What made you smile today?

It isn't just shoe repair shops that are disappearing - one rarely finds a real hardware shop nowadays. Recently I found a shop in a market town where the owner would sell nails individually if required - his shop was stacked from floor to ceiling with every imaginable item one could ever require for DIY of almost any kind! Lovely scents and sounds in there too!

Debacle, in your grandpa's days, if you went into that shoe shop it would without a doubt also be a tannery. That smell would then have been change much more again. There would have been barrels of urine for soaking - and that would have only been the most pleasant of smells.

Times, they are a changing. Today, or at least in my days - it was so, so pleasant to go into a head shop or into the blacklight room of record/tape/cd store. The smells of incense and candles - the light shows, oh, but do they even still have these? I think not!

LA, a fun espionage read is Chopin's Move, a novel by Jean Echenoz. It's available in translation.

A French entomologist and former spy becomes embroiled in a final mission involving a missing foreign affairs employee, his wife and a mysterious colonel.

The entomologist takes a couple of common houseflies and inserts tiny audio/video cameras in their eyes. He then puts the flies inside the cellophane wrap on a floral bouquet which he arranges to be delivered to the hotel room of the chap he's snooping on. It's quite comical, as are most of Echenoz's books. Not zany as with the Pink Panther spy series.

Echenoz reminds me of Calvino and Michael Frayn.

I enjoy stories based on imagination, wit, and creativity. New stuff that others have not discovered. I think that's the reason why James Bond has such appeal for me.

You could be right about the cobblers and tanneries in my grandpa's day. But his was basically a livery business in which he also made harness, etc. How many trades in those day functioned between the knacker's yard and the shoemakers, I have no idea.

But in our day, there were several; tanners, dyers and jobbers of all sorts. We dealt exclusively with wholesalers of pre-cut pieces, and leather sheets of approximately 8 sq. ft. and also pre-dyed stock. Leather thickness was denoted in "irons": 3 iron = 1/16", 9 iron = 3/16", etc. Graduations were in 64ths, with 1/64" = o.75 iron.

At one time I had to pass nearby a tannery on the way to work. If the wind was out the wrong quarter, it wasn't atall nice. Nothing on the order of a shoe shop or a tack room. I pitied the folks working there; how they managed to eat lunch I can't imagine.

Aye, they're great fun, Margo. Glad there are a lot of their clips on YouTube.

I'm trying to limit myself to one a day, but it isn't easy. Sorta like restricting yourself to one crisp.

I understand what you say, that is the reason I made the comment of it being in the 1800's. In the USA frontiers of those days - this was an activity in every home because the trades hadn't fully developed yet. My great-great grandmother settled in northeast Texas in 1850 with 4 children (oldest about 12) in the wilderness. I consider that amazing - proof women can do it all!

I've seen a few shorts on how it was done. Just think, a by product of these tannery processes was soap.

The neighbors across the street held their annual 4th of July party yesterday. Folks start arriving around 2 o'clock, dragging in lawn chairs, coolers and slabs of ribs. Soon there was the smell of BBQ, sounds of sizzling and beer cans popping, men yelling, ladies laughing and scolding, and four or five kids in every tree. Cats in the bushes.

Dead on 9:15, a feller yell's "Is everybody ready?!!!"

"Yesssssss....!!!" "Yaaaayaaaa.....!!!" "Les gooooooo ..." "Put that down you little sh ....eeeeeeeeeee....KER-BOOOOOOMMM!!! "Woooooeeeee ... Wowwwweeee.... git up fum 'ere, Jimmy!"

The first of 15,000 or so rockets has risen a coupla thousand feet and deafened everyone within a three block radius. Even the bell in the church down the street tolls a time or two. Dead quiet for ten seconds and then erupts a full-fledge tank battle which continues uninterrupted for over half an hour. Folks come tearing out of their houses, some half-dressed, some carrying weapons, one guy armed only with a half-eaten slice of pizza, but everyone yelling at once. Soon every car on the street has four or five people sitting on it.

Knowing what was in the offing as soon as all the mob started arriving in the afternoon, I was ready soon after the sun had set. Had my lawn chair, side table with chips and big orange drink all set up on the driveway. Ringside seat. Three police cruisers pulled up and stopped in the middle of the street. Six cops got out and sat on their car hoods with boxes of donuts and mugs of coffee. Some things never change.

I have no idea how much the neighbor spends on fireworks, but the display puts the municipal one in the shade. Maybe their guests all chip in, but however the cost is covered, it is one fantastic spectacle. The guy must be a pyrotechnical professional and a good one to boot.

Nearly as amazing as the display is the aftermath. Within 15 minutes of the final sonic boom, the street is as deserted as a fairground in the dead of winter. Just the odd cat crawling from cover, sniffing the cordite, and a dog eating the half donut one of the cops tossed onto my front lawn.

This may be a bit mundane.

We joined old and dear friends this morning for a fabulous brunch and at very nice restaurant. It doesn't get much better than that. I love brunches, and the other people have a great sense of humor.

A sense of humor helps in all social gatherings. We have many of those too, but I worry that sometimes our group gets a bit loud in public places.

Removing boundaries.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jinha_lee_a_tool_that_lets_you_touch_pixels.html?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2013-07-03

nada - kind of a nothing day!

Seeing my friends get out of there financial situations and becoming physically healthier! I'm finally helping young people become physically healthier and teaching them how to create wealth for themselves and others. I couldn't be more grateful to have learned about the law of attraction and changing my paradigm from employee to entrepreneurship!

Bringing little Miss Bella to live with our pack today. She's asleep on the floor beside me right now ... I'm gently rubbing her back with the side of my foot. This may be the first time she's spent an entire day outside of a crate. She seems like a happy little dog-girl here.

How's the older sibling taking it?

Bailey seems quite pleased. He is very much a dog dog and missed Cleo a lot even though she hadn't been able to keep up with him for some time.

On the first walk this morning he seemed almost giddy to have a companion who could keep pace with him.

This little girl is going to get some muscles in no time.

mr vw got a new dog today.

from the rescue.

a 2 year old french bulldog.

I'm teaching her to surrender...

ha!

Lying in the bath with the window wide open, looking out on the trees - first time this year that it's been warm enough for me to do it!

This is so good to read. A whole wide world out there for her with you guys.