By George! I Think She's Got It!

I Think She's Got It!

 The workstation and room rearrange and organize project going on in one form or another for a year now is nearing that good to go stage.  I have one more biggish project and then its all about tweaking as I use the various spaces and learn what's working and what's not.

I created a 2x3 foot of free floor space by moving the drawer-cart against the wall.  Which entailed clearing the books and notebooks off the two stacks of boxes behind my computer desk so I could move them 1 2/4 inches left.  To do that I also had to pull the mini-tramp towards the middle of the room by about six inches which stole a bit of that space back and forced me to find a new home for the taller drawer cart that had been beside the cabinet on the wall opposite the desk.  Which took some more of that space back.

But the goal had been to give me elbow room around my chair so I could roll it and swivel without knocking things of the desk.

Desk

That ethereal look in this picture is caused by the high lux full spectrum therapy lamp behind the Ott lamp.  I had to move it there when I took away it's spot but I would have had to move it anyway as by moving my computer desk closer to that wall I had moved out of the therapy range.  I need to be inside of 16 inches away for the bio clock reset and the mood lift effect from the morning session.  Now though I can have it on in the late afternoon or evening as long as I'm not facing it so it can serve as extra light for crocheting.

Speaking of crochet.  Those little bags hanging off the desk drawer to the left of my chair hold small projects and there are three more smallish to midding projects inside that drawer.  Behind my chair the blue bag hanging off the yellow crate shelf is a large project.

One of the tweaks I'm probably going to make soon is switching out one of those shelves of books in the crates on the desk with the notebooks and files in the left hand crate on the box stacks as I need more frequent access to those than the books.  But I'm not going to mess with that until I've got that last big project done and my HABA station organized.  That's Health and Beauty aides including the closet.

I'm also going to start keeping my snack tray on the printer whenever I'm not needing it so the desk surface can be used as such.

Carousel

For those few things I find inconvenient to have stashed in drawers I set a kitchen cupboard carousel on a bar stool that has adjustable height.  I used to keep that on the left side of the computer desk and low so it spun under it but that now blocked the cart drawers.  I thot I was going to have to give it up but then realized if I raised it higher than the desk and placed it behind it in that wasted space between the desk the boxes and the tramp... Wa La.

Reserved Room

 Here's where the HABA station will be.  Where it has been except that it used to be spread out on those two 12-15in wide boards resting across the three open drawers of that cabinet.  I rescued about an eight inch by five foot area by taking those boards down and closing the drawers.  The HABA is going to have the top of the two carts as soon as the second double wide is put together.  That's the next and the last big project.

The second cart is in that box which I positioned to show the space it will take up when set up.  That will be for craft miscellany--tools and supplies.

Room to Roll

 I'm standing in the doorway to take this shot.

Look at all the room.  There is room to roll and swivel the chair, room to get to the tramp, room to dance.  Still not quite enough room to swing a cat.  But Merlin is fine with that.

That blanket wrapped duffel containing winter coats is set there to serve as Merlin's bed but every time I get up off that chair he claims it.

I set the exercise ball on the chair when I use the tramp.

I'm Floored

Here I'm standing on the tramp to get this view that shows how there is room to set up that card table that is now blocking view of the ugly boxes on the closet floor.  For sorting projects and craft projects that need to spread out that would be good to have but not good to leave up.  In fact I should set my mind to needing to clear it and fold it back up before bed on days I use it.

But that will give me a work surface for setting up the laminater and the Cricut Doodlebug die cut and embosser that I've had since I decided to order a second one for my niece's Christmas present because it was cheaper or nearly so than the cost of shipping the first one to her in Montana after having it shipped here.  I've not allowed myself to open it from it's shipping box until I had created a space to use it.

Soon.  Combine die cut, emboss and laminate and think bookmarks.

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Just Too Much

Too much stuff. Too much to do.

It would help if I wasn't constantly re-doing the same thing over and over.

Blame the stuff for a lot of that!

I had other plans for my time and energy this even as for both Sunday and Monday evening but I just had to take apart my desk area for the third time since Saturday and rearrange it yet again. It took over three hours all four times!

The glitch was having put more weight than it could bear on the tray table that serves as my desk and then it would slowly start to bend over the next twelve hours or so. One of the problems is that I am trying to keep too many items related to too many projects within arms reach from where I sit on the bed because it is such an hassle to move what I have on my lap in order to get up and fetch it. Plus at night it also disturbs Ed's sleep.

I'm forced to sit on the bed for everything because there isn't room for a chair in this room.

Too much stuff!

It's so bad now I've not got enough elbow room to wield keyboard, needles or crochet hook freely. Especially when Ed's sleeping.

In spite of my best efforts to organize I often spend more time getting projects out and putting them away than I do working on them.

My best efforts at organizing sometimes seem to be little else than rearranging stuff that I seldom see between the rearranging efforts.

I have so much stuff blocking my access to my clothes it is often such a huge effort to get ready to go somewhere I just don't.

It was in January of 2008 that I blogged about the great room make over that was supposed to make life so much easier. And it did for a time. I purged a lot of stuff and found many efficient, space saving ways to store the remaining stuff. But I never actually finished the sorting and purging that year and since then I've brought in huge amounts of craft stuffs relating to the crocheted bookmarks and their wardrobes of ribbons and beads and buttons and thread.

It's time for another room makeover. It's time for another purge. But it can't be the craft stuff or books that get purged. Reorganized after room is made for them by purging other stuff maybe but not got rid of.

Starting with the boxes stuffed with stuff that needs sorting and boxes stuffed with boxes and plastic bags and various sizes and shapes of containers I saved for storing the sorted stuff that isn't purged.

Completing a few of the over dozen unfinished craft projects so they and their materials don't have to live in separate boxes and bags would go a long way toward freeing up space.

Finishing them would be easier if the tools and materials were better organized.

What would really help would be having our own place to live so we aren't confined in this 10x12 foot room. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon as Ed's working under 20 hours a week. We've got to be grateful Ed even still has a job as his company has just gone though bankruptcy reorganization and he wasn't sure until this week that his job was going to still be there next month.

As I worked to stabilize my desk this evening I was working myself up to committing to making that this Saturday's project while the family was away at the races. But I just learned the races are likely to be rained out again this week.

I'm just not sure how to go about working on the big sort and purge if I'm constrained by the walls of this room and the hours between 3 and 9pm not counting the two hours for dinner and dishes. Those are the only hours I can count on neither me nor Ed needing the bed for sleep. Why is that? Because there isn't enough room for both of us to sleep well at the same time because of the wall of shelves towering to either side of this standard sized bed and all of the pillows (7) and the two shams stuffed with quilts.

Oh and the cat.

And no we're not purging the cat!

It might help if I purged a hundred pounds off myself. But that's a whole other issue.

Isn't it?

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Thursday Thirteen #117: Jumble III

Thursday Thirteen or Jumble III

(see Jumble & Jumble II)

Jumble by Craig Thompson
print for sale at art

Thirteen Things I Found During Wednesday's Room Reorganization

1. My squeezable dolphin desk toy that I use to exercise my hands when typing fatigue sets in.
2. My dolphin bracelet
3. My disc man ear buds
4. A piece broken off of a Hershy candy bar with a small bite taken off the end. Found on the floor, it probably had fallen off my desk recently. It was unsalvageable, being coated in carpet fuzzies and worse.
5. A special magnetic bookmark that had been a Christmas present several years ago. It has a blue enamel front with a white flower on it. I should take a picture of it to post.
6. Another special book mark with three cats pictured on it--a thinking-of-you gift from my MIL, picked up on one of their coast trips at a cat themed store
7. A dollar bill in the bottom of a shoe box that had been serving as a drawer on a shelf near my desk that held various note taking and storing items and had become a bit of a clutter collector for small stuff i.e. paper clips, pennies, a flag pin
8. a CD of a Caroline Myss lecture which my sister-friend Jamie gave me on my visit to Washington last December. This is like the third time I lost track of it.
9. a Naproxin tablet floating in a tiny tray of paper clips
10. A tiny photo of my nephew at 1yr. (he's fifteen now)
11. Several unopened green tea foils--Moroccan mint, pomegranate, ginger
12. The two pieces of a wooden tray that had come unglued in early fall and which I'd put in a 'safe' place--one was part of the handle and the other a slat off the side. This tray was part of the presentation of a collection of bath aids that was a Christmas present a few years ago. It is probably not meant to be functional but I thought it was cute. And one must admit it is a lot cuter than the plethora of shoeboxes and mailing boxes and other product boxes that I have collected for use as drawers and shelves and containers.
13. Speaking of hoarded boxes. I was pulling the bubble wrap out of the box which the mug I won in last June's 24 hour read-a-thon had been shipped in from Cafepress when I spotted in the bottom a small card which I had not noticed when I unpacked the mug. It turned out to enclose the receipt on which was a message: Thanks for participating in the read-a-thon! Dewey. A very poignant find.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

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Jumbled II

Jumble by Craig Thompson
print for sale at art

This is a followup on last Thursday's post Jumble where I spilled a stew of my mind and emotions about a series of events that threatened to throw the following week or so into chaos--which would be the week just passed and maybe a half a week more. Well there have been good resolutions to almost all of the issues and I'm feeling fairly confident about the rest.

The cold I was fighting has resolved itself as colds will do. It just could have picked a more convenient time to arrive. But do they ever? The only thing left is that easy fatigue that is always the aftermath of viruses for me. Plus I seem to have lost most of the ground I had gained by that month of hard work on my new mini-tramp between mid October and November 13 when the first cold of the season took me by storm. I discovered this today during those times I had to stand on the bed and found my leg muscles trembling and my balance barely under control.

Why was I standing on the bed? More on that later.

The second issue that resolved itself simply by the passage of time was the series of family events from Friday evening through Monday evening as Ed's family celebrated Christmas early to accommodate his brother's family who traveled dowm from Toutle, Washington. I cheated a lot on that one though. I only attended the two events that were held away from home--eating out at a Chinese restaurant Saturday evening and the Christmas celebration at Ed's younger brother's house Sunday.

I also spent a couple hours in their motel room with my Mom and sister and nephew Saturday night. My sister called just after we got home from the restaurant to say they were in town a day early and could I maybe be ready to go north with them by Sunday after our Xmas dinner? I knew that was impossible but I said I would make the effort to be ready by Monday morning. But Ed nixed that plan in the wee hours of Sunday morning when he caught me still awake and learning of my plan to stay up and work at packing until time to go to the dinner he chided me for lack of wisdom--for thinking of foregoing sleep while sick, for asking my Mom to wait another night to get home to familiar surroundings. I let him talk me out of it and lay down at 5am. He then told my sister when she called at nine-thirty that I would not be able to be ready and they should just head north and try to beat the snow storm heading south from Washington over the pass.

Ed's wisdom was confirmed when he brought the phone to me, waking me so I could talk to my sister. I had almost no voice and it didn't return to normal for three or more hours. I also ended up falling asleep after the dinner at Ed's brother's house, missing most of the afternoon visiting.

Monday I managed to get a major decluttering done in our room and a separate sorting project of the boxes of electronics paraphanalia for the two laptops, the cell phones, battery recharger and batteries, the two cameras and two cd players. This served the purposes of preparing for the room rearranging planned for Wednesday and for the packing for my trip to Longview which must start Thursday. While I was at it I collected items I knew I would be taking with me into shoe boxes and bags that I could keep track of during the room project. I don't dare start packing the actual bags for the trip as there is no where to keep them except on the bed in the day and the livingroom couch at night.

I intended to continue that sorting and corraling of items on Tuesday as well but I got sideswiped by the news of Dewey's death at 3am just as I was wrapping up my work session to lay down and ended up spending the next nine hours grieving hard while writing a comment at her blog which I then morphed into a post and then read her blog backwards to the last post I'd read November 6. And then started visiting other of Dewey's faithful reader's, reading their blogs backward to the day they learned--most of them on the day her husband posted the announcement two weeks before I found it and a week after her passing.

I finally slept for a couple hours Tuesday afternoon. Woke only because I was called for dinner. Then I crashed hard at 10pm. But I woke up at 2:30 AM this morning and could not get back to sleep. I was still upset about the loss of Dewey but now I was also anticipating with dread the room project slated to start no later than 8 AM. Since I was still awake when Ed got up at 6, we got started at 7. We finished at 7PM.

As I related in my Jumble post last Thursday, the room rearrangement was necessary to make room for the gigormas TV Ed's brother gave us. It is too big to fit in the slot made for the TV and so must go on top. Which meant that everything on top--stacked to the ceiling--must be moved off. I could not see how we could find room for that volume of stuff elsewhere in the room. I had planned hard last winter before the BIG room makeover the first week of January to design the system we used and it had been working well for us for nearly a year. I was completely demoralized by the concept of a redo. Especially in the face of all the chaos of family events, a cold, packing for a trip and the mess I'd made in here during NaNo after coming down with the first cold mid November.

Well the project is done and I think successfully. At least I am liking a lot of the new features of the room. I won't know how things will work out functionally until after I get back next February. I was going to describe the results here and some of the snags we hit today but this has gone on too long already. I've been awake over twenty hours and they were not laid back hours. I also need to get up early to start laundry and packing while my MIL is at work and the machines available.

My brother's wife is driving down from Portland sometime in the next few days to pick me up and take me up to my Mom's in Longview WA where I am to help in the care of my Mom during her post hip surgery and mild stroke recovery. Longview is a forty minute drive across the Columbia River from Portland. It is about a five hour drive from here. As long as the snow doesn't make a mess of the Sexton Pass about twenty minutes north of here.

So I'm going to continue this Jumble story later. I'll try to get pictures of the result tomorrow. I didn't take before or durring pics this time as I forgot to keep my camera accessible. You can find a picture of the before and links to more in last week's Jumble post. Suffice it to say that at one time today the full surface of the bed was piled to the level of my ribcage with the lighter weight stuff--books, boxes, office supplies, HABA, electronic paraphanalia, and more plus all the pillows and blankets. And Merlin. The TVs had been swapped by 10Am. It took us until 7 to put the room back together.

In fact this Jumble series might go on thru the story of the packing and the trip and the arrival and settling in at Mom's. I've discussed here before on the occasions of visits to my parent's home how hard it is for me to spend more than a few hours at a time in that house. My Mom is a hoarder of the highest order. As am I. But dwelling in the midst of someone else's jumble is several orders of magnitude worse than living with one's own. Because you don't dare move anything without direct permission or they would never find what you moved. This is amplified when one is visually impaired as me and my Mom are.

To add to the jumble there, my sister and her son have been living in that house since she came up to help with the care of my Dad during his battle with cancer in 2004-2005. She and her son are ADHD. She homeschools him. They have slowly mixed their jumbles in with Mom's and Dad's jumbles throughout the two story house of fourteen some rooms plus garage. There is nary a surface large enough to set down a dinner plate without clearing it off first.

I'm going to be bringing my own jumble with me. Including my own surface-- my current desk which is one of those TV trays advertised on infomercials. they have legs adjustable in height and a tray that can be level or slant to act as an easel. the legs will slide under the couch, chair or bed you sit at. It also folds flat and the legs telescope so when collapsed it is little larger than the tray.

I'm also bringing my mini-tramp which I'll probably keep outside so I'll have a good excuse to get out of the jumble for a time at least once a day. I simply must have it. I was making such good progress last fall and I would continue to loose ground if I wait until February to get back to it. The mini-tramp is the only safe exercise I've found for myself. At least in our current price range. I think I get more benefit from it than I would a treadmill anyway. With my vision impairment I can't walk fast enough in public areas to get much benefit. I can't reach an aerobic pace.

And of course there will be books....

Clothes? Who knows.

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Jumbled

Jumble by Craig Thompson
print for sale at art

I got hit with a triple whammy this evening that throws the next week into total chaos for me. It isn't bad news or anything just a confluence of events both expected and unexpected. The expected event is the arriving this weekend for early Xmas festivities of my husband's brother's family from Washington. I was already fretting enough about that as social gatherings are super stressing for me, pushing all my anxiety buttons. It doesn't help that I've been sick since Sunday evening. Though I'm feeling much better today, I'm still not feeling up to anything strenuous.

Then three unexpected events transpired. First, the pilot light for the gas heater for this trailer house--my in-law's home--keeps going out so they're having it serviced tomorrow sometime. The issue for me is that the heater closet is right outside our room door and when they work on it they block the hallway and I have a choice of being trapped in here with no access to the bathroom or kitchen while they work while being subjected to the noise or choosing either the kitchen end of the house or the bathroom end of the house to hang out for the duration and thus have no access to my room or the other end of the house. On the day I'm needing to shower and do laundry to prepare for the arrival of the company.

I was fretting about this intensely as I did the dishes this evening.

Ha.

Now that seems so minor. Except that it still is a major inconvenience that contributes to the weight of the second two whammies that hit in the two hours after I finished the dishes. The first of these was in play while I was doing the dishes, unbeknownst to me. Ed's younger brother and his son who live locally stopped by while I was still in the kitchen and as I was on my way back to our room Ed was on his way out the door with his brother saying he had to help him lift something out of the truck. When he came back in he beckoned me to follow him back to the kitchen where there was a HUGE TV sitting on the kitchen table.

His brother had just upgraded his living room flat screen and moved the old flat screen into their bedroom and now was giving this one to us. This TV is only two or three years old and is HD ready and it is eight inches bigger on the diagonal than the one we have in here right now. It is way too big to fit in the slot of the entertainment center so it will have to go on top. But currently the top is piled to the cieling with shelves and storage containers.


This is so dejevu.

It was about this time last year--actually it was during NaNo last year, just after Thanksgiving, that my in-laws upgraded their living room TV to a flat screen and wanted to switch out the ancient TV in our room--their guest room--with the larger and newer one being replaced by the flat screen. This switch was made during the last week of NaNoWriMo and turned our already messy and crowded room into a chaotic jumble.

A jumble I made much worse when I packed for my trip to Longview to visit my Mom and sister the day after NaNo. A mess that was made even worse by the two weeks of Ed batching in it while working ten hour days. A mess I had to come back to three days before Christmas needing to unpack and go Christmas shopping and prepare for the family festivities here.


Look close at the top of that picture. That's the top of the closet, see the closet rod in the background? I was standing on the bed to get this before shot. To put this in context, see more pictures of the condition of our room this time last year in my Thursday Thirteen #68.

The first week of January was devoted to a total makeover of the room which I documented in the following week's Thursday Thirteen #69. The picture showing the top of the entertainment center above is from after the makeover. Ed wants to move all of that off to make room for a monster TV. The idea just overwhelms me.

With the next three days consumed with family events and him not having another day off work until next Wednesday we can't even do anything about it until then. Except that I can try to do some prep work for it by packing smaller items into boxes and bags that can be schlepped easier. As this is going to entail a total rearranging of that entire wall of the entertainment center and my side of the bed aka my office. Ed spent half an hour talking me down and brainstorming how we could make it work. And then he settled down to sleep as I was thinking aloud that maybe it would as long as my Mom and sister wait until late next week to travel north.

And then my cell phone rang.

It was my sister calling from California, near Sacramento, where they were visiting my Mom's eldest sister when my Mom fell and broke her hip just before Thanksgiving. I posted about it here. I was slated to travel north with them immediately after NaNo like last year and spend a couple weeks before Christmas. But Mom's accident changed all of that. She wouldn't be able to travel by car until they released her from rehab and no firm date for that was set as it would depend on her progress. Besides the mobility issues from the hip they were also working with her on some aphasia and confusion caused by a minor stroke from a blood clot post surgery.

And the plan has been for me to travel north with them for an indefinite stay to help my sister care for my Mom.

My sister was calling to say that Mom is being released from rehab tomorrow and they are planning to travel north Sunday, stay in a motel near me Sunday night and head on to Longview on Monday. Could I be ready?

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Thursday Thirteen #71

Thirteen Pictures of Our Room After the Big Makeover

The first five pics are taken clockwise starting just inside the door and to its right--facing it that is.


Those four white boxes are the bottom half of Ed's boot boxes and serve as drawers. Two of them were emptied in the sorting. One holds sorted computer and camera related things. The other unsorted papers that were sorted out of other boxes in the BIG SORT project of last week. The yellow box on the bottom shelf is also full of unsorted papers. I'm waiting until I get the dreaded junk drawer sorted before I tackle the papers as there are more in there.
As an interesting side note, I've re-shelved the Great Books set seen in the pictures above and below backwards with the first one on the far right. That put the Syntopicon (Index of Ideas) and Homer through Shakespeare within arms reach while sitting at my desk. Those are the ones I access the most often. The others I need to get up and walk around to the foot of the bed or do calisthenics on the bed to reach them.
Continuing clockwise, the next five pictures are of my 'office'.


The blue drawers are full my sewing paraphernalia. Still needs a lot of organizing but at least everything is more accessible then it was in that giant snowman gift bag the once fell on us from its perch atop the stack of cardboard boxes aka bookshelves.


Above, I show how the drawer pulled out with a board laid across it extends my desk space when needed. Below, I've taken the board off to show the innards of the junk-drawer which I talked about in yesterday's post. It is the last big sorting job left to do and it intimidates me. It is so stuffed with stuff the stuff oozes out when I open it like the biscuit dough out of those cardboard tubes.
Above is the cupboard next to the closet in which my Mother-in-law stores quilts. I've put all our bags in here: backpacks, duffels, purses, book bags and so forth. Sorry the quality is so poor. Somehow the dial on my camera got bumped off auto focus.

The last two pictures are of Merlin enjoying the room. One of the best unanticipated benefits of this project was that I was able to ensure the room was both safe for him and safe from him--at least enough so that he can spend most of the hours I'm awake and in the room off his harness and leash. He is loving that. Especially the access to the window. I tried to get him to go look out the window so I could get a picture of it but he was more interested in me and the camera--especially the wrist cord hanging off it. That cat!


I posted the before pictures in TT three weeks ago and pictures of the process of putting the room back together two weeks ago.

It is fitting that this project which began on January 1st is memorialized on the last day of January.


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

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Good Enough

Last Friday evening after another three hour sort project, I declared the room 'good enough'. It isn't perfect by far. But it is good enough to start using it for its intended purposes. And there are many ways that starting to use it that way will help in the fine tuning.

Merlin was the inspiration for the declaration. He had been taking every opportunity to jump in the middle of what I was doing all day. Especially in the middle of whatever box I had just emptied or set up for filling. Every time I left an empty or mostly empty box unattended he was into it. Once, I'd not turned my back a full minute and when I turned back he was not only in the boot box I'd just emptied of books but curled up in the snooze position with head tucked under. He lifted his head when I turned the camera on and the lens motor buzzed as it protruded.

Earlier he had been pouncing on every thing, grabbing, biting, batting. He found everything in those boxes more interesting than his own toys, from paper clips to rubber bands, from string to pencils, from loose paper to scissors, from plastic bags to cardboard anything. And Styrofoam bits. Is Merlin the only cat who thinks Styrofoam is better than a live mouse?

It amazed me how easily he switched modes too. That is something that has never come easy to me. I envied his ability to jump in a box and fall asleep in a minute or less. I envied his ability to feel relaxed.

During the sorting I had been handling all the little pieces of my 'toys' too and wishing I felt free to get out the projects they belonged to. From needlework to reading to fiction and poetry writing, from research to drawing to surfing the net. And the more I thought about it the more I realized it really was time. For one thing, I haven't touched my story files since the Sven challenge ended two weeks ago! It is time. And past time.

I relaxed then and enjoyed the weekend with Ed. We went out for breakfast and then shopping on Saturday morning. We both got new shoes and hair cuts. And he got me a flash drive. I encouraged him to use the computer all afternoon while I read. Sunday we did three loads of laundry and then took a walk in the falling snow to deliver a DVD and a couple of books to the library drop box. I got a couple dozen pictures of the snow and planned to post about it Sunday night but we didn't get the pictures off the camera before Ed went to bed. We got about nine inches of snow on Sunday.

I was so looking forward to Monday and having the room to myself for some hours while Ed was at work. Then I woke up with the headache that escalated into a migraine. I was useless for over twelve hours and slept for the following twelve.

I learned one thing though. The room is a much more pleasant place to be sick in than it ever has been before.

I woke up feeling fine about nine-thirty this morning only to discover that Ed was off today. So again I didn't get to have the room to myself to set up a project that needs spreading out. But I discovered that sharing the room is much easier now than it was. I spent a couple hours this afternoon reading a novel while Ed surfed and played games on the laptop held on his lap. We were both sitting up at the head of the bed and it seemed to be working. If you've seen the pictures I've been posting about the room project, you know there is only the bed for sitting on.

Speaking of pictures. Ed finally walked me through the process of getting the pictures off the camera onto the laptop. Shortly after that, I finally found the camera manual. It was in the last unsorted place. The dreaded junk drawer. The drawer from which things pop out like biscuit dough from those cardboard tubes whenever I open it. The drawer which I continued to stuff various odds and ends I could not readily identify a proper home for all through this project.

Ed suspects he will be off again tomorrow. There is more snow expected tonight and that affects the incoming and outgoing trucks so shipping will be light. If he is home tomorrow I am going to enlist his help in getting the after pictures taken so I can finally post them in my TT.

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Thursday Thirteen #69

Last week I posted before pictures and promised after pictures for this week. Well I discovered I don't yet have thirteen after pictures tho I do have plenty of pictures taken during the process. So this week its about the process but I couldn't pare it down to thirteen without loosing something important to the story.

I'm continuing to work on the fine tuning of the room and will continue to take pictures. I hope--I am aiming for having thirteen after pics for next week.

Thirteen Plus Pictures Showing the Process of Our Room Makeover

These first four pictures were taken Friday morning January 4th before dawn and show the room from various angles after I'd removed as much as possible out of the room and dusted and vacuumed. This shows what I have to work with in terms of space.




The next four show the process of putting together the bench for elevating the bookshelves above the level of the bed.

I am quite proud of this concept. It was mine.



As promised in an earlier post this week the explanation for the Froot Loops box: My specifications for the bench was for a 12 inch wide plank. Ed mistakenly bought a 10x2 inch plank. I didn't discover this until after Ed left for work that morning. One of the bookshelves required 12 inches but the other one would be OK with 10 so I went ahead and started putting it together. I had it ready for the bookshelf and was about to bring it in when I realized that I needed to make sure there was room for that 12 inch plank on the left side of the 'bench' and that meant making sure the edge next to the bed was 12 inches from the wall its entire length.

The only measuring device I had was that retractable one that Merlin just can't leave alone. The problem with it is that it is floppy and I had to hold on to each end of the measured length to be sure of accuracy. This wouldn't work for multiple measurements along an eight foot plank. I needed something not floppy. Like a ruler. But I couldn't find one.

After wasting twenty minutes looking for a ruler I started measuring everything in sight: books, cardboard, boxes etc. The first thing that measured exactly 12 inches on one side was that Froot Loops box. So there you have it.

Above, I've placed one of my pride and joys into the bookshelf: My Great Books set. In my archives in the spring of 2005 is the story of the miraculous acquisition of this set which replaces the one we lost.

It was the replacement of this set of books that made it possible for me to start thinking about returning to work on my Fruits of the Spirit storyworld. It is the Syntopicon (a topic index to 3 millenia of western literature) that is the essential thing for the research stage of these stories. I've discussed this elsewhere so I won't go further here.

One of the things I am most pleased with about this room makeover is that I've found a way to put the whole set within arms reach of my writing station and prevent if from being blocked by clutter other than blankets. This is going to be so helpful as I proceed deeper into the storyworld that I reengaged with intensity due to the 70 Days Challenge first round last July.

Above is a picture of the green shelves atop the entertainment center. This was taken about 10AM Friday morning. At that point I had to stop working on the room because I needed that 12 inch plank to proceed. I tried to take a nap since I had been awake over 24 hours but I couldn't stop thinking about the project and I was still awake when Ed got home about 5. He went after Subway sandwiches for our dinner and brought back the right sized plank with him. But we both agreed that we were too tired to proceed with the work on the room that night.

So it wasn't until Saturday afternoon that the next picture was taken. We didn't start working on the room again until then because we went out for breakfast and then to Wal-Mart to pick up organizing aides.

You can see that I continue to make changes. I've decided to move half the Great Books set to the other bookshelf to make that bottom shelf available for both of our public library fiction since that is where Ed does most of his reading in the winter so they should be more convenient for him.

Below you see the tower of drawers we bought for our HABA. (Health and Beauty Aides) It fits nicely on the end of the bench without blocking the TV.

Below shows the three large tubs we bought for Ed's clothes. They fit just right up there on top of the green shelves and it is fitting that space be Ed's since I can barely reach the top of the green shelves anyway. Ed is nearly a foot taller than me.

The next three pictures were taken early Sunday afternoon. I was still relaxed and being thoughtful about moving things in and placing them. But not long after these were taken Ed's folks returned unexpectedly. At 4:30 Sunday afternoon instead of late Monday or sometime on Tuesday. News of a storm about to drop snow on the passes changed their plans.

Our stuff was still scattered all over the house so Ed started bringing things as fast as he could, leaving them on the bed for me to stick wherever I could find a spot. No more time for thoughtfulness and no more time for pictures. This is why I still have so many sorting projects left to do and why I don't have enough after pictures.


Below is a picture of Merlin on the duffel which is on the bottom shelf of the entertainment center. This holds my sweaters and sweats and winter scarves and similar things. This picture was actually taken last June as a before picture of that makeover. The duffel was moved at that time to atop the green shelf which stood in front of the closet. A picture I posted in last week's TT shows how that worked out for us. The duffel ended up piled to the height of my eyes with clothes that couldn't be easily put away in the closet. And then those that couldn't be easily put away in the duffel.

The duffel is now back on this shelf tho it is wrapped in a blanket to keep dust cat fur off it. Merlin likes it for a bed when the TV is off.

Below are two pictures showing my effort to create a mobile workstation out of our luggage carrier and cardboard boxes. I put this together Friday evening and told Ed that I hoped to find something sturdier than cardboard to use for the shelves.

Ed found a better concept for the mobile workstation: this small utility cart. Also in view here is the three drawer tower we bought for my sewing.

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Taking My Measurements

I need to post on the fly tonight so I can get back to my storyworld. One more day to go for the 70 Days of Sweat challenge.

This is a picture of my cat Merlin trying to help me take measurements during the room re-do project. He loves the retractable measuring tape and kept grabbing at it every chance he got.

The box of Fruit Loops is not there for a handy snack. I was much to busy to think about food that day. Nor would they be higher than #699 on any list of my likely snackables. If you want to know what it was there for, come back for this week's TT which will be pictures taken during the process of putting the room back together again after it had been stripped to the bare bones.

I know I promised after pictures this week but I discovered I don't yet have thirteen after pictures tho I do have nearly twice that many of the process. So I must go with what I have while I continue to take after pictures for next week's TT.

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