Went out with Dora for a walk in the dark last night, and the moon was shining, shining, shining. The sight of it through the trees made me think of John Atkinson Grimshaw, who . . . did just this, but in paint. My garage certainly looks better by moonlight than any other way.
Having a little tiny drama with my new Willow dress. Yesterday I sat in some splattered coffee --- Dora had drunk the cup of (fortunately pretty cold) coffee I'd left by my chair, and splashed it everywhere, which I didn't see until I'd sat in it. I rinsed the spots immediately, of course, but told myself I'd really deal with them at bedtime. When I took the dress off last night, I rubbed the spots with my handy shampoo bar, which I often use for washing wool dresses by hand, since it's sulfate-free and very gentle, then washed the whole dress. The coffee spots came right out . . . but when I took the dress out of the towel roll I'd been "spinning" it in, I saw that there were what looked like grease stains on the front. I figured they were just some soap that hadn't rinsed out all the way and rinsed it again. This morning, they were still there. Nice big grease-looking stains on the front of my dress.
So as a next step, I've treated them with some castile soap, which is what I generally use to hand-wash dishes, and washed again. The stains *seem* to have lifted. Anyway, I won't be wearing Willow to Mass today and am glad I wasn't doing a challenge.
I was wearing Maggie underneath, and she sustained some coffee stains, too. I just spot-treated those, and she seems fine --- but then things tend not to show up so much on marine blue, which is really the best color ever. I adore the new wisteria shade, but am realizing that I'll have to be a little more careful, because everything shows up on it.
Still reading Our Mutual Friend --- probably won't have finished it by the time I post my reading update tomorrow, which is fine. But it is a can't-put-downer. Really, I think that about all of Dickens. Sometimes some work to get into it: the first time you read Bleak House, the whole Jarndyce&Jarndyce thing seems baffling and obfuscatory, even though it isn't and is actually very entertaining. In Nicholas Nickleby, you have to get through all the Nickleby backstory before arriving at the Nicholas with whom the story chiefly concerns itself. In David Copperfield, it's the story of the caul. But overall, Dickens is --- well, he's The Man, that's all. Nobody has ever written like that, with such absolute pleasure in setting down sentences in which the world comes to life in all its utter eccentricity. Repeat: There Is Nobody Like Dickens. Anyway, Our Mutual Friend is pretty fascinating for its ambiguous characters. The eccentricity he's lit upon in this novel is human moral ambiguity: bad people do good things and seem good, or else good people are hopelessly corrupt, in spite of their better selves, and manage to do evil even as they do good. Or to do good, though what they intend is evil or mercenary. Where is it all going? I don't know yet. I still think I know who the mysterious Mutual Friend is, but I'm no closer to knowing what it is he's doing than I was two days ago when I said the same thing.
Wearing for Mass, while Willow dries:
Maggie, who came through her own spot-washing just fine, with thrifted cashmere cardigan, Snag merino tights, and red Xero Cassie shoes, for a change from the boot mojo. I'm also wearing my newly thrifted silk/cashmere/merino tank under Maggie for a base layer, since it's pretty chilly out.
Still getting used to these glasses.
My husband likes them, but they sure do feel like a LOT. I like the color, though, which definitely brightens my skin. And I do keep telling myself that I don't have to wear them all the time. I can still wear my gray metal ones.
I've ordered some silicone earpiece covers, which I think will help with these --- the one thing I don't like about them is that the metal earpieces dig into the backs of my ears. I do kind of like this more minimalist look, though.
And then all my old glasses are still fine --- just not for a lot of reading. How I would decide what to wear when is a mystery to me, but anyway, I CAN decide what to wear when.
Meanwhile, it's time to walk the dog, then go to Mass, so I'll just do that.
LATER:
There are LOTS of these stains on the front of my new dress. I spot-treated them all with a little shampoo, let it sit, and currently it's washing on cold in the machine, with TruEarth detergent. Then back to the drying rack. The one thing I do NOT want to do is set any stain with heat of any kind.
Is big pain, man. I've re-ordered some Grandma's Secret stain remover, because of course I'm all out. If these stains don't come out with this treatment, I'll let it sit until the Grandma's Secret arrives. That stuff is miraculous.
STILL LATER:
Still not sure the stains are out. And I don't know what caused them to begin with. What a pain. We'll get there one way or another, but what. a. pain.