Saturday was very mixed. I had a migraine in the morning, when I got home from walking, which left me feeling a bit under the weather and my eyes not up for sunlight.
After lunch, Gary hauled me out to discuss planting and doors. The metal doors are no go, they are only sold with a frame, which can't be installed in our setup. The solid core wood doors are $500. Each. The door question is still undecided.
Meanwhile my new toilet seat arrived, nice wood thing. I spent quite a bit of time trying to install it. I removed the old one easily enough, done this before, but the new one was hard to install.
Partly it was hot and stuffy in the upstairs bathroom, partly the room is tight, very little room to reach under and tighten the bolt. Also my hands were cramping and locking up.
The other weird thing is that instead of the usual bolt mechanism with a fixed stem, there was a weird thing where you first installed the end of the stem into the riveted hinge, then dropped that through the holes and blindly tried to endlessly screw on the locking nut underneath. In the course of doing this, the stem fell out repeatedly, though I'd got it firmly in place at first.
I got overheated and discouraged and headachy, so I flounced out to sit on the patio in the shade and watch turkey vultures gliding about. Nature is a great problem solver.
After a few minutes I thought aha, why don't I take the seat from downstairs with a simple bolt mechanism, I knew because I'd installed it, install that in the more cramped upstairs place, then install the new seat downstairs where there's room to work.
I did that. Five minutes to install the downstairs upstairs, a few more to install the new one downstairs, and recycle the boxes and old seat. Done.
There was also a visit with baby A, three plus months old, cheerful and beautiful, and her sister K, eight years old and also lovely. Also Billie doing her best to trip everyone until she was put behind the patio gate, when she tried to dig her way out.
Among all this activity I did get a bit done on the tapestry, tapis and tapisserie front. Yes, it is all related, as I guessed, back when the words indicated any big piece of fabric, on the floor or table or walls.
In early stone buildings they were for draft proofing the walls as well as being wildly expensive conspicuous consumption, before the days of machine manufacturing.
The word tapestry became more specialized in the last three or so centuries, referring to the weft faced pictorial weaving we now call tapestry. Like the Unicorn tapestries.
But around the year 1,000 or so when the Bayeux tapestry was created, tapestry could still refer to a large wallhung embroidery like this one.
So there it is for the crowds of people wondering.
Meanwhile back at the fabric book, I did a bit on that pinloom weaving page, and have two pages to go. I'm thinking of creating a fall leaf design based on one of my pictures from Saturday's walk, in Bayeux stitch. I think it will work.
I've occasionally had requests for a guided tour of the artwork on my walls and I will do that at some point.
I'm more interested in current work, so meanwhile, here's the pages done so far. Quite a bit of book type finishing will happen, especially the tree page, but this gives you an idea.
All different ideas, short attention span.
Speaking of which, I gave up on the endless Oliver Twist and the tendentious Pickwick Papers and the misery of Barnaby Rudge, for now.
I'm now dividing my reading time between Austen, currently Mansfield Park, and Josephine Tey The Man in the Queue.
The perfect solution to your toilet seat dilemma! And I don't blame you one bit for ditching Dickens.
ReplyDeleteHe's in abeyance for now.
DeleteNot sure if this worked first time.
ReplyDeletewell done for coming up with that answer to the toilet seat problem. There are so many things one thinks should be standardised. But then I suppose we'd complain.
In this case I think it was corner cutting at the mfr stage. Make the customer assemble by hand the things we used to weld. But I triumphed.
DeleteGood for you on the toilet seat. I think I would have cried and then called Gary. No, I'm sure I would have done that.
ReplyDeleteOf all your book pages, I love the tree the most.
I have way too much obstinacy to give up in the middle! The tree page is the most populated of the group, I'd say.
DeleteEver the problem solver! I've had one migraine, about 45 years ago. I still remember it well. I cannot imagine stuck in a bathroom trying to put on a toilet seat.
ReplyDeleteOcular migraines are not as crippling as the classic ones, but they do mess with your vision. Jagged bright lights, things disappearing, etc. Not helpful for handy work.
DeleteMust be something about toilet seats! We had a wooden one that got all scratched and looked ugly so RC decided to paint it...but....got the wrong paint and the 'new improved' version looks worse than the original. In the meantime he bought a cheap plastic one that groans and complains every time the lid gets lifted (no sneaking into the bathroom for a quiet nocturnal visit!). Yesterday he reinstalled the wooden one and I took one look and refused to even consider attempting to keep it clean. So...'Squeak' is resintalled and we're in limbo. I'm all for buying a whole new one but he's adamant that there's nothing wrong (beyond aesthetic) with the old one. There will be another chapter (at least!) in the saga.
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious! At least I only had myself to argue with.
Deleteat the home improvement store one day I was looking at wood toilet seats, the choices round or oval, called husband to measure the current seat, it's round he said, did not measure as requested. I bought the round one. it's about an inch too short.
ReplyDeleteYes,easy mistake to make.
DeleteI hope that by the time you read this comment the migraine is gone. Pickwick Papers was the only one that got on my nerves.
ReplyDeleteThank you, they're fast moving, all good now and I can tolerate light again. The main problem wasn't so much Dickens as this Kindle edition, very difficult to navigate, no way of choosing from a menu. Cheaply done.
DeleteI love Josephine Tey. Did you know that the National Trust owns her literary estate.
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't. Thank you. I'll find out more about this.
DeleteYour book pages are all so very different. I like them all each at different times, see different pieces of inspiration as I study them.
ReplyDeleteThank you, yes, they reflect my ragbag of a mind. I'm really liking the here goes nothing feeling about it.
DeleteMy perhaps five year old toilet seats are difficult to install too. I know, because one came loose and I had to reattach it. But why? What was wrong with simple old system? Anyway, well done you for taking some time out to think.
ReplyDeleteI've done this several times with no trouble, so I was annoyed that they'd complicated it probably out of cheapitude.
DeleteI have never changed out a toilet seat but I would try it. Well done, Boud!
ReplyDeleteIt's really a simple job. That's why I was getting so annoyed when it wasn't going well.
DeleteI’m sorry you got a migraine. I too suffer and over the weekend my vision went and I knew what was coming. Good job on the toilet seat issue. Yes Mother Nature Is perfect for problem solving. The tapestries are looking lovely
ReplyDeleteYes, you'd know about the vision issues. I've had a few ocular migraines recently, and I think it's stress over the election. Those few minutes watching beautiful birds in a blue sky reset my whole mind.
DeleteI do like your book pages. As for toilet seats, the last one I had to install had the same mechanism as you struggled with. I got a nimble fingered grandchild to do the job.
ReplyDeleteThe grandchild secret weapon!! Thank you for the nice words about the pages.
DeleteWell, I do heartily disagree about Dickens, whose writing I enjoy, but to each his or her own, right?! Too bad about the doors. I hope that problem gets solved somehow (and that your migraines subside).
ReplyDeleteDickens isn't right for where I am at the moment. Another time, maybe. Oliver twist was readable for many chapters until it became clear Dickens was churning out chapters for his weekly readers, with no shape in sight, and a financial incentive to continue. I don't like soap opera!
DeleteThe doors are still waiting for another price on another kind. We'll see.