NSTimer never starts - cocoa

Question

I'm just trying to close an NSPanel after a couple second delay, but I can't get my NSTimer to start. It will fire if I explicitly call the fire method on it, but it will never go by itself. Here's my code:
- (void)startRemoveProgressTimer:(NSNotification *)notification {
NSLog(#"timer should start");
timer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:2.0 target:self selector:#selector(removeProgress:) userInfo:nil repeats:NO];
}
- (void)removeProgress:(NSTimer *)timer {
[progressPanel close];
}
I do have some threading in my code as such. I assume this is what's messing my timer up.
-(void)incomingTextUpdateThread:(NSThread*)parentThread {
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
//mark the thread as running
readThreadRunning = TRUE;
const int BUFFER_SIZE = 100;
char byte_buffer[BUFFER_SIZE]; //buffer for holding incoming data
int numBytes = 0; //number of bytes read
NSString *text; //incoming text from the serial port
[NSThread setThreadPriority:1.0];
//this will loop until the serial port closes
while (TRUE) {
//read() blocks until some data is available or the port is closed
numBytes = read(serialFileDescriptor, byte_buffer, BUFFER_SIZE);
if(numBytes > 0) {
//creat a string from the incoming bytes
text = [[[NSString alloc] initWithBytes:byte_buffer length:numBytes encoding:[NSString defaultCStringEncoding]] autorelease];
if(!([text rangeOfString:SEND_NEXT_COORDINATE].location == NSNotFound)) {
//look for <next> to see if the next data should be sent
if(coordinateNum <[coordinatesArray count]) {
[self sendNextCoordinate]; //send coordinates
}
else {
[self writeString:FINISH_COORDINATES_TRANSMIT]; //send <end> to mark transmission as complete
NSNumber *total = [NSNumber numberWithUnsignedInteger:[coordinatesArray count]];
NSDictionary *userInfo = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:total forKey:#"progress"];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:#"uploadProgressChange" object:self userInfo:userInfo]; //update progress bar to completed
}
}
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(appendToIncomingText:) withObject:text waitUntilDone:YES]; //write incoming text to NSTextView
} else {
break; //Stop the thread if there is an error
}
}
// make sure the serial port is closed
if (serialFileDescriptor != -1) {
close(serialFileDescriptor);
serialFileDescriptor = -1;
}
// mark that the thread has quit
readThreadRunning = FALSE;
// give back the pool
[pool release];
}
Which is called from another method by: [self performSelectorInBackground:#selector(incomingTextUpdateThread:) withObject:[NSThread currentThread]];

Answer 1

Thank you rgeorge!!
Adding the timer to the run loop manually made it work!
timer = [NSTimer timerWithTimeInterval:2.0 target:self selector:#selector(removeProgress:) userInfo:nil repeats:NO];
[[NSRunLoop mainRunLoop] addTimer:timer forMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode];