A Chaos Theory

March 13, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

I must say this upfront, in case you are new to my blog – I am not a scientist, nor physicist.

( My long-time readers can stop laughing now …)

Yet, I have proven this chaos theory many times over the years. In fact, I am doing so this week, in my very own office, just trying to move back in.

Somehow, despite all the cabinets and shelves my office has now, there is not enough room for everything designated to be there. SIGH. This turns the fun in putting things away, to dreaded decision-making. About my ~~stuff~~ crap.

Yes, I have gathered much, over the past 50 years, but I’ve only held on to the most precious crap. Then, my mother and sister move on to their eternal rest, and stick me with their precious crap. My inner-teen whines, “this is just SO unfair!”, as I go through boxes of precious family crap and realize I must keep a lot of it for historical and sentimental reasons. It is my duty as the only survivor.

I cannot part with the boxes of genealogical research, and reference documents my mom worked with before she became ill. They, combined with my hubby’s mom’s research, may help me discover the (missing) link between our individual Richardson family trees. If nothing else, there are some great things in there for a novel…

OK. I decide to put all the family research on the top shelf. It won’t be in the way there – I can’t reach the shelf under it without a step-stool. The shelf I can reach, is the ‘staging’ area for the upper shelves until hubby emerges from his shop, or wherever he is at the moment, and puts them up for me.

Yesterday, hubby shocked me with the news that he needed some file space in my office too. What!?! It turned out he only needed 5 hanging folders, but he scared me. He has most of his files in the shop’s filing cabinet, but wanted to keep personal files in the house. I gave him permission, what the Hell. Someday, I may need a square foot of shop space. For what, I don’t know. But it’s good to be prepared. The ~~Military~~ Girl Scouts taught me that.

Spring has sprung up here – the days are getting warmer, the bees are wildly spreading pollen, and the squirrels are flirting and chasing each other. I would normally be out on the deck with my laptop, re-writing chapter five of my novel, but I need to gather all the boxes that waited around in closets and the garage for me to put them away. Hubby wants to park in there – this year.

Then, the chaos should reach its peak, and in a few days, my little office will officially be open for business!

TTFN 🙂

My Little Friend & I

March 10, 2014 ~ JodiLea

A few weeks ago I introduced ‘my little friend‘ to the world.

It was my fault that we got off to a dodgy start. Between my ignorance and nervousness, our relationship was strained. Today I’m happy to report that the ‘bugs’ in our friendship seem to be worked out. After all, practice does make perfect, or at least comfortable.

For my beloved readers who are following the “Insulin Pump Series”, I will post about this journey now and then, to keep you in the loop about my new ‘remote controlled’ life. Or however you think of it. Lord knows my family has their own way of referring to this change: The Pod person. The adventures of Robo-Grandma. My youngest granddaughter has trouble remembering the word “Pod”. She calls it a “boob”. And she likes to pat it, as if it’s a pet, instead of a medical device. (She’s so sweet, I can hardly stand it! But I digress…)

Today’s report is short and sweet. 🙂

It used to take me 30-minutes to do the Pod change because I would verify everything in the User Guide, before doing it. Since I change Pods every 3-days, I have done it 7 times now, twice without the Guide! The “remote” (its official name is “Personal Diabetes Manager” or “PDM”, but that’s boring), takes you step-by-step through the process. Although there are a lot of steps, they become easier every time I do them. I don’t dread Pod change day like I did at first.

Y’all have a fabulous week & thanks for listening!

It’s The Waiting That’s A Virtue

March 9, 2014March 9, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 6 Comments

After moving into our new house in 2012, I can finally unpack the boxes of files, books, documents and office supplies. As you can see, things were getting claustrophobic in my little office.

What the photos do not show is that my computer monitor sits on a piece of plywood, between two filing cabinets, that are not the same height, so there are four blocks of wood under the right side.

BeforeDeskArea

I can’t work in a messy office very well. It’s that way in my kitchen too. I have to clean up and do dishes, before I can start making a brand new mess. After using this desk & office you can imagine how nice it is to ‘go to work’ now 😉

My “new” office has gorgeous oak filing cabinets, bookshelves, and a custom-built desk. I am loving it! I want to get back to work, but I must put things away first. [I could not help myself this afternoon, so I took a break to write this post and let y’all know why I’m not posting so much right now.]

The only issue I foresee is the fact that I’m not even half-way unpacked and running low on filing cabinet space. I suppose that I could put a lot of things into binders and on the book shelves, but I have a ton of reference materials and books to put away.

I am trying NOT to panic. I don’t have a deadline to be moved in. Our two guest rooms are stuffed full of boxes for me to go through and organize one by one. There are no guests scheduled to arrive in the next month, so I do have time.

Who knows? Maybe there are still some files I can toss. Maybe I could let go of old files stuffed with ideas and the beginnings of a few new novels and short stories, but I doubt that will happen. Some of them I’ve had since I was twelve years old. (And that’s a hella long time!)

Hubby has a storage basement under his shop if things get out of hand. Or, I could sneak some things out into our new cabinets in the garage…

Somewhere on this property, my stuff will get put away.

I. Have. Spoken.