August 2, 2023

Dear Friends,

Let’s start with a spelling lesson:

Can you spell “gas tro en ter olo gist.”  This can’t really be done without the help of Google.

Or “Proc tolo gist”   This one is easier to tackle.  Either one can make spelling bee fodder.

Here’s the difference between the two, as plagiarized from Google: “Proctologists are different than gastroenterologists, though both deal with gastrointestinal issues in patients. Gastroenterologists perform diagnostic procedures. They do not often perform surgeries to treat patients. That is the role and specialty area of the proctologist.”

Doesn’t really matter which when you get a colonoscopy because you see them for only a few minutes, and most of the time you’re (1) not facing them, and (2) you’re fast asleep. So that’s what I did yesterday.  It all went well.

Donna was my driver, of course.  Left the shop at 6:00 am, procedure in Plano at 8:00 am, and back home sometime after 10:00.  Arriving back a the shop in good faith that everything would be hunky dory, we were surprised to see a real live version of Rock Em Sock Em robots in progress.  At issue was who got to use the Infinity Longarm.  James or Kim.

Each was about to quilt a customer quilt, and they both wanted to work on the best machine.  The Amara 20 and Amara 24, the Moxie, and the Simply are all great machines and there’s nothing at all wrong with them.  We use them all the time.  But the Infinity is special!  It’s the top machine HandiQuilter makes.  It’s better engineered, faster, runs smoother, sounds different, feels different, and is a real pleasure to use.  It’s almost always the machine of choice if it’s vacant with no one else working on it at the time you need it.

So there were Kim and James:   “You did not!”   “I did too!”   “Well, so’s your old man!”  “Well your mother wears army boots!”  It was all quite vicious.  Emotions were at an all-time high, and had it come to blows, there’s no telling who would have won.

Graciousness finally settled in, hackles retreated, and it ended up peacefully, with James finally being the one using the Infinity, and Kim the Amara 20.  And both got their quilts completed before the end of the day...well, almost!

The nice part of the day for me was, the doctor had told me not to do any exercise or any hard work for the day, so it got to be a good lazy day for me, most of it spent kicking back on the couch.

Call to action for this e-mail is, you ought to come by the shop and give all the different longarm models a try to see which one you will choose, and which one suits your needs better soon as you get in the market for a longarm.

Chip