A Moment of Poise

I'm going to Duluth! Mz has rented a car, and I'm to be the passenger. We leave in a couple hours. Me and the Orphan Reds. I hope to find some Duluthian fabric in a thrift store (plaid?) to make them some new clothes... 

I'm leaving at home Firefly, who I'd hoped I wouldn't have to deconstruct before restuffing. But she was just too stinky, even after a year of being loosely stuffed with newspaper, so I cut off her cotter-pinned joints (below, left; wicked), took her apart, and gave her a bath.
It took four baths, actually, before the water was clear.

She is waiting to be patched next. I'd salvaged a ratty handmade quilt from the alley (below, right) whose strips of old worn fabrics will match beautifully.

I like to leave the house ship-shape when I go away, even for a couple days.
That's not happening!
But my life is unusually poised at this moment. Just for the moment, anyway, no one I love is in crisis, including me, and many of us are happy and well.
Even very well: 
my friend Julia is newly in love, so she's radiating.

At work, too, all the tiny silver balls are resting in their proper grooves, for the moment...

Thank you, everybody for your comments and emails about my work dilemmas: they really help! 

GZ had suggested a solution to my ethical dilemma about taking books from Little Free Libraries in the wealthy neighborhood--in her neck of the woods, the boxes are "Take one, leave one". 

The boxes I took from never need replenishing, but I'm going to replenish the book box at a preschool two blocks away, which often does. The store always has more donated kids' books than we can sell, so that will be a fitting redistribution.

Then, yesterday my boss told a couple of us (me and a concerned and informed longtime volunteer) that later this month the directors of the church groups associated with the store are meeting, and he's going to talk about the need for structural changes--including setting up a board for the two thrift stores. 

(That is correct, the board does not oversee the thrift stores.
The organization has a labyrinthine structure that allows almost no lateral communication. The big exec. Tom makes all the decisions for the stores... or, he doesn't. )

YAY!!! 
It is beginning.

Julia and I were darning together last night, and I told her I'm not patient. She looked confused. "You just told me you are happy you have three more winters' worth of darning on this blanket," she said. "Maybe you could think about the thrift store as a darning project."

Yes! Like this fantastic "Six-Year Darn" from visible-darner extraordinaire, Tom of Holland:

And last of the most recent lovely things: a blogfriend sent me $20 for store supplies of my choice. (Thank you, K.!)
I splurged on something I've wanted since I started: peel-off labels for the books.
For price stickers at the store, we cut up donated address labels on a paper cutter --the problem being the labels are too sticky--they don't peel off, they rip off, so they tear non-slick paper book covers and jackets.

The next 2,200 books won't have that problem!
And there was money leftover for new fine-tip markers. These are like gold at the store, so I hid them before I left.

And now I must finish packing! 
I'm taking my electronics so you'll probably be seeing the Reds in Duluth...
XO Fresca