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 "I
can fix anything except the break of dawn and I’m working on that.”
My husband, Mac, loved reciting that quote. He was an absolute
wizard at repairing anything and everything.
As in life, opposites attract and I have trouble using a pencil
sharpener. I totally relied on him to restore anything that broke.
The responsibility for fixing what has broken now rests with me.
I love to sew. It’s therapy for me. I’m not good at it, but I love
it. Grampa Moore always told me to be a jack of all trades and
master of none, and it would serve me well. I took his advice.
My sewing machine wouldn’t work. The feed dog or the dog feed or
whatever wouldn’t pull the fabric through. I was proud of myself for
diagnosing the problem. I was proud of myself for finding my
instruction manual to fix the issue. That self-pride disappeared
after 20 minutes of intent studying and matching pictures from the
pages to my actual machine. Things were just not adding up. I
discovered I had the handbook for my old Janome machine. I was
presently looking at my broken Singer sewing machine. Dang! No
wonder things weren’t computing in this befuddled head. Idiots can
be so stupid.
Then the search was on for the Singer booklet. It took a lot of
self-control to bypass through my patterns and fabrics to stay on
track for the goal of securing the correct guidebook. Eureka! I
found it!
Centering my mind to make sure I had the proper guide to the proper
machine I took a deep breath and determined to fix this conundrum.
My machine was on sale when I bought it. One of the inconveniences
with that fact was no guidebook came with it. I had downloaded the
guide from online. I quickly went to the index and found it was not
feed dog but feed teeth and to turn to page 16. When I triumphally
turned to page 16….it wasn’t there. I had to go back to my computer,
plug in my sewing machine model and number, go to directions and
download page 16. Sheesh!
Accomplishing that, I printed out the appropriate page, punched
holes in the paper and inserted it in my 3-ring binder. Yay me! The
directions read, “The feed teeth lever is found at the back of the
free arm.” What the heck is the free arm? There was no such free arm
in the index. There seemed to be no such free arm on my machine. I
roared my impatience to the unfairness of life in general.
“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then
stop.” Lewis Carroll, author.
Mother and Mac had always told me the trick to keeping machinery
working was to have proper tools and to keep things clean. I busily
went about cleaning my machine. I took off the needle
plate…yep…proud of me again….and brushed out lint. I slid off the
bobbin cover and removed the bobbin. For good measure, I blew the
lint I could see but could not reach. Then I read, “Note: Do not
blow air into the bobbin case area. The dust and lint will be blown
into your machine.” Drat. There’s that stupid idiot thing again.
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More screws removed with an impractical screwdriver for someone with
arthritis. I dug out the above explained lint. I then theatrically
guided the forked end of the bobbin case under the bobbin case
holder and under the feed teeth and moved the bobbin case slightly
from right to left until it slipped correctly into the hook race.
The directions and the directee were constantly at odds with one
another. Finally, I had my machine clean.
While searching for the brush and screwdriver I realized the
accessory tray lifted off and could be removed to reveal….Tah! Dah!
FREE ARM!
The teeny tiny feed teeth lever is on the back… “ 1. Lower the feed
teeth by moving the lever to the feed teeth down position. 2. Raise
the feed teeth by moving the lever to the feed teeth up position.”
Well, lah dee dah. With my head upside down and trifocals dangling
how in the world was I to decipher that? Another note (Singer is
good at notes) “The feed teeth will not raise immediately when the
lever is switched. Turn the hand wheel toward you one full turn or
start sewing to re-engage the feed teeth.”
Through stifling exasperation, I tested until I got everything
working. I celebrated with a mighty shout, a cup of coffee, and a
chocolate chip cookie.
Writer Johann Wolfganv von Goethe said, “Instruction does much, but
encouragement does everything.” Mac was so good at encouraging me
and congratulating me. I miss that. I missed it so much, I called a
friend and he congratulated me. Thanks, Bill.
Mac would often get annoyed as he worked on Bosch products. The
instructions were originally written in German and then translated
to English. Many times, the translation read….”put doohickey into
the whatchamacallit. Do not.” It took him a few errors on the test
stand to realize the instructions must be read through entirely
before going to work on his project.
“Instructions for living life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell
about it.” Mary Oliver, poet.
I have a son that can put together or repair things so quickly it
seems magical. I always say he is like Linus with his blanket….he
could make anything do…..well, anything. He was putting those
cardboard banker boxes together when he was four years old. He can
do origami like I can make a peanut butter sandwich. He does all
those wooden puzzle boxes in no time at all. My mind doesn’t work
that way. Sometimes I have difficulty finding the exit of a store.
I love this quote by author, Simon Sinek, “Directions are
instructions give to explain how. Direction is a vision offered to
explain why.”
L. Maxine McQueen may be contacted at
maxmac.1@juno.com
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