As you know, I’m a regular gym attendee, so am in fairly decent shape, even though large in girth.  So imagine my surprise at hurting myself doing simple stretching at the end of the Tuesday morning class.  By Wednesday I couldn’t life my left arm, and my left shoulder felt broken.

However, that was just too bad for me, as it’s my High Season, so I had to continue making fruitcake and bark.  On Friday morning I was vacuum-sealing away, when suddenly the vacuum sealer died.  I turned it off, and back on again, as we all know this is the way one repairs computers, so I thought maybe it works for other machines as well.

But the machine had totally and completely seized, and in that moment, I knew I had no-one to blame but myself.  The red oil change light’s been blinking for months, but when I see things like that, I just think they’ll get better on their own, like my shoulder, and ignore them.

As the machine weighs 80 pounds, Nicky had to put it in the car for me, and the guy at the kitchen appliance repair place had to unload it.  When I confessed about my slothful behaviour, he said if the pump is filled with ‘gunk’ and if it has seized, a new one is $1,000!

Can you imagine how furious I was at myself when I drove away from there?  To keep my mind off it, I’ve just spent the entire weekend making bark, as I can’t face fruitcake-production without my vacuum-sealer.  I currently have several Tupperware tubs full of fruitcakes waiting to be sealed.

And can you believe, my shoulder did get better on its own, so you can see how my philosophy has both good and bad applications.  I guess for people with muscle-ache, it’s good, and for machines with red, blinking warning lights, it’s bad.

Whenever I send out my monthly newsletter, I get orders, and I did again the other day.  However, some of them are for Okanagan Fruit and Rum bars, which I have yet to make.  So my nerves are kind of bad, with five weeks to go until Christmas, and still producing stuff, with one of my major machines down.

Then Alison phoned to say, “It says teat on your website!”  Although Steve the web designer is absolutely adorable, whenever he writes stuff on his own, I have to e mail him and say, “Look.”  This time it says teat instead of treat, and special is misspelled, but the intent is very nice.

Remember when I had just the Totally Decadent Fruitcake, and so people naturally only bought it?  Then I added Okanagan Harvest Cake, and people ordered one of each.  Then I added the bars, and now the bark, and so my orders are getting bigger and bigger.

I always said I will never, ever make cookies, but now I’m thinking, hey, why not?  I want on-line sales, and once people trust you, they just add on whatever you make, so maybe that’s something to ponder for 2012.  For now I just have to weep over my inability to believe that a red, blinking light usually spells trouble.