Bi-coastal pincushions

Tomorrow morning I will be saying "good-bye" to my west coast pincushion. It has served me well for the scant amount of sewing I've done during this visit. It's small and sturdy.....what with all those Chinese children holding it upright....and holds just enough pins for a quick hem job on a pair of pants or a small gift for a friend.
Tomorrow evening I will get re-acquainted with my east coast pincushion--the one that withstood the remodel and can handle just about any sewing project I can fit into the treehouse. And that reminds me of a quick text-message chat I had with Tech Guy yesterday. I remarked that his new apartment, with its front door right on the sidewalk of a major thoroughfare, might be visited by hoards of trick-or-treaters this Halloween. He wrote back that he has plans to leave town to join his sister in NYC for some kind of big city holiday doins'.

"Will you wear a costume?" I texted.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure what yet," he wrote.

"It won't require any mom sewing will it?" I asked.

"No," he said. "You're finally free!"

I guess a mom really knows her kids have grown up when they no longer need her for Halloween costume construction.

Mr. Gadget and I had a very pleasant trip to Horton Plaza in San Diego, although I almost thought I was back in Mexico or Guatemala....what with all the colors, not to mention the Spanish being spoken.
And really, who can hear the name "Horton" without thinking of Dr. Seuss? There were so many weirdly shaped buildings painted in wild colors that I was somewhat overcome with a strange desire to compose silly poetry.

We met my cousin for lunch at the Napa Grill, where we found the food to be excellent but the service just mediocre. They seemed overwhelmed by the noon lunch crowd. Maybe next time we should plan to have lunch around tea time.....

The drive down to San Diego brought back fond memories of my childhood. My mother's parents lived in a small town called Leucadia, just north of there, where my grandfather was postmaster. I used to sit on the counter and help him greet customers. Sometimes he would assign me simple tasks, like putting "occupant" mail in all of the post office boxes. I was a good little helper......until I mixed the stamp money with the package money and then I got fired.....

Here's a picture of my mother and her parents back in the day. I hardly ever saw my grandfather without a hat, and my grandmother never wore pants. People dressed up more back then. They're sitting on a blanket at the beach. They had a different idea of sunscreen in those days.....

I'm pretty sure this is a picture of my grandfather (on the tricycle) with his little brother, but I'm going to have to do some checking with family members to be sure. I don't know if little boys wore skirts back then. But at least he's holding his hat nicely; grandpa's is on the ground where he's about to roll over it with is tricycle.

The blog will resume soon, from the east coast, after I've greeted my pincushion and put on some socks......