Wordlesslessness

Time for a pointless ramble.

I'm munching on baby carrots and week-old homemade chocolate chip cookies.

I have a new work laptop with Win7 and a solid-state drive and other specs I care about much less than does the average computer industry professional.

A mattress was delivered this morning. My new bedroom set will come tomorrow night.

In twenty two years of marriage we never got a bedroom set. Couldn't afford it. Used my grandparents' dresser and bureau which surely date from the 1950s at the latest, or the '40s, or the '30s. Did get a new bed at one point, a big king-size job with hardness/softness dials for each side. Expensive. Dad paid for it. Before the market contraction, obviously. She kept it.

Now, making my own financial calculations, I went my own way. Could have built something out of cinder blocks and a sheet of plywood, I suppose.

I'm tired of "hitting the sack" having to be such a literal statement.

I get annoyed when I'm driving and the phone rings and I wrestle it out of my pocket on the gearshift side and then with it up to my right ear I have to shift gears so I let go the wheel and with my left hand reach across my face to hold the phone to my right ear while I shift gears and the slight misalignment starts me drifting into the next lane. I also get annoyed when I'm holding it to my right ear and I have to let go the wheel to shift gears with my left hand and, again, the slight misalignment starts me drifting into the next lane. We need wider lanes.

I also get annoyed when shifting out of first with my left hand awkwardly puts me in fourth gear at ten miles an hour, and rather than shift back out and into second because after all I'm on the phone and I'm busy, I have to wear out the clutch coaxing the truck to get up to speed in fourth the whole way. But I'll take part of the responsibility for that one.

Win7 annoys me in some small ways, as all new methods must. They changed the way Alt-Tab behaves. And I don't have a two-keypress path to Recent Items. Have to actually use the god damn mouse to get to recently opened documents. I am sending tiny lightning bolts of hatred towards the design committee that met in a windowless room at Microsoft and decided to impact their customers' usage practices needlessly.

I didn't even start NaNoWriMo: World Series, work, and a complete disinterest furthered by this wonderful article here.

Instead I'm enjoying organizing a space all my own around the objects I chose to keep. I now have visible floorspace and no longer a storage unit design motif. I have a workshop where some people have a "breakfast nook", whatever the hell that is, and my father's old couch in front of tall bookshelves loaded with history books. The couch will have to go: I don't need sit-down room for three people. If I ever have more than one guest we can all sit on the floor and light candles. Might get a used loveseat somewhere, though. And am already irresponsibly thinking about a large 1080p flatscreen for DVDs and internet video but a quick glance at the finances reminds me to hold off a bit on that one, buddy.

Outside of that, no intention to get a TV. My mother was surprised at that. She is of a pre-internet generation.

The Lectric Lurveseat languishes in the yard behind a workshop, its seats in storage, its motors and batteries and joystick sealed against the rain, its wheels and frame and welded joints slowly succumbing to damp and neglect. It is quite forlorn. It is not a winter plaything. It awaits with the patience of a toy soldier the onset of Spring and Summer, and rejuvenation, and the gentle press of a woman's weight.

This weekend I will try again to get firewood for the former residence. Last weekend the effort was chased away by the rain. The wood lies in a great long stack on the mud in the midst of walnut and almond orchards. You can see it in this satellite photo. Long story why I have the privilege. It involves South Africans, three sisters, and a retired merchant marine.