teaching setup, then went back to the White.

Major bummer: while locating the house micrometer, we discovered the drain in the basement has been backing up the whole house sewage line. P cleaned up the affected area, but basically no flushing toilets or other large waste water usage is allowed until we get a plumber out; still waiting for a callback on that. Bad timing.

COVID-19 update: spring carnival is cancelled, club events are cancelled, cmu library due dates and fines are also cancelled. MLD is completing its current round of faculty interviews remotely. We haven’t been directed to wfh yet, which seems short-sighted, but I plan to arrange that with T. If we end up on campus today I’ll be picking up my spare keyboard. Olin students have, endearingly, staged a faux-mencement before everyone is sent home next week, with academic regalia cobbled together from trash bags and campus clutter. It’s a good place.

Dinner, crossword, DS9, snack, sleep. Dreams were an exercise in gross dude-appeasing dubious consent in a variety of (thankfully platonic) contexts. Do not recommend.

Yesterday I wrote up some more of the skirt project, hung up the socks, and
set some stained laundry to soak. Except then the tap wouldn’t turn off. P
managed to get it down to a drip by taking it apart and putting it back
together again, but there’s some part in there that needs to be replaced.
Extra fun because the laundry sink doesn’t have its own shutoff, so if we
were stuck with it gushing, we would’ve been stuck without showers.

We got an inch or three of snow, which stuck fast to the roads after two
days of subzero temperatures. For some bizarre reason the plows didn’t go
out until traffic was already hosed. The bus was half an hour late, and I
heard from the shuttle driver they had to cut service for two hours when
the wheels started locking up on downhills. Despite the schedule slip I was
able to get lunch before therapy, and on the way back stopped at the art
store for replacement drawing pens. They’re going out of business!
Currently targeting late March, depending on how fast they can shed
inventory and fixtures. If you need any supplies cheap let me know.

At work I continued porting Theo to python.

Dinner, fight with my sister. It'll be a while before I'm comfortable talking to her again. Sucks, but nothing we haven’t done before.

Crossword, Heart, buttons, sleep.