Tall boots are made for winter; adventures in miscellaneous engineering activites

Last fall, I bought a pair of knee high brown boots. They have exceeded my expectations in every way. I bought them off the clearance rack at DSW when I was in San Fran and they were either $20 or $25. The problem is that I only have one brown skirt that I can wear with the boots, but have lots of black skirts that I could wear with a hypothetical pair of tall black boots.

This fall, I made it a goal to buy a pair of tall black boots. I didn’t want to spend over $50, I wanted them to fit well and look hot but be practical too. I found a couple pairs at Famous Footwear a couple weeks ago that were on sale and finally bought a pair. I wore them to church and then grocery shopping on a chilly Sunday afternoon, under a knee length black skirt and a long black wool coat. I was walking in the cold and realized the genius of tall snug fitting leather boots. They keep your calves really warm! And calves can get cold easily since they are so far from your core body heat. Cheers for tall boots!

Last night, I was putting up my Christmas tree and watching the late football game. (“In my element,” as someone who knows me put it.) The tree is fake, stored in my basement in the off season and came pre-lit, with white lights attached to its branches. I remembered from last year that the lights on the top fifth of the tree are pretty finicky. Mostly they stay off, but sometimes they flicker on. After fluffing my tree, bending the branches to more natural positions, and manipulating the lights for about an hour, I finally figured out which light was giving me the problem! So I removed it and saw that one of its wires was bent kinda funny. I concluded that it was not making a good electrical contact, bent it to a position I thought was better, and now all the lights work! I felt an amazing sense of accomplishment. Not unlike the a couple weeks ago when I took apart a Stanley tape measure because it had locked up. All the bearings were gunky so I cleaned everything and after trying 4 different ways of putting it back together, finally did it right. It took me an embarrassingly long time. But no device – mechanical, electrical, or otherwise – is too small or too trivial for me to apply my 100K engineering education to.

Best use of my college education? A couple weeks ago, I was talking to my dad on the phone and he mentioned that the DVD player I bought for him and my mom will no longer power on. I promised I would take a look at it at Thanksgiving. I was about to leave on Thanksgiving and he reminded me that I hadn’t taken a look at it yet. So I crawled over to the TV and he shows me that nothing happens when you press power. I followed the power cord and realized it wasn’t plugged in. My brothers all watched me plug it in and cheered me on and made fun of my dad. It was a good time.