Weather and A Project

Weather first. For, as the state is telling us:

Click on it to see it big, but that's a highway sign in Boston, and it says WICKED BIG STAWM COMIN'. (As one of my friends noted, for the Boston accent it really should be STAHM, but close enough.) All day, I've been getting emails from yarn stores telling me that they will be closing tomorrow.

I decided that what I have in the house is enough to get me through the storm itself (8 inches of snow? 15? tune in tomorrow*), and then the deep freeze that's coming after. A forecast high (HIGH) of 5 (no, not Celsius) on Saturday? I am going nowhere. Fine. As long as I have power (ohpleaseohpleaseohgodplease), I won't starve, and there's nothing I want or need enough to get out there tonight with all the panicked people buying bread and milk. You know the French Toast Alert System? It was at red, aka Severe, this morning.
*At least it is supposed to be dry light snow, not heavy wet snow. Harder to see when it's falling and blowing, but much easier to shovel.

So let's talk of something else. This long weekend, unlike many a long weekend where I enjoy the extra time off, but don't get any extra things accomplished, I actually managed a good-sized project on Monday. Go me! Pat self on back!

The idea came from discussions and considerations of moving to Florida, and the idea of which-furniture-and-where that come with the topic. (I've started my graph-paper room mock-ups and furniture cut-outs, which I will show another time.) This time, specifically, I was thinking about my new work-from-home setup.

For years, I have used an old table as a computer desk. It's too big, but better that than too small, right? The drawback, for one who procrastinates, is that when I got my new computer, oh, two years ago, and replaced the tower with a laptop, I didn't get around to dealing with the tower for, well, a really long time. It wasn't in my way, and there were always other things to do. Of course, I knew I would have to deal with it before I moved, and with support from my brother it is now finally bricked and ready* to go to the recycling.
*Not procrastinating on it, just don't want to carry it out to my car with so much ice and mess on the ground. It can sit in the kitchen for a bit, that doesn't bother me.

Meanwhile, I have a lovely desk that I haven't used as a desk, exactly, since I first got a computer, because it wasn't big enough for the old-school monitor etc. But I had a thought, while pondering these issues in Florida: it might actually work for laptops and modern monitors. On Monday, I decided that it would be kind of silly to move to Florida without having tested that out, and since I already knew I wouldn't be moving the table anyway, why not try the switch?

Here's a side view of the old table setup, showing just how much mess can accumulate when it's hard to reach back there. Tower and wires and cables and dust, basically.

And here's the actual desk, now set up (she said casually, as though the move was smooth and easy, ha).

That's my personal laptop on the right, and the work laptop and monitor above. The height is good for viewing (no more books raising them up), and I have the keyboard and mouse on the lower level. When I'm not working, like now, I push the keyboard back and slide the personal laptop into the center.

So far, it's working decently, though I'm still adjusting chair height and so on.

The desk, meanwhile, had been living in the kitchen, holding a wild assortment of things, which are now scattered hither and yon while I figure out what should be where.

For now, I moved a folding bookcase into that space to hold some of it, and of course the table is still there until I can get rid of it.

I took the leaf out, but it's been years since I removed the legs, and either the mechanisms have rusted a bit, or just because my hands have gotten worse (as they certainly have), I wasn't able to make them work. If I can't find someone who wants it for free (enough to come get it and deal with it), I will measure it and see if it will fit into my car with the legs on. If not, well, plan C when the time calls for it. For now, this progress will do.

Very satisfying.