Not dead yet

My right foot has been swollen for about 6 months but in the past couple of weeks, it's been really swollen. Left foot fine. Dr. Internet says it's a blood clot or gout or one of a biscillion things down the rabbit hole of internet diagnosis. I considered taking it to a Real Life doctor but veto'd the idea. If it's gout, then I either take gout preventive medicine for the rest of my life (no thank you) or change my diet (BIG no thank you). If it's the beginning of a blood clot then I have that blood thinner train to get on and ride forever and I already have blood bruises all over my hands and arms. I'm sick of those and don't want more. A blood clot could cause a debilitating stroke. Not my first choice or even on my top 25. Or just drop me where I stand.

Other than looking like a balloon foot, the swelling causes no problems. It's not painful or hot. I can still wear sandals. It does not interfere with my swimming.

But, this morning, the swelling is down a little - down enough to be very encouraging. I may well have to think of some other way to die.

I could die of heat this week. We have a heat advisory going into effect tomorrow through Friday. Swell. I have an eye doctor appointment early in the morning tomorrow and then I have nothing else that will cause me to leave my house/air conditioner for the rest of the week. Except the pool, of course, but I'm home by 6:30 while even on hot days, it's cool.

Portland is expected to get even hotter heat than here but they also get snow when we don't and don't share that, so I think it's payback.

I have about a dozen projects ready to start today and am still undecided on which one to do first. While I was swimming this morning, I was thinking about the list and priority and changed my mind a dozen times and still don't have a winner. But, it could be this new t-shirt idea I got in between thoughts in the pool this morning.

My tweets

• Sun, 12:36: well crap. i was just getting ready to cancel my Acorn subscription. now i can't. https://t.co/uRA7fmc4Yp
• Sun, 18:05: Interesting... mine thinks I'm way fatter than I really am. https://t.co/LppihVJaPs
• Mon, 07:00: RT @mathewi: Mind = blown https://t.co/6X0DFyEMdA

A much better way

In the olden days, when you wanted to sew something, you generally went to the fabric store and sat down at this big long desk and poured over pattern books until you found the one you wanted.

The patterns were made out of tissue paper and folded up into envelopes. I always used to iron mine flat and then lay them on top of the fabric and stick pins through the paper and the fabric to hold it down and then cut along the lines designated for my size. Then you folded the pattern back up and stuffed it, usually only partially successfully, back into the envelope until the next time you wanted to make the same thing.

Excellent care enabled you to use one pattern maybe 3 or 4 times before it disintegrated from folding and unfolding and pin holes.

Cut to today... Now I download the PDF and select that layer that is my size and so am able to ONLY print the size I want which is significant right there. Regular copy paper works but now I'm using a heavier 32lb paper which works way better. Then I tape the pattern pieces that are bigger than 8.5x11 and cut them out.

I lay out the fabric and lay the pattern pieces on top. I anchor them down NOT with pins but with weights (in my case the biggest washers I could find at Home Depot) and I draw around the pattern pieces with a felt pen who's ink disappears the minute it's hit with heat, like an iron. Once the pattern is removed, I cut out the fabric on the lines I made with the magic pen.

So so so much better. Today I made a shirt out of one of the Goodwill sheets. Its base is my regular raglan sleeved tshirt but with a gathered back that I saw at the baseball game the other day. Worked out perfectly! And the pattern was not at all harmed in the process.

Very cool to make clothes like I did when I learned to sew more than 50 years ago but make them so much better and easier and more efficiently using today's tools.