It was a dark and stormy weekend

[rolanni]

It was also foolishly warm, for November in Maine, though I suppose I shouldn't complain too loudly, since there's all that heating oil we're not burning.

We lost power for an hour or so last evening -- dunno why; it wasn't an important enough event to have made the local paper. Steve and I sat in the kitchen, listened Classic Rock 'n Roll on the radio and talked, Mozart and Hex in attendance while Scrabble slept with the hefalumps. A little thing like a power outage is no reason to interrupt a Perfectly Good Nap.

This morning, Hex woke us up early (thanks, guy) by standing on his hind legs and using his front paw to hook open the sliding door to the bedroom closet. Clever Hexapuma. Sigh.

A little later, I found one of his whiskers on the blanket he's been using -- half black and half white, it is, and approximately a mile-and-three-quarters long. Guess he went with the Custom Detailing Package.

I'm gratified and pleased to see that Mr. Obama has rolled up his sleeves and gone right to work ordering a census of Mr. Bush's executive orders. I got the sense that Mr. Bush simply called them into being, without bothering to, yanno, make a list -- a lot of Big Picture Guys are like that, I think.

On the topic of less pleasant surprises, my desk is beginning to fail. This is one of the pair that we bought back in 1988, a so-called "computer desk," when personal computers were themselves new-fangled, expensive toys. It has a slide-out keyboard tray/drawer combo, an enclosed hutch, and a couple shelves that can be configured as I Like Them. It weighs approximately four and a half tons. Apparently, I slid the drawer part out once too often and have broken the stop on the track. If I'm not veeerrryyy careful when I pull it out, I can have the whole unit on my knees, which is ...less than optimal. I suppose I can't really complain; ghod knows, it's done its duty and more, but -- have you seen how much desks are going for nowadays? I could buy a condo at the ocean with that kind of money.

Hmmm...

Some progress has been made on the Fledgling front -- not as much as I hoped for, of course. I'm thinking that I'm going to have to print it out and read it again. You'd think I'd have it memorized by now.

Progress on Fledgling rewrite:

75,467 / 100,000 (75.5%)

And, tomorrow -- is Monday.

There oughta be a law.

Comments

[galeni.livejournal.com]

If you're a DIY type, you can buy replacement tracks at a hardware store. That's what we've done for one of our desks. Of course, it hasn't been installed yet, as the DIY guy hasn't made himself a list of jobs to do. (sigh)

But it's conceivably fixable.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Oh-ho. Obviously, there's a visit to the Agway/True Value in my near future. I'm not necessarily a DIY, but the guy who lives next door is, and he has as a point of pride being neighborly to the old folks next door. I'm sure we baffle him, being incompetent on so many levels, but he's very good to us.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Stops on tracks can often be replaced reasonable easily. For example, a screw with a little piece of pipe (bushing? is that the right word?) can be screwed in to provide a "stop here" guide. Or you can attach a string to the back of the drawer fastened to a screwhook or similar point at the back -- this depends on you being able to adjust it in whatever space is there -- I think my grandfather had a drawer he had fixed like that to avoid pulling it out too far.

Hum - you might want to fasten the whole contraption to the wall? Avoid having it tip forward on the lap that way.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I think my grandfather had a drawer with a string-and-eyebolt arrangement in his workshop. The concept seems familiar, now that you mention it.

Tying the desk to the wall won't work. I think. But I really ought to do something about the bookshelf that will fall right on my head if we ever have another earthquake. Definitely need to talk to the guy next door.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

Our local hardware store sells earthquake safety straps for bookcases and the like - we've got them on ours, and they work pretty well for securing the shelves. Mind you, this is out in California, where I imagine earthquake preparedness supplies are more readily available than some places

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Hum - do you suppose our grandfathers learned the same trick somewhere? I wonder how long Heloise has been spreading household hints around, anyway? Or would it have been Sears?

[baggette.livejournal.com]

oh my Dear!
There are MANY Laws, already.
Unfortunately, none of them describe the banning of Mondays.

[spudsmom.livejournal.com]

I have a totally non-diy solution to the bookshelf securing. I will skip the details on how we came to this solution but here it is. There's this putty, we got it at the target but its one of those as seen on tv things and it works, used it with a couple of drawer handles and some velcro strap to secure a seven foot tall kitty climber. Its held fast for almost a year now on the back porch which has elements. It totally works and is pretty much dyslexic proof. Not tha any one here is dyslexic or anything its just a figure of speech.

[adamek.livejournal.com]

IKEA has reasonably priced desks, here (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/workspaces/10707/). I live about four miles from the IKEA store in Stoughton, MA and will be headed up I-95 to see my parents in northern Maine in two weeks. Waterville's on the way. I could haul one or two IKEA flatpacks for you in exchange for signed copies of Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

snatched the words out of my keyboard. I just put together an IKEA basic type desk., no hutch, as my desk faces a door, but very sturdy and functional.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the offer! I think I'll go with the string-and-an-eyebolt solution for now.

IKEA must be an amazing place. I'll have to tour one, sometime...