Knotting Bee August 2024

What's a knotting bee?  It's like a quilting bee so, since I don't know the name of the gathering, I'm calling it a Knotting Bee.

For 2 days ladies from various churches and organizations met at the Village Hall, which is part of *VMRC.  There were lots of comforters ready for us and boy did we ever knot!

(Click on any pic for an enlargement) 

 This was a 2 day event so there were more ladies who came besides this good group.

 

Rita, Betty, Arlene, and MaryMay

Deb, Mary, and Arlene.  We are used to working on a stretched comforter so working on tables was a challenge.  We almost had to lie down for some of them!

The variety of designs and glorious colors never cease to amaze me!

We also learned a new approach - instead of knotting on the corners, we knotted in the middle, which made it easier.  No need to fight through those seams at the corners.

 Mary Smith and Eleanor Heishma

Deb Layman, one of our leaders.

This one is very unusual.

More designs

Another pretty design.

Tom Matheny sets up our comforters on a stretcher where we work in our VMRC craft room weekly.   Tom also sews, fixes machines and accomplishes many other projects.  If he doesn't know how to do something, he invents a way that works.

 

Yes, men do this too! 

 

32 comforters completed in two days is an accomplishment! 

They will be sent to relief agencies, especially Mennonite centers, to be distributed.  Some of these will be sent to Ukraine.  

 

*VMRC = Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community
where Gary and I live in Harrisonburg, VA. 

 

You couldn't be in a place like this and not want to knot!

The Day the Internet Crashed

Finally, the day had arrived.  Gary was going to get his surgery behind him.  On Friday morning, July 22, 2024, at 4:15 a.m., we met our driver, Joe Lapp, down in the main lobby of our building and we proceeded to Charlottesville (65 miles away).   Joe dropped us off at the University of Virginia Hospital at 5:30 a.m. and went back to Harrisonburg. 

(I can't drive because of the double vision I've been experiencing for the past few weeks. More on that later.)

We were met with a big surprise --- we discovered that the computers were down.  This wasn't just the hospital, it was a world-wide problem.

 

No one in the hospital could do anything.  The hospital computers couldn't even access their medical files!!!  Not only that, airports, banks, police, firemen, and businesses all over the world were hit by this problem  so they were all "dead in the water."  

 

It turns out that Microsoft had put out a security update and there was a mistake in the programing.  Things are slowly getting back on, but not all.

We sat in the waiting room and kept waiting for a couple of hours, thinking things would be back up and running soon.  We turned around to discover the whole, large waiting room was emptied out.  Guess those folks lived in Charlottesville so they went home.

The receptionist felt so bad that she gave us each a gift card for Walmart of $5.  Plus, she kept apologizing.  She was so sweet.

We had hired Joe to drive us over, Gary would have had his surgery Friday,  and Joe would come for us on Saturday.

 

So...... Gary did not get his surgery behind him after all. He'll have to continue to get up 4 or 5 times a night until then..

 

We'll have to go back when the computer glitches are fixed.   He tried calling the office all weekend - just got a recording.  Today he reached them.  

 

They are trying their best to adjust schedules in order to work all the surgeries scheduled for Friday in as soon as possible.  He could choose to just make an appointment but there is no  opening till next year!  So, he'll be patient, as much as possible, and will wait to hear from them and hopefully, they'll work us in ASAP.

This whole episode makes me think how a terrorist could take over the whole world!!!  Perish the thought!!!