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.

What Was In Drawer #2

May 2, 2013May 1, 2013 ~ JodiLea

What a horrible let down…
Aside from old loan papers and family genealogy documents, drawer #2 was stuffed with woodworking patterns, clipped Handyman articles, project ideas. Man stuff. Everything hubby was saving for later when he had spare time. To him, everything is a keeper, and if not, he just puts it back wherever he put it because he doesn’t want to deal with deciding whether to toss it, or file it somewhere.

When we first got married and moved in together, he brought boxes and boxes of “I don’t know” to our new home. If he didn’t know, who did? The contents were unknown because he forgot what was in them 2 moves ago. I did not understand this. Twelve years these boxes just sat. Obviously, he can live without whatever is in there, right? I say, give them to a charity and say good-bye. He ignored my advice.

A year or so later, the man actually opened these boxes, looked inside, then closed them back up. For another day? This annoyed me to no end, but I was busy and I blew it off as one of his quirks. In our move last year those ‘I don’t know’ boxes did not come with us. Dozens of new hubby packed boxes did, but he had his shop to put them in. Out in shop, out of mind. At least mine.

Whoops, I got derailed, didn’t I?

Although boring, I was happy I had nothing else to organize or shred. Drawer #2 went back into the garage – labeled “Hubby’s Stuff”. I told him that the box only had his plans, patterns etc in it. This confused him. The items he thought were in drawer #2 – had not been there. You must have moved them, he tells me. Which, I know by now, translates to ‘you lost them’.

They are not lost. They are in that box we haven’t found yet.

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photo credit: jessamyn via photopin cc

The Big Move: Day 2

August 1, 2012 ~ JodiLea ~ 4 Comments

Saturday, July 21st – The Big Day

After the moving truck left, we locked up and drove our heavy laden vehicles to the mountains. My car was weighed down with books, files, a large ice-chest, loaded suitcases, and my precious computer, Hercules, and all his peripherals. My poor little Honda does not like going uphill with just me inside, so me + another ton went uphill about as fast as a pot-smoking snail.

Hubby, up ahead driving his Big Ass Truck with lots of horsepower, has no clue how frustrated and irritated I am becoming. Add the 99° F temperature to this equation, along with severe nicotine cravings courtesy of The Bitch, and I am approaching lift-off.

We beat the moving truck up the mountain. I wanted to relax and simply enjoy being here, before the movers arrived, but all Hell broke loose instead.

We heard a helicopter approaching, then two of them circled over the forest area. I thought that they were either hunting down fugitives or part of an Air Show. One of my new neighbors clued me in. The helicopter’s were “spotters”, searching for small fires splitting off from the main fire. Fire??? Next on the scene would be the small planes called “dumpers” or “bombers”. These would make repeated runs over the fire, dumping fire-retardant or water, depending on the circumstances. Neighbor Lady was very knowledgeable, but I had lost touch with what she was saying because my brain was too busy with There is a FIRE and it’s burning in the forest next to my new house!!

If you think I’m being over dramatic, this article is from the County’s website :

Fire Update….Vegetation Fire on Forest Service Land Behind Arnold
Posted by: John_Hamilton on 07/21/2012 04:51 PM

Sheep Ranch CA…Crews are responding to a vegetation fire on Mountain Ranch Road and Armstrong Road. This is a full wildfire response including all aircraft from Columbia. More to follow…..Update as of 5:35pm…This fire is actually closer to Arnold than Mountain Ranch on USFS property. The good…fire is still small and doesn’t seem to be spreading much. The bad is that this fire is in heavy fuels. Update as of 5:51pm…Initially the responding engines were accessing off of Sheep Ranch Road. Now they are rerouting engines around White Pines Lake and take Manuel Mill behind Arnold. Update as of 6:13pm…ground units have been on scene for a few minutes. One of the tankers has been released and Helicopter 404 is refueling now and Tanker 82 will probably be released as soon as 404 returns to the fire. Unless something drastically changes they should be able to get this knocked down as soon as the additional ground units arrive. Update as of Sunday Morning…We checked in with the TCU Command Center and the fire was held to less than an acre. In the photos below, the one on the right was taken at 6:55pm last night and you could already tell the plume was significantly reduced…

Forest Fire

Fire Out

Thank you, Mother Nature, for that warm welcome.