Perfection is in the eye of the beholder

One of the things about spending a great deal of your life alone and not having lots of extra money is that you still have to get things fixed, mended, and created.  When I was young, and asked my dad how to do something or I would say I can’t do that, his pat answer was “you can read can’t you”…   I soon learned that reading wasn’t enough for there are many receipts that I have tried to make that are “missing something” and required my smell and taste to make it eatable.  You have to find the right teacher – book, video, etc. and you can help yourself learn about anything and then use your own logic.  My mother’s advice, which I rarely followed, was “never cook something for the first time when you are having dinner guest” and of course, I rarely made something for the first time that I wasn’t having dinner guest. I think that would also carry to...don't build something that everyone will see until you know how to build.    It all worked and I still cook and still take on projects that are sometimes much bigger than I thought they might be. 

One of the great lessons I learned about perfection came when I did my first major building project.  I lived the 13^th house in from the parking lot on Irondequoit Bay.  I was renting, but every year my landlord gave me my Dec rent as a Christmas present and every year I did a major house project with the money - usually a decorating project.   One year, neighbors tore down a house on the water to build a new house and we, the community decided to get paid to help do it.  We actually, tore down the house and watched in fall to the ground.  In it were 18 feet 2x8 cedar beams full of nails but iron wood after years of standing at the edge of the water….so Bonny said.. I am going to build a deck on the house….. and designed a deck to go across the front of the house and then in the shape of a grand piano when out 10 and 8 feet with a spiral stair case leading to the small yard and water.   I had never build anything like that and had to buy a skill saw, hammers, level and a come along to help me… but I designed and constructed the deck.  While I had a level, in addition to spiders, nothing at the water’s edge is level.  The “perfect” way would have been to square and level… the aesthetic way was to build by the eye….  The deck was a great addition to the house and was built on pods that were stronger because they had weight.  I built the frame on the ground and then used cement blocks and the come along to hoist it up one block at a time. How else does one woman do such a project.  

I used this idea to put up my kitchen cabinets except I used one book at a time to get the cabinet to the height I wanted.  Looking at either projects with a magnifying glass, they were far from perfect, but they were mine, I owned ever nail… and smiled when I sat and watched the sunset or now reach for a glass on the third shelf.  I have used these lessons to help me knit on with my scarf..and I now have learned several ways to tie a scarf…aint life grand.