A rainy weekend: Lots of work, some play

Yup—it was rainy.

And cold, especially since the Forest Service condemned the dining hall fire place and it is yet to be rebuilt. 

All we had was this, which was small comfort in a dining hall now lined in screens rather than windows for the coming season. Usually the breeze blowing in across the river is a welcome relief. This weekend it merely served to blow patterns around and cause our fingers to get stiff and numb as we pinned, cut, and sewed.


That's right. I said SEWED. Me. Using machines—not one but TWO.


This one is like a freakin' computer. It probably cost more than my car, but you can monogram things and embroider little pictures. My car does not do those things. It's probably a good thing I don't have one of these because I would surely go completely nuts and start monogramming everything: napkins, shirts, bed linens, underwear . . . would that really be so bad???

This one is a surger, and what a crazy little thing it is. It zips a sort of blanket stitch around the edge of the fabric and trims it off with a little knife. Brilliant.

The woman who sews costumes for each summer's staff show was good enough to take me under her wing for a second year, giving me a lovely reprieve from scrubbing bathrooms and mopping floors. Last year I just cut and pinned for her, but this year she gave me a promotion and moved me up to machines. In spite of the less-than-optimal conditions under which we worked, I was thrilled to have what amounted to a day and a half of private sewing lessons. Her patience was astonishing. She reckoned I'd be a pro when I marched into my sewing class the day after we got home. Not quite, but more on that tomorrow.

So while we missed one of my favorite parts of camp, sitting in the green chairs to chat and have a glass of wine while waiting for the dinner bell,

we enjoyed some time with our good friends David and Jeanette. Husband and I met through David, whom Husband has known since he was a young man, and we now make wine together with them. In their retirement they've traveled the world, not just as ordinary tourists but to do things like trail maintenance with work groups, interview indigenous weavers, and of course chase down flavors of the world. When they return they always have a big party featuring vacation slides and food from the region they visited. And while David and I are probably happier dangling our feet in the river and paging through the most recent copy of Cooks Illustrated, we were all happy to share meals and pass across the table a great bottle of pinot that Husband struggled to keep warm enough inside his jacket. 

Of course one person had not a single complaint about the weekend. She was in the mountains, is impervious to cold, and was given free reign to get as dirty as possible.

And we obviously eased up on the table manners.

Tomorrow's post about last night's sewing class will feature

• good sewing versus bad sewing
  
• what my daughter said about the pillow I made
  
• why I cried a little bit riding home on my scooter