Filling Motor Grease Tubes With No Irony Involved

I did something today I've never done before which was to fill the motor grease tubes on my seventy-year old Singer sewing machine. And I've been using the thing for at least fifty years. Now I absolutely do oil the machine as recommended by the ancient instruction manual. 

There are places on the bottom of the machine that should be oiled too, as illustrated on a different page and I make sure to get to them. 
But as far as I can remember, never have I filled the grease tubes with the lubricant although maybe I have because there is a tube of lubricant in my sewing machine case and it is definitely not over twenty years old. 
Probably. 

I did all of this in preparation for getting restarted on Levon's name blanket which is the project I talked about before Mr. Moon left, saying I needed to work on it. 
And boy, do I. At the rate I've been progressing on it, by the time I give it to him he'll say, "Wow. Thanks." And then he's going to get the keys out of his pocket and drive off, forgetting to take the blanket with the cartoon bears with him. 
Have I already said this? 
Oh well. It's true. 
But again, this morning, I was feeling so very, very down and horrible about myself that like yesterday, I knew I needed to get to work on something that I have been putting off doing. Not that calling and making those appointments yesterday really improved my outlook on life in general, or myself in particular, but there is no getting around it- I need to finish this blanket. 

I finally got smart today and cleaned off my back porch table which is large enough to spread the quilt out on to pin the pieces I need to pin to it. Getting down on the floor to do that is next to impossible. And then I needed to clear the sewing area in the dining room and put the jigsaw puzzle away and then oil the machine and lube up the old grease tubes and set up the ironing board and run a bobbin and and by the time I'd done all of that, it was already early afternoon. But I got some progress made and that does feel good.

My sewing machine feels like one of my very oldest friends. 

Here's what the blanket looked like a few steps ago:

Vastly imperfect but very soft. After I finish up with all the different layers, I will cut out the letters of Levon's name and sew them on to the last panel and then embroider around the edges of them before I sew the panel to the blanket.

And I imagine this is the last name blanket I will ever make. 

So that's all I've done today. I set Ralph the Roomba to vacuuming and he has been busy all day. Perversely, this makes me feel as if I am accomplishing some vacuuming which I most definitely am not but if it gets done, who cares? 
I've talked to Mr. Moon. I do believe he is quite ready to come home. He's had a lot of enforced relaxation on this trip and the man is not good at that. He'll be home tomorrow afternoon. He said that he saw the gator again last night. I did not realize that he'd taken the picture of it from his balcony. He said the gator was just hanging out in the water until he opened his balcony's sliding glass doors at which point the creature perked right up and made his way to the bank, looking up expectedly, which means that asshole tourists have been feeding it. And this is how alligators become dangerous to humans and their pets. They lose their natural fear of them, their desire to keep their distance, and expect something tasty to eat when they see one. And then when one does attack a person or eat a dog, they have to catch it and euthanize it because it has become a "nuisance animal". 

God, but humans are stupid. They completely ignore the "Please don't feed the wildlife" signs and toss the gators (or bears or raccoons or crocodiles) leftover Kentucky fried chicken or Hostess Twinkies or whatever nastiness they have available and make sure their wives are watching and getting it all on film and feeling like they're Crocodile Dundee or something. 
It's the ubiquitous "Hey y'all, lookit this!" and people actually die because of this behavior and so do the animals. 

Speaking of how humans are assholes. 
Anyone want to explain to me WHY in the world Trump thinks that starting a trade war with our closest allies is a good idea? The stock market is tanking, global economists are horrified, and somehow the orange intestine does not understand how tariffs work nor can any of his so-called advisors appear to be able to explain it to him. 

Meanwhile, our new Director of Health and Human Services is suggesting cod liver oil as a treatment for measles and is shipping doses of vitamin A to the county in Texas which seems to be the epicenter of the measles outbreak, as well as helping to arrange ambulance rides. 

From the NYT's: 

"Texas doctors had seen very, very good results," Mr. Kennedy claimed, by treating measles cases with a steroid, budesonide; an antibiotic called clarithromycin; and cod liver oil which he said had high levels of vitamin A and vitamin D.

Really? 
Here's an alternative suggestion- vaccinate children to prevent the need for all that medication, ambulance rides, hospital stays, worry, fear, possible death and the spread of the disease to vulnerable children. Also, isn't vaccination a less expensive way to deal with the measles? I thought that's what this Republican administration was all about. 

Okay. I'm done. For tonight at least. 
Are you watching the State of the Union? I would, simply to see how the people in the Chamber are reacting but I cannot watch that treasonous pus pocket use his anal mouth to speak, nor can I bear to listen to the words that come out of it. 

Gonna go heat up the leftovers. 

Love...Ms. Moon