cool story bro
Essential backstory:
1) Ted and I both have pilots’ licenses. We met when we were both working for NASA contractors at the Johnson Space Center. He used to say he wanted to build a kitplane in retirement, though I think that’s less of a dream for him than it used to be, since we haven’t been flying since we left AZ (late 2006).
2) On Tuesdays at lunchtime if I don’t have a meeting or other conflict, I “sneak out” and go hang out with the local knitters group. My local yarn store has groups at a few different times, but I started with this one when we first moved here, before I got this job, and I like the people that come then. Then I pick up lunch at the nearby fancy organic supermarket and eat it back at my desk.
So, today one of the women there was selling a fancy sewing machine that can do embroidery. She’s a snowbird and it sounds like they’re downsizing and getting rid of lots of stuff. (The store will sometimes sell stuff like spinning wheels or looms on consignment.) I asked about it, because Ted wants one to make things like covers for the firepit he’s building. (Have I mentioned the firepit here? Probably not - he made it out of concrete, in the shape of a rowing shell. The hard part now will be getting it upstairs to the back deck.) She’s asking $300 for it, and it sounds like it has lots of capabilities he doesn’t want or need. BUT! We were talking and it turns out she has another machine, from the 1930s or so. In working shape, very sturdy, can probably only do straight seams but can sew through anything, and she only wants $35 for this one. So I told her I wanted it … and then she told me her husband, a retired professional pilot, had used it to do the upholstery for a replica of the monoplane Louis Bleriot used for the first English Channel crossing in 1909. It was meant to be flown across the Channel on the 100th anniversary of that flight, but the guy who commissioned it died of leukemia. It was displayed in the Evergreen Museum of Aviation, though she’s not sure if it’s still there. (Great museum in the heart of the Oregon wine country - I recommend it.) So, for $35, though I may give her more, he’ll get a working vintage machine with a cool aviation history. Score!
Also, though the grocery store hasn’t been having the double-baked potatoes I liked, the samosas I got for lunch were excellent, so now I have a new lunch option there.
Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.