The measure of a successful boot maker is knowing when to quit, and by that metric I am a very successful boot maker. I have to leave early today so I wet these boots down at 11am and thought I’d get them both on the last before I left. Instead, it’s almost 1pm and only one boot is on the last. Ostrich is notorious for twisting when you last it but this was ridiculous. I really wasn’t sure I was going to win. The *proper* way to last a pair of boots is to last in the toe first, then the ball, then pull the heel down and last it, but every time I did that when I pulled the heel down the entire boot went sideways. I tried multiple times with zero success. Finally I decided that if the right way didn’t work the only thing left to do was the wrong way. So I lasted the heel, made sure it really was straight, and then lasted the forepart. It took some coaxing to get everything to sit right on the last since I’d started at the wrong end but I did finally succeed.
There are two well-known boot maker’s prayers; we all recite them whether we realize it or not. One is “Please match, please match” (since we’re working with rights and lefts) and the other is “Please fit, please fit.” But there’s another lesser known prayer. Whenever there are two identical tasks, one is always harder than the other, so my prayer today is “Please let that one be the hard one!” Later this afternoon I’ll learn if that prayer will be answered in the affirmative.