Bits and Pieces: September 2026

 

Hello! I had originally planned to be away last week, visiting John's oldest sister and her husband in northern PA, but then we unfortunately had two deaths in the family, so the travel plans got cancelled. I was busy so I took a little blog break, but I'm back now. A Bits and Pieces post seems like a good way to get back to blogging. 

• The photos in this post don't have anything to do with the written bits. They are just pictures from a file I keep called "Errant Photos". Some of them are from mistakes I've made while trying to take pictures, but I have no idea what the others are. I do think they're too interesting to delete, so I'm glad to have a chance to use them. 

• John and I have friends that we meet for dinner once every month or so. The wife of the couple (let's call her Jean since that's her name) has recently started knitting with her church group. They give bibs and a baby blanket to every child that gets baptized and Jean says they are running pretty far behind. She recently got promoted from bibs to knitting blankets and was pleased with that, but she said she had made a mistake and could I please, please, please see if I could fix it? I took a look and she had just slipped two stitches instead of knitting them. It was about a 30 second fix to tink back and knit the stitches so she could get back to knitting, but Jean was absolutely thrilled. I told her to call me any time, she thanked me profusely, gave me a jar of her homemade salsa, and has continued to text her thanks. I tried to show her what I did so she could maybe do it in the future but she's not quite ready for that. I felt a bit like a superstar even though I know I didn't do anything, but I am glad Jean was so happy and could get back to her knitting. 

• I'm officially looking for a new-to-me car. I'm currently driving a 2012 Subaru Forester with a minimum of bells and whistles, which is what I prefer. It even has a real key instead of a push button to start it, and it works well for the minimal driving I do (which is basically to the grocery store, and Ryan's and Justin's houses). But we've needed to invest $2900 in it in the last two weeks to repair a power steering line leak and the lower control arms. (I don't really know what they are or what they do, but I'd hate to be out of control.) I've looked around a bit online and my in-person visit to the local Subaru dealer was enough to make me want to keep my car. A used Subaru that is a couple of years old with reasonable mileage seems really expensive, especially when I can get a new one for just slightly more. I'm going to shop around (which means that I'll probably ignore it until something else breaks on my car.)

• Justin's and Jess' wedding is getting closer. Justin finally picked out what he and the groomsmen will be wearing and he arranged everything through Friar Tux. (I do love that name!) Once he created "The Look", all he and the groomsmen had to do was input their measurements and Friar Tux will send them their outfits. He used it for a couple of weddings that he was in and it was so much easier than going to a tux rental place. 

• They got a "self-uniting" marriage license. They are getting married at a venue in the woods in Canadensis, PA. They've asked John's older sister, Phyllis, to perform the ceremony. She got "ordained" on the internet; I don't remember what organization it's with, but she's married several couples and I know she'll say some lovely things this time. PA doesn't recognize her internet church, but they do offer something called a "self-uniting" marriage license. That means that the couple themselves solemnize the marriage, and all they need to do is have two adult witnesses sign the license and return the paperwork for it to be official and legal. It was originally meant for Quakers, although you don't have to be Quaker to go this route. I think it's kind of cool; I just need to stop calling it self-sealing.

• I'm still plugging away on dish towels but I'll be back Wednesday to show you some progress. I hope you are having an enjoyable Labor Day if you're in the US, or a lovely Monday if you're elsewhere!