Sorry!

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I’m okay. I was finishing setting up my office.

For explanation, I don’t talk very well to myself, so I have to look at my behavior to see what’s wrong. For months now, I’ve been working from the lazy boy in the family room. This is fine, of course, except that I’m working on the laptop, which has all the social media. Which means I haven’t been able to stay out of it, which means…. writing is slow.

It finally dawned on me that my previous office was the darkest room in the house, despite my lining every possible surface in mirrors. At the same time it dawned on my husband that us being in separate offices because of our music dueling didn’t work very well since our offices were side by side, and pointed out our happiest days were working in the same office.

So…. I am now in his office, having moved all the hobby stuff that used to take up most of the room where he had an office in the corner. It is now in the former office.

IT SHOULD HAVE TAKEN me a day. Anyway, yeah, all week. Apparently I’m not 35 anymore.

However the new setup should help with productivity.

Meanwhile, I bought the two little tigers a magnificent play structure. Dan says it’s way too extravagant, but–

That’s Indiana-Pollux. We don’t know where the very beautiful Helen is. Probably downstairs, cuddling Havey. She does that.

55 thoughts on “Sorry!”

  1. That is quite the kitty condo.

    My wife and I work about the opposite that you and Dan do. We game in the same room but there’s no way we could work in the same office. I use the former spare bedroom as my office and she either works in the basement or at a writing desk in the living room (temporary since the basement is occupied by Houseguests for two more weeks).

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    1. When I moved into my present house, I claimed on room as MINE.
      I put my workspace there, and have snarlingly resisted any encroachment on MY TERRITORY by my husband.
      I never had an office to myself in almost 50 years of marriage.
      He BETTER stay out.

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    1. All four of mine agree! I should probably get one at some point. L and C in particular are climbers after all.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. You may not be 35 anymore but you’re still a youngster. [Crazy Grin From An Almost 69 year-old]

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  5. Bags, I’d like to be forty again. Working out every day, making a thousand a week on a slow week, churning out two chapters a week plus two/three on weekends, thinking about dating, and waking up more or less pain free.

    But, I’m not. So these old bones need their beauty sleep, plus a mile of stretching, plus that click in my shoulder and the occasional ache and pain that takes up residence in perpetuity. Not looking forward to the next doom doctor visit.

    On the upside though, I’m not dead, most of the bits are still more or less working, I can still write every week or so, and I’ve got a few new ideas to try in the next little bit. Characterization is planned. Plus another few bits and bobs.

    Now so long as the creek don’t rise, we might make a bit of progress. Edgewise. By smidgen. But progress!

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    1. Also I agree with Dan. It’s extravagant. Cats of my acquaintance have been known to use All The Things as cat toys and sleeping spots.

      But, it’s human to humanize and spoil the little fuzzy monsters. Turn about is fair play. They try to catterize us (viz. the cat what raised me that used to fetch us half killed critters to teach us how to hunt).

      So it’s all good. Cat will utilize cat toy. Human will be amused. Both will misunderstand the other.

      Well, my yard tenants keep trying to teach me how to talk cat, anyway. Hasn’t worked yet. I may be too stubborn.

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      1. It’s not for the cats. It’s for the humans, to more fully enjoy the cats. And joy makes the humans live and work better.

        So it’s all about productivity, right? :)

        Btw, and on another topic, I just found out that Aquinas quoted Augustine on the definition of a people (“populus”).

        Augustine defined a “people” as “a multitude of men and women together, united by a consensus of law and by a common purpose.” Or rather, he takes this definition from Cicero’s book De Republica, in which Cicero claims to be quoting a friend of Scipio who is quoting Scipio himself. (De civitate Dei, 19, 21.) (Another translation puts it as “an assemblage associated by a common acknowledgement of right and of a community of interests.”)

        Augustine then uses this definition to rip on secular Roman government as never having achieved its objects, or even having formed a true people, which cracks me up.

        (Actual Augustine Latin: “Populum enim esse definivit ‘coetum multitudinis iuris consensu et utilitatis communione sociatum’.” The original quote is from Cicero’s De re publica, 1, 39.)

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      1. Well, once you reach a certain age.
        I appear to have reached that age. (Wry grin).

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  6. First off – that is an EFFICIENCY apartment for a cat. Same size as what Artemis has – which is why she is completely obnoxious until the bed is made to give her more room.

    Second – is it that you don’t talk to yourself, or that you don’t listen well enough? I talk, scold, nag to myself ALL the time – and am very good at ignoring it completely.

    Third – whatever works for sharing / not sharing office space. Dueling work music is one reason that complete coverage headphones were invented. (That still would not let me work in the same office as $SPOUSE$ – she would be constantly showing me “interesting” things. To her, that is. The remodel of the son’s former room to give her an actual office has been a three month (and counting) project now, but I’ll gain all of that and more back over the summer.)

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    1. I too have issues talking to myself. I have to work out as best I can what my problems are because I am very good at displacement.

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  7. Having met them I can definitely say those fuzzies have earned their tower! Pretty sure mine are going to be after me for one soon, too. The chair reminds me a lot of the one I have for my computer, too, except with much, much less feline damage. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s R and C’s chair! They just let me borrow it.

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      1. The first one for Artemis was from Amazon. The current one was a good buy at CostCo.

        One thing you might want to think about with active kitties – getting a supply of paracord. The first one, Artemis tore all of the hemp winding off, and then halfway through the cardboard pillar. Leaning Tower of Pisa…

        She’s about at the point where I’ll need to do the second re-wrapping with paracord on this one. (OTOH, she’s very good about using only the designated scratching post. The only furniture she claws on occasion is my office chair back – part of the obnoxious “Get that bed made, servant!”.)

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          1. It’d probably take me just as long to unscrew the old one and screw in the new one (I’m always fighting with these things to find the holes).

            Besides, I’m cheap…

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        2. Hmmm…maybe, build one over a steel structure? It would be heavy, but practically indestructible. Just replace carpet and rope as they claw them to shreds.

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    2. I found a good one at Staples. Did need to replace the casters, and the new ones use roller blade wheels. Kat the border collie thinks that the recliner in the office (AKA the comfy chair) was intended for her. If I want to read there, I have to declare eminent domain. :)

      $SPOUSE uses a “$29” office chair I picked up at the Hospice thrift store. Actually much better and in perfect shape. When I first needed a walker after foot surgery, we got a good one there. (A casualty of my first morning after destroying my knee. Glad I didn’t injure myself more in the fall. Nor the next one. Got the hang of the brace after surgery. Sigh.) It seems that items donated from the estates of old people are pretty useful for living old people. Go figure!

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        1. Ashbottom Grant (aka the Walking Voidcat) has paracord on a stick. He loves to chase it. Alas, his increasing mass caused him to crack the stick. (Think trying to land a marlin with a bamboo fly rod.) The paracord is still going strong.

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  14. Push out two more stories, should cover the cost. LOL. I was presented by the question in response to my being overly frugal.
    “What is the cost of one smile?”
    Conversely what is the cost of one tear?
    Still trying to come up with an answer to those.
    Remember the content was I was being overly frugal at the time.

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  15. Love the kitty playstation. Much more complicated than mine, which only has three kitty sleeping spots, of which the bottom one is full of mail that I need to sort. They spend time in the middle and upper circles or on the cabinet in the window watching birds. And, she has scratched all the way to the weave in the shag carpet that covers it; however, that means the furniture is somewhat safe…

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  19. “IT SHOULD HAVE TAKEN me a day. Anyway, yeah, all week. Apparently I’m not 35 anymore.”

    Yeah, we keep running into that with my parents’ house.

    “Oh, sure, we can knock the pantry floor out in a week, no problem!”

    Three months later… “Finally we can sand it!”

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