Cloud Sitting -- Sunday Serenity

Back in My Haven

Back in early August I had to switch the beanbag/mini-tramp with the table beside it in order to pass an inspection to avoid eviction.  I had to move the cooler over to this window as it was the only one that had an outlet close enough to plug directly into the wall. See the photo essay showing the result at the end of my post Puzzle On This.  This was a complete disruption of all my habits and even put my safety at risk.  This is what I lost:

• My crochet station as I was unable to get a light at the right distance and angle.
• Access to 4/5 of the shelves on the back wall as the table was placed against the left edge
• Access to 90% of my yarn and thread whose bags were stuffed under the table and stacked between the table and the window and then blocked by the tramp and cooler
• Access to most of my fiber art WIP which turned out to be moot since I had nowhere to work on them.
• Easy access from my office chair to my notebooks and files
• The intricately organized station with everything in arms reach to the left and the right for crocheting, reading (tree books, ebooks and audio books), taking notes from reading, taking notes from storydreaming, other writing by hand, watching videos on tablets or a portable DVD player, playing video games on tablets, charging station for the electronics, listening to music and podcasts on tablets
• Ability to get on and off the mini-ramp without help thus could only use it during the weekday hours my caregiver was with me
• Ability to get safely to and from the bathroom from my couch/bed in the dark as I'd lost the guidance of the table edge. 

Among the results were a blood blister on the edge of my big toenail after loosing my way crossing the room on my way back to bed trying to avoid stubbing my toes on the tramp legs that were where I was used to the edge of the table being.  I ran into my desk where I'd left a drink bottle which fell on my toe.  I don't have to worry about the tramp legs when it is tucked into this nook as it is not on the edge of any pathway.

I had to give up crochet entirely due to the lighting issue.  Everything else except ebook and audio book reading without notetaking had to be done at my desk sitting in my office chair.  I could have watched video on tablets but only if I was willing to hold the tablet as there was no surface on which to set them down and no ability to keep them plugged in so the battery would stay strong. 

With my vision issues I need the screen brightness at 100 so that gives me maybe an hour before they start dimming it if it isn't plugged in.  My Kindle Fire was the only one that would give me more than two hours of full brightness so I did do some significant reading on the beanbag in the last seven weeks.

I sincerely believe in this moment that if I'm still in this unit when the time comes to break out the cooler again next spring, I'd rather do without than be put through this disruption again.  Of course the first time the temps go over 90 inside I might think again.  But then I'd have to do all that work of the shift in the heat.  Ugh.

I have one possibility in mind and that is to pull the tramp forward about two feet--flush with the front edge of the table.  I think we could fit the cooler back there and point it toward the table so it doesn't blow on my neck.  But I would have to think about the effect of the humidity it kicks out on the stuff under the table where air circulation would be close to zero.

This would throw off the careful calibration of the placement of items within reach to the right and left.  But shifting all those items one or two feet forward would be a smaller price to pay than the massive shift and loss of access and use of so much of my things and my space.

The solution I'm hoping for tho is for my name to reach the top of the waiting list for a one bedroom unit before time to worry about the cooler.

We had to winterize the cooler by October 1st so we did so on the Friday before but I didn't get motivated to start the switch back until Wednesday evening. Last weekend I was pushing hard to finish two Libby library novels that were coming due.  So I had myself a private readathon, reading over twelve hours each day.  I'd even postponed putting up my Round Four ROW80 goals post on Sunday.

Then on Wednesday afternoon as I was preparing to post it, I discovered that ROW80, my writing accountability community, had been unplugged.  The moderator had to bow out and there was no one else to pick up the reins. I went into a funk.  It was real grief.  I've been participating off and on since 2012. 

I wallowed for several hours and found myself too restless to read or watch videos. I needed to be physical.  I needed my tramp which can be a mood regulator for me but it wasn't safe for me to get on it.  So at 7pm I started the switch.  It was a six hour project.  It had been a ten hour project for the first switch.  But I didn't really finish on Wednesday night. 

I needed to sleep.  My neighbor had been snoring for hours so I'd avoided rearranging the shelves against that wall which meant a lot of small items still had no homes. So to free up my bed for sleep and desk for morning pages and the floor of trip hazards, I piled the table two feet high.

Then on Thursday morning before my caregiver arrived I tried to move the beanbag so I could tramp now that I had the table to help me mount and the window sill to keep me oriented in space.  But it was fitted in there too snug and when I took a closer look I realized I'd placed the table three inches too close to the tramp.  But it was not going to budge until I pulled half the items out of the 4x4x4 foot cube of space underneath and repositioned the rest to free up the legs. 

That was not a project to be working on when I was about to be sharing my 400 square foot space with another person needing to be in motion so I saved it for the weekend. I was out of oomph on Friday evening so I didn't start until early afternoon on Saturday.  I had the table repositioned in less than an hour but that was just the first step of many to getting the area back to efficient use. 

I'm still not there.  The only thing I've used the beanbag for since getting it back in place is resting between spurts of activity. I would sit there to plan my next moves.  Sitting there would help me know where certain items needed to be placed for the easiest access whenever I needed to use them or to put them away without having to get up.  Getting up off that beanbag is a bit of a challenge. 

So every time I got an idea for the best spot for an item I would get up to place it there but most times that meant another item was displaced and needed a new home.  Often the best place for it meant another item was displaced and so it went.  Late into the night on Saturday and for several hours Sunday afternoon and evening.

Today this shelf-shuffle spread away from the beanbag alcove into other areas of my unit as I was getting ideas for more efficient placement of items on or around my desk, or bed or kitchen counters.  Somehow in the process I emptied four of the foot square cubicles on the shelves beside my couch and behind my desk. 

I'm still trying to figure out how that happened.  That's two feet cubed of space that was in use and now is not and there is nothing desperately needing a home to fill the space.  This gives me hope that I can bring another box of my tree book library from Mom's.

Meanwhile, I've decided that I do not want to lose the habit of posting just because ROW80 is gone nor do I want to lose the momentum I'd developed with my writing over the summer.  So I'm going to have to hold myself accountable to myself.  I'm going to continue Sunday Serenity and a writing themed post on Wednesdays.