I've had two bad haircuts in my lifetime - 3rd and 12th grades. Both times, stylist took my long hair and I was left looking like a boy. I asked for it the first time, but not the last. Then, I skipped school and got suspended for three days. I still got to go to DisneyWorld with my BF's and his family for Spring Break, so all was not lost. I will never have short hair again. As you can see, it's comical (or frightening?!) how similar my kindergarten and senior hairstyles look. Rest assured there were long, straight looks in between (remember the 70s). I tried to grow it out recently but it ends up too flat. No matter how hard I try to make it a bit poofy with my round brush (I despise hair gels and sprays). I started getting gray hair when I was a senior in HS, and like the above poster I go every three weeks for a slight trim and color. Recently I asked her to start making it lighter since my roots were showing up so bad (at 3 weeks!!!!). I'm not even 55 yet, so I am not ready to go gray... she tells me (I won't look) that I am easily 80% gray - I think she's being generous!). So while I still feel like a brunette, I am slowing becoming more blonde. :( The photo on the right was taken before we went a tad lighter. My hair does not want to hold color. It is very frustrating! I come out one color and easily have 5 shades between visits. I'd love to do something different, but nothing drastic. I still want to be able to pull it back and leave long enough to keep my neck warm. *edited to remove photo This post was edited by allison0704 on Sun, Nov 16, 14 at 14:16

Great answer about your grandchild, Joan. She must really be something. I have multiple machines, most are task specific (serger, blindstitch, button sewer, walking foot, needle feed, and rotary take-up), all but one are industrial models; many are now termed "vintage". I would say I tend to clean them (on average) once a month, but that depends on what I've been sewing, too. Sometimes I do really dirty/gritty awning repairs, sometimes I'm working with clean, new product, sometimes with really "linty" fabric. If one of my machines hasn't been used in a long time, the first thing I do is give it a dusting, a thorough oiling, and check the stitch length and thread tension. As a matter of habit, the first thing I do when I start a new job is check the needle size and condition. Always! I am a stickler about oiling, too. Many of my machines are quite old (50-100 yrs.) and require very regular oiling. That's very common in elderly industrial equipment. The manual for my Willcox & Gibbs industrial rotary take up (c.1943) recommends a complete oiling every 4 hrs.! My brand new Juki sits in a pan of oil and never requires it.

" It's not so much the wear, as I've been told, but the germ factor, I believe." You are going to get "germs" on it the first time you use it. Germs don't wait 30 days and then attack a toothbrush on a schedule. Replace a brush when it looks to be so worn as to not do a good job anymore. I think the toothbrush manufacturers just made up that rule about replacing them at frequent intervals.

Up until recently our sheets were flown to Iceland where they were sanitized in a 170 deg. F geothermal pool, dried in glacial air, pressed with a lava mangle, then flown back to us. That got expensive three times a week. Nowadays we wash them for an hour, spin them out and dry them in a hot oven before hanging them outside between two birch trees. Occasionally we'll let them sit next to the reactor for an hour. My mom used to dry sheets (all clothes, laundry) outdoors -- even in icy, windy January. The sheets and towels would be as stiff as boards until they "dried". They would be fragrant of fresh air and saltwater cove. Sometimes they would stay overnight on the pulley line. One spring morning we awoke to the bay and cove smelling of smelts. Of course the laundry on the line was redolent of smelts as well. Sound awful, but, although I wouldn't want daily laundry smelling of them, smelts don't smell fishy at all (neither does fresh fish, btw). They actually have a very clean fragrance. Smelts were all over the nearby ledges and shore -- stranded there when the tide went out. Pogies in July? That's another matter entirely. I love the bird and dog/s in the bed.