Private Mars Rocket II

Apparently I am officially old, as I am wearing furniture out.

Firstly, my office chair. 4 years and 10 months ago, I bought an office chair for my home office for $200, including a 3-year warranty. Last week, the plastic pedestal which attaches the seat to the leg broke. The chair is (for the moment) usable but it's wobbly and I don't trust it. In my defense, all of my previous office chairs were bought for occasional use, but now that I work from home, there's a lot more cheek-in-seat time for me. A new and higher-end chair with a 10-year warranty is arriving soon and I'm using another chair in the interim.

Secondly, my kitchen table. My house has a small area, really a breakfast nook, separated from the kitchen by a counter. I furnished it with a 3-piece dinette set that I inherited from my grandmother's house. That set, a low-end model to begin with, resided on their enclosed front porch and is probably older than I am. The wicker bottom from one of the seats is busted, presumably from age. It's not as urgent a replacement, but I do occasionally use both chairs when I host a Rotary meeting.

In both instances, I got what I paid for and at the time they served my needs. Now my needs are different.

Herewith I bring you a report from the room Formerly Known as my Home Office and now acting as the Darien Airport.

I work from home, and I decided to embark on a project to improve my home office. I hired a fellow Rotarian and interior designer, debi Ross, owner of Inside Looks, to, well design and build. She stated that she wanted to make the office "bright enough to land an airplane." I thought this was a figure of speech. I thought wrong.

Well, I exaggerate slightly. It's not THAT bright. It is brighter, which is what one wants out of an office, home or not. And I can dim it if needed. Plus, by adding overhead lights, I was able to cut back on the number of table lamps, thus freeing up desk space. In addition, since we had the electrician in, we re-did the lighting in my kitchen. Again, a great improvement.

So, the runway is clear and I am happy!

A cluster of severe storms rolled through Cook and DuPage counties last night. In my immediate area, the only damage was one tree down. It landed in the driveway in front of a neighbor's house. Fortunately both cars were inside the garage, unfortunately both people had to go into work in the AM. We were able to clear enough area for both to get out.

On other severe weather thoughts, I no longer have cable, just streaming. Severe weather outbreaks like this one are when I miss cable - getting to my local news channel via streaming seems to take a minute, while with cable it was quicker.

I Can Haz Clothes Dryer!

As reported previously, my clothes dryer went to that Great Laundry Room in the Sky. As my washing machine was well into senior citizen territory, I replaced them both with a pair of GE models. Said models are one step up from the entry-level machines, but had all the features I needed. (I do *not* need Wi-Fi on my laundry devices!) There was a hitch on getting the dryer installed (the team didn't have a needed part) but that's been resolved.

Both machines so far function as desired. I've noticed that my washing machine does a better job extracting water during the spin cycle, which appears to decrease the drying time. I'm told that the washing machine is a high-efficiency model and will consume less water as well. We'll see.

Dining Out

I went out to lunch yesterday - a business lunch, no less. We first went to a place (mid-tier chain) only to discover they weren't open for lunch on Tuesday. We went to another mid-tier place in the same parking lot. They were only about a third occupied, but they were at least one waiter short of what was needed. Given the time it took to get our orders, I'd say that they were at least one short in the kitchen.

I've seen these staff shortages at other places. Anecdotally, one of the things that's causing the problem is child care. Until schools open (which they are just starting to) getting staff is difficult. Also, a lot of the people who used to wait tables are now driving Amazon trucks or otherwise no longer in the market. This will eventually sort itself out, but it will take a while.

It seems my appliances have all decided to take retirement. Maybe somebody's offering them a buy-out? This week's retiree is my clothes dryer, which decided to stop spinning last night with the first of two loads of wet clothes in it. Thus I visited a laundromat for the first time in a decade. (More on that anon.)

Doctors YouTube and Google think that the problem with my clothes dryer is something is binding up the motor, most likely lint. They also suggest that removing the casing to get at the motor is fairly easy. Although tempted to try it myself, I've decided to let an expert do it, on the theory that if I'm wrong in my diagnosis, I'd just have to put it back together and get an expert in anyway.

Regarding laundromats: apparently the modern laundromat no longer uses coin-operated machines. One has to buy a card which you load with money (you can use credit cards!) and insert it in the card reader. This confused me at first - I thought it would take a regular credit card. Clearly this system is much easier for the laundromat - no lugging bags of coins, fussing with the feeder slots, change machines, etc. Now I know.

Here's hoping I can get the dryer fixed - I'm not in the mood to buy a new one right now.

Like most office-bound professionals, I’ve been working from home since mid-March. This exposed a logistical flaw in my work from home setup. I’ve been reluctant to fix the flaw because I don’t know if work-from-home will become a permanent thing or not. Fortunately, an idea from my dad has fixed the problem. First, a little background.

In my previous jobs, work from home was a rare thing, never more than one day a week. Perching a laptop on a corner of my main desk in my home office was perfectly functional. Not so much with this job. I frequently find myself running a video conference as the presenter while having to keep two chat programs up. Multiple monitors are required.

The immediate solution was to clear off an old wooden table and use it as the work desk. There were two problems with that. First, I had a minimal amount of real estate to work with. Second, the table was a pedestal leg and a foot of that pedestal was right where the wheels from my desk chair wanted to go.

I strongly considered buying a new desk, one big enough for my personal PC, work PC and two printers. Besides the risk of ending up not needing that rig come pandemic end, there was a significant expense and hassle factor. Fortunately, I was able to solve all my problems with the purchase of a folding table. A six-foot long model gave me more then adequate real estate, chair clearance, and should my situation change the table can fold away and go into storage.

Thanks Dad!

My master bathroom has two sinks. On one of them, the drain was stuck closed. I finally got around to fixing it, which involved replacing the stopper at the bottom of the drain. Alas, the Home Depot "universal" stopper proved to be not universal enough for my sink.

So, I was sent to a specialty supply store, one that only sold plumbing supplies. It was a run-down looking place in a little strip mall. There was a small lobby fronted by a counter, staffed by one man, and off to one side and behind a half-height divider was a desk, also inhabited by one older gentleman. One asked for a part, and the counterman went and got it.

But here were the most important things. First, they knew at a glance what I needed. Second, they had it. Third, it was a 15 minute drive from my house. You don't find places like that in a small town.

I arrived at my house last night to find that my garage door opener no longer opens the garage door. The motor runs but the chain doesn't move. Since the door can be opened manually, it's not a broken spring, but rather something in the opener. Were I a Heinlein-ian Competent Man, I'd pop the cover on the opener and replace the failed gear. I'm not, so I'm going to replace the opener and hire somebody to do the work.

Parenthetically, did you know that modern (last 20 years) garage doors do not have handles on them? To open manually, one must hold onto a hinge with one hand and pull down on the emergency lever with the other until you get the door up enough to get your hand underneath the door. It takes a bit of grip strength to do this, and it was performed by me last night in the rain. At least my door has a manual lock on the inside, but that comes with it's own set of challenges.

Two pretty heavy storms rolled through Chicago last night. In my neck of the woods, the one window that hasn't been replaced yet sprung a small leak, and that was the extent of the damage. (The rain was being blown against the window as if I were in a giant car wash.)

Over the weekend, I was reviewing my travel plans for Worldcon. I was looking to see if I could squeeze in a jaunt across the Channel to see the D-day beaches. It doesn't look promising - the fastest option I saw involves taking the Eurostar train to Paris and backtracking to Bayuex. In short, I'd burn a day of travel to get there and another day getting to Ireland.

No Rotary today, because we're marching in the 4th of July parade Friday so I cancelled the meeting. Since I have writer's workshop tonight, this will allow me to get to the gym over lunch.