*Quote of the Day from Goodreads this morning: “I abhor the idea of a perfect world. It would bore me to tears.” ― Shelby Foote
The blurb reads: Historian and novelist Shelby Foote (born November 17, 1916) disliked typewriters. He wrote the entirety of his multi-volume The Civil War: A Narrative by hand with an old-fashioned nib pen.
When I saw that quote this morning I simply had to log onto Goodreads and “like” it, because they’re my sentiments exactly! 🙂 Quite frankly, I don’t think I could bear to live with “perfect” – too much of a bad thing can be good for you sometimes – and besides, if you have perfection… you have no need to strive for anything better, do you, and how boring is that?!
This morning dawned bright and early – Paul messaged us saying that he had to pick [something] up and wouldn’t be arriving at 7.30am as planned, but would be here around 8.30am, which suited us fine! My appointment with the shoemaker was at 10, and I had to fit in my tilt at the treadmill, my ablutions, my breakfast, and my Minions (not necessarily in that order!) As it was, I only just finished getting ready in time… Then we got held up in traffic at Ringwood where they haven’t quite finished off all the “prettyfication” of their Eastland Shopping Centre – which I must say is starting to look pretty swish! I wonder if they’ve prettied it up inside as well? Maybe we could go there one day, when it is finished and the local traffic not quite so chaotic, and have a look! 🙂 We arrived at Shoe House (not its real name!) only one or two – or five – minutes late, and were ushered into Brian’s office. He was fairly wary of us at first – and who can blame him in this day and age – but we started chatting, and he asked me who had made my shoes before, so we told him. A somewhat strange look came over his face and he indicated that he knew of this person, hadn’t heard from him for quite some time, and what was he doing these days? So we filled him in on what we knew, which wasn’t really very much at all, except for the fact that I hadn’t been able to get in touch with him to ask if he could make me some more shoes. For some reason that seemed to reassure him somewhat, and he confessed that he’d actually been at this person’s house just the day before! He also confirmed that he wasn’t really making shoes any more, so then we were all friendly. Brian said that he didn’t make plaster casts any more – yes, they were more accurate, but you couldn’t cut orthotics or soles on them, they were too fragile, and if you dropped one and it broke, you were up the proverbial without a paddle – so he outlined my feet on a page of his sketchbook, and took extremely accurate measurements of every bump and callous, from which he would make a “last” – the most expensive part of shoemaking, however once the last was made, you could churn out shoes fairly quickly and (relatively!) cheaply. So in about four weeks I can expect a call from him telling me that my first pair of shoes were ready enough for a first fitting, and within a month and a half I should have some new shoes! (heaven help me!)
Shortly after lunch our friend from Beyond The Black Stump arrived, and it was wonderful to see him again! First we sat inside in the Den, where Flipper came out of her cave and wanted him to pat her (he has a way with cats – they all love him!) and we chattered, then we gave him the Grand Tour of the place, and ended up sitting on the outside deck and enjoying some fresh air for a while. We quizzed him about our fish puddle under the water feature, because he used to have a sort-of a closed loop system, with fish tanks feeding a hydroponic vegetable system which nurtured the fish (at least I think that’s how it worked!) and he had a few ideas, but I think the long and short of it is that we’re going to have to empty out a lot (not all) of the horrible mucky water, reserving a container full with the fish in it, clean the whole thing out (Julian only told me today, that the bottom of the ornamental urn that is our “water feature” in our little puddle is full of horrible black, decomposed algae! That cannot be allowed to remain!) It appears that there is, or was, either a light or a filter in the puddle as well, because of the type of switch on the wall – but, whatever it is, or was, it’s not working now, so that’s another item for Julian to get the electrician to look at in the next couple of weeks! I do wish that Steve could have stayed longer, but he had a long drive back, and I had my tilting at treadmills to do, so he left around 5.30 (which is partly why this entry is so late! By the time I finished treadmilling I didn’t have time to start it before dinner – but you know what? I don’t care! 😛 ) However, one of the upshots of his coming over today is that both Julian and I have decided that it’s been far too long between visits – partly our fault too, because we do have his email and phone details – and that we’re going to keep in better touch from now on – so Steve, if you’re reading this, expect either email or a phone call fairly soon! 🙂 Hope you enjoyed the afternoon as much as we did!
I had a peek into my bathroom a while ago – my bench seat is now “constructed”, and has been “membraned” (I think that means that it’s been coated with a waterproof membrane so that the timber doesn’t get all wet and soggy if any water gets through the tiles – but I could be completely wrong, so please don’t quote me on that!) but apart from that, my unprofessional eye couldn’t really detect any major changes! Before he left, Paul said something about picking up the piece of timber for the top of the door frame tomorrow morning, and that if the door was ready he’d be picking that up too and that he’d let us know tonight – which he hasn’t – yet, anyway. Ah! Yes, he just sent a message then! It’s to be an 8.30 start again tomorrow – this is good, as it means that I don’t have to rush to get dressed! 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. Was a bit of a let down, actually – though I shouldn’t be too surprised – after all, yesterday’s drop was quite dramatic (four whole points!) But today I went from 67.1kg… to 67.1kg. Well, alright, I just stayed the same – however hopefully I’ll go down a bit more tomorrow. I feel I’m sooo close now, and it seems to be going sooo slowly! It’s driving me nutz! 
So I’m not sure what’s happening tomorrow – no doubt Julian will be working in the office – he also has to clean up the driveway from where some of the veggie garden soil was spilt when it was delivered the other day; Paul will be working away on my bathroom – and I suppose I’ll be… Rifting along, as usual! 🙂 I think all my shards except for Seastone are pretty much neatened up and ready for the Guilds and Guild Banks now (I can’t remember if I finished off Faeblight or not! I’ll have to check that out tomorrow!) I won’t be creating a Guild on Seastone – there’s no point, as I don’t play on it – it’s just for “storage”, so to speak 😉 Anyway, that’s about it from me again tonight – but do drop by again tomorrow night, to see what we’ve all been up to… did my weight go down, or is it still stuck at 67.1kg? (or worse! Did it go up!) Is the driveway clean? Has my new bathroom door been installed? Until then, please continue to bee good (I’m sure you don’t want to get on the wrong list! 😉 ) remember that a person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to keep warm – or cool – depending on the weather, and to drive carefully – but above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 