21 June – easing back in
I managed to complete and submit the assignment this morning, leaving me free to keep my promise. Not a whole lot got done – only three wets and a whole lot of getting to know my mirror again under a bright light. I’m doing something that never occurred to me before: Find pits, mark them with a permanent marker, then photograph the mirror. Do a few wets, then repeat, and compare photographs. Much easier to keep track of which pits are persistent, and which are new.
Anyway, those three wets actually gave measurable progress: One persistent pit is gone, apparently a slew of new shallow pits have appeared (assuming I didn’t simply miss them last time around). So I’d guess there’s still some subsurface fracturing to eliminate. One interesting point, though, regarding the enormous pit I’ve been watching for some time: This pit was so big that it was diagnosed at the class as a bubble. But as I worked, it gradually lost its round shape to reveal a jagged bottom. Shortly before I packed up for the sabbatical, it had worn down into two small adjacent pits. Only one of those are now left. As small as this one tiny detail is, it gives me more satisfaction than everything else combined!
Although on second thought, I’d say the papery smooth overall finish is way better. Almost sensual, if you ignore the pits dotting it!