Tink Loves…

The Good Things. Those things that bring you happiness, pleasure, satisfaction. Reliably. They’re things you can count on. No surprises. Perfection? Well, is anything truly perfect? Probably not. But still… My blog is a place where I aggregate the results of the research I do in an effort to experience my own flavor of perfection. Here’s an example.

The other day, it seemed like everything was going just a bit wrong. Enough wrong that it was grating on me and preventing me from having a better day than I was having at the moment. It was annoying, and I knew that One More Thing and I would cross that line and become curmudgeonly. And then, it happened.

Just when I was rolling up my sleeves to tackle some innocuous chore, I thought it best that I make a trip to the bathroom. Up the creaky stairs (reminding me they need to be sanded and refinished), through the upstairs hallway (OMG these stacks of things need to be put away) and into what is undeniably the world’s worst bathroom. 110+ year old house, and this bathroom is frightening. It’s the last big project on the Make This House Livable list, and we keep putting it off. Just stepping foot in that icky room makes me stress over all the work (and money) it will take to make it ok. All I can think about is getting my business over with and escaping back to the main floor.

I sit. I do what I need to do. I reach for the button and I… FLUSH! Oh, the satisfaction! This toilet is amazing!

I always forget that my humble half (John) replaced the toilet in here several months ago with a carefully researched unit. Ridiculously researched, in fact. We needed something narrow so that the bathroom door wouldn’t hit it when opened. We wanted a tall unit for our aging joints. A concealed trap would make the outer surface all smooth and sleek and easy to clean. And I wanted dual flush with push buttons — because, well, it’s freaking COOL! And finally, we wanted a toilet that would flush ANYTHING with one flush, while conserving water, of course!

We had done all the research and found exactly the toilet we wanted. We procrastinated, but eventually it was ordered, picked up and installed. And very easily, I might add. And every single time either of us flushes, we feel the sweet satisfaction of research well-done. This product has lived up to the hype, and continues to make me oddly giddy every time I hit that go button and hear that confident sound! That whoosh represents the time we spent on figuring out what was important to us as well as all the work we put in on the research. That whoosh whispers to me in dulcet, watery tones, “You done GOOD, baby!”

I know I can count on that whoosh, even if nothing else is going right with my day. And many times, it is one of the few things that goes right in my day!

I’ve always applied this way of thinking to nearly everything in my life. Yes, some would say that I OVERTHINK things, but at the end of the day, who is the one with the perfect flush, the best chopping food processor, the tried and true incubation schedule for cockatoo eggs or the foolproof way to apply even handles to a flameworked glass vessel? Me. Because I figure you can never know too much.

Over the decades, people have come to trust the work I put in when it comes to figuring out the best way to do things, the best product for a particular application or the best way to go about a specific process. I am asked all the time to reach back into my memory and pull out a recommendation or a piece of my research so that someone can brew their own great vanilla extract, get a particular patina on an electroformed bit of art or choose the right electric pressure cooker for their needs. I love helping out, and I think that aggregating all the Tinkstuff here will be a better solution, and one that can be fun, as well!

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