SpinnySpinny

The hardware upgrade was positively painless, so I’m back together sooner than I expected. The software upgrade was a different story, unfortunately. The one thing that didn’t work perfectly is my website development environment, so I’m back to the old system for now. I didn’t get much actual spinning done, but I did measure out several more final skeins, a truly dull operation. Pretty soon I have to get started on the wraps per inch tags, which begins with cutting out 40 little pieces of cardboard. Now that’s excitement! I’ve been saving the inserts from my monthly Apple developer mailings just for this purpose.

I bought a bunch of printable labels to avoid having to write out every single wpi tag and index card by hand. None of my friends have owned a typewriter for decades and even my mother got rid of hers when she finally switched to a computer. At least I have a printer now, someone gave me his old one a few months ago. I’ve been saving it because it’s an inkjet and as soon as I install the new cartridges, I have a limited amount of time before they stop working. I tried to find printable index cards but they are hideously expensive and I already spent enough on the box of labels. I’m not really clear the purpose of putting all this information on a 3×5 card (and it must be 3 inches by 5 inches) and then stapling it to a file folder. Oh, I don’t have a stapler either. But there is one in the office I can use when nobody’s around. All this paper, arranged in seemingly arbitrary fashion.

I also got another mailing from the registrar this week, with shipping instructions. I have to ship my package and then send, under separate cover, a form detailing a box inventory, date of shipping, insurance valuation and carrier. “The forms should arrive in advance of the materials.” I will certainly be sending this by something other than Parcel Post, which means the package may well arrive before the form announcing it’s impending delivery. Plus, the letter didn’t even give the actual submission deadline (despite blanks left on the form for this purpose) but only a hand-written note that it would be best if I shipped everything by the first of August. I only know the date because I sent an email to the registrar myself to find out. I realize this is a mostly volunteer organization, but there are some things that I expect to see just out of good practice.