Lovely weather we’re having lately, isn’t it? #pdxtst

By Friday night we dipped below freezing. By Saturday morning it was 20F, by Saturday night we were parked at 16F and the ground was covered in a mix of wind-blown snow and sleet. And that wind was gusting!

As of this writing (noon on Tuesday the 16th of January 2024) we’re right at 30F outside (thank you, Newentor Q7 weather station) with freezing rain expected to kick in over the next few hours. Presumably some time tomorrow we’ll get back above freezing again… for the first time in most of an entire week.

This isn’t the kind of winter we’re used to around here. Gee, thanks, global warming for screwing up the jet stream and enabling “polar vortex” events to become an annual feature of wintertime rather than a weird, rare weather event.

I just want to make it to the grocery store before the weekend, at this point. My needs are modest, but needs they still are.

I have stubby legs, relatively speaking. Not stubbly, just kinda short proportionally. One effect of this is that it’s hard to get legwear in my size. Shopping for jeans/slacks is annoying, and pajama bottoms are even worse because they don’t really do those by measurements, they’re just… “here, this is a roughly standard size, hope you like it because that’s what you’re getting.” But I work from home, so I’m in pajamas a lot. Thus owning a selection of options.

One pair of pajama bottoms which started out way too long was hemmed by a kind and caring person with a sewing machine, and boy is that nice, having a nice comfy pair of jammies that fits perfectly.

Another pair, we tried using some kind of iron-on tape product. It… kinda sorta worked, until it stopped working. And thus that pair of pajamas remained in an unusable state for the better part of a year.

And that bothered me.

I’d set myself a few modest goals for this late-autumn vacation, among which was: Learn just enough about sewing to be able to fix this situation by hand, myself.

And thanks to the Internet, I actually did so! I mean, the stitching is ragged as hell (no, I refuse to share pictures) but it held up through the washer & dryer cycle and seems to be sturdy enough. The proof will be when I wear them next, which will probably be early next week. (Our weather’s a bit too warm for the heavier fabric options right now. A balmy near-winter we’re having. But hey climate change is a myth right?)

I did a thing! All on my own, if you don’t count the various folks whose instructional materials I made use of! I’m kinda proud of it.