Ain’t nothin’ but a high tech hick

I used to write a blog under the alter ego High Tech Hick. It was about how a girl from the sticks got involved in web design, information architecture and just plain geeky stuff. This blog took over and the other one passed away quietly.

I am still a High Tech Hick though. I grew up in Langton, Ontario, population 500 during the  tourist season. We have a corner store, a post office, a garage/gas station, 2 churches and 2 schools. Oh, and the arena that my dad calls his second home.

I spent 4 days there last week. I truly enjoy spending time with my dad now. I must admit that before my mom passed away in 2003, I never appreciated what a fabulous father he is. He was always there, quietly in the background, laughing at my bad jokes and drying the tears when needed. He’s always been there for me, no matter how obscure my request is of him. This is why I drive three hours through thunder storms to be with him, knit socks for him, and knit last minute mittens.

My dad has made me some pretty neat inventions over the years, no matter how vauge or whacky the request, he always seems to understand what I need. Maybe it’s because we’re both Virgo’s?

What he has come up with is about as low tech as you can get, but ultimately more functional and practical than the high tech, pricy items on certain websites. He has made me two different thread holders – one for the huge cones I get at Romni, and one for the smaller kind I get everywhere else. The latest request I had was for a lazy susan type of dohickey that would let me roll the thread off of the cone while it was vertical. I found that the horizontal ones would sometimes wrap the  thread around themselves, and it was a pain in the patootie to undo them.

So my dad went into the  dungeon known as his workroom and came up with this. It’s not fancy, but it works just fine! The white plastic collar works as a fulcrum for the green cone. The cone rotates around the plastic and the thread comes off beautifully, not a tangle to be seen