Procrastination Station

I really put off repairing the winter coat an elderly neighbor asked me to fix (along with three laundry baskets of other complicated mending) because I really didn't think the jacket could be salvaged. She had a deadline, too. She needed it by Wednesday. I wouldn't have done a repair like this for me. I would have just bought a new coat.

I found a similar coat on Amazon and prayed about buying that for her instead of fixing the old one. It could have been delivered the next day. My answer was that buying a new coat would be okay, but I should try to repair the old one first. That answer was a pretty hard pill for me to swallow because so many time sacrifices would be required in order to finish on time, but I understood. This neighbor had a house fire several years ago and lost almost everything. Much of the mending in the laundry baskets still has that smoky smell that just never washes away.

I understand there is sentimental value that just can't be replaced, especially after such devastating loss. I sat down to pin and smooth, pin and smooth, pin and smooth, then pin and smooth some more, before hand-stitching the extensive patching and seam repairing on the inside and then carefully machine-stitching the damage to the outside pocket. When the hours-long project was finally done, I had more than just a huge sigh of relief. I felt so good for doing what she'd asked, and she was thrilled with the results. She thinks I can fix anything. I know it's not me. I had some Heavenly Help. Even if it was just my attitude that needed all the help I could get, this was not a task I could have pulled off on my own.

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Emptiness

Twenty-nine years and two weeks and six days ago ago, I took up 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. M-F residence in a hole in the wall not much bigger than a closet to serve my employer as a proofreader. Three or so years later, I moved up the corporate ladder and became an administrative assistant - or secretary - for the first time in my life. In 2003, we (my employer and co-workers) moved two buildings down and six floors higher. Ten years later, my department moved up one floor.

My Silver Anniversary

In December of 2019, I began working from home while Lizard was recovering from surgery. Four months later, the world joined me in Sheltering in Place, Safer at Home.

Sometime in 2022, I was able to go back into the office two or three hours a week, a schedule I would not mind at all if it weren't for the traffic.

And last week, I spent my last three hours in the "old" office we had occupied for 20 years. My floor was the last to be decommissioned. Our new building won't be ready for several weeks. Everyone is working remotely again, just like back in 2020, except now we don't have to treat everyone as if they have cooties.

In corporate world of 10-year leases, I've seen so many changes. From rotary phones, weeklong postal delivery (and photographic film processing), carbon copies, mimeograph copies, Liquid White, shorthand, and manual typewriters to facsimiles, "bat phones", delivery tracking, overnight delivery, digital photography, zerography, electronic document signing, email, and now, Zoom.

The general manager of the office where I work emailed an hour before we vacated the building, asking if I had good photos of us using the building for memorable events. A memory-filled farewell email was being planned. I went through four (personal) external hard drives, two of which no longer work, and found a handful of digital photos I thought might be suitable. Five were used in that final email. The general manager thanked me. And now, we wait for our new digs.

Twenty years is a long time to be in one building. Two decades of a way of life, and now, everything will change again in six to eight weeks. I don't know yet what to expect from the new location, except that I won't have as much file space. Much of the stuff I brought home won't be going back to the office. I'm thinking I should treat the new building as temporary so I won't have so much to remove and discard next time. But I'm also kind of hoping there won't be a next time... Three office moves in 29 years (and six office moves in 37 years) is more than enough for me!

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9 to 5

I recently returned to the office for the first time in 15 months.

I took my crochet bag but didn't have time to get into it. I didn't take public transportation. I drove. I had to take in a big box of stuff I couldn't have carried on the train. And I'm not quite sure how I feel yet about riding public transportation again. I guess I'm not quite ready for that.

It's pretty amazing how easy cleaning is when you haven't seen things for 15 months. If I didn't need it for 15 months, I can go without. I filled a recycle bin with accumulated junk mail, old paperwork and drawer contents. I wasn't the only one! There were recycle bins placed throughout the floor, and all of them were receiving unhealthy meal proportions!

Back in March of 2020, I thought I'd be working from home for two weeks. So I didn't bother to take my plants home. My little lemon tree (and the lemon seeds I started for co-workers) fried in the office heat of last summer. I think computer rooms were the only locations air conditioning was used to save energy and cut costs.

During our Safer at Home time, I started a new set of lemon seeds at home, and they are doing quite well now! They just got to go back outside for summer a few days ago!

I fully expected all my plants at work would be dead. One of my (essential) co-workers, who was allowed to begin going into the office a couple of hours once each week a full two months after the nightmare of 2020 began took pity on my one surviving plant. She has nursed it along for an entire year now. And this is what I found on my desk when I returned for the first time.

Friends are priceless.

I don't know that things will ever again be the way they were 16 months ago. Some things were good to lose. Other losses forced us to appreciate what we have. What we have now is better than what we had during the darkest parts of 2020.

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We Get By...

We couldn't stay at my company party in 2017, before we knew about Lizard's Parkinson's, because he was too overwhelmed by the crowd. We didn't even try the last two years because he was so miserable. This year, the gathering was virtual. The office manager thought it would be cool to bring us all together in a virtual performance of an old Beatles classic because we got through 2020 literally helping each other.

It was kind of fun! I would do this again!

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Standing for Everything

I've been using a standing desk at work since my bike wreck back in 2012. I created a makeshift platform of unopened reams of paper back then. I didn't find out until about three months after my wreck that I broke more than my right wrist. I'd crushed a disk in my back, too, but it took the pain of Ride the Rockies for me to realize I needed another set of x-rays.

By 2013, my bosses recognized that I was much more comfortable and productive when standing, compared to sitting, and bought me a first-rate standing desk for Christmas.

I've spent about half of my work hours since that time standing and the other half sitting. In a typical day, I will sit for about an hour, then stand for about an hour. Sometimes I can stand longer, and sometimes I can sit longer. It's been much better than sitting all day.

I think my standing desk also enabled me to get stronger on my bike because my back isn't nearly as bad as it was in 2012 or for the three years after emergency back surgery in 2004, which kick-started my back discomfort.

Last year, my world changed again when elbow pain was diagnosed as collapsed neck disks. Now, not only sitting, but mousing was excruciating!!!

More desk adjustments came. I got a padded mouse pad and an ergonomic mouse for both home and work. I had to draw upon neck traction for months.

Things are much better now, but computer mousing for extended projects still is a literal pain in the neck. And elbow...

After two sets of family portraits this fall and a renewed bout of sciatic pain, I decided I needed a standing desk at home. When I ordered the desk on Amazon, the typical "you might be interested in this, too" suggestive sell ploy revealed a series of standing desk foot pads. I have never tried one of those, so I read reviews and checked around with co-workers who have converted to standing desks after my success. I went ahead and ordered an uneven gel standing pad designed to enable longer periods of standing.

Two days later, my standing desk was on my porch waiting for me when I got off work. I had imagined setting it up on my old sewing machine desk (because I've been sewing on the dining room table for two or three years now). I did not think to measure the desk, which I've had since I was about 16 years old. It is about four inches too narrow for the standing desk. So I used the cardboard box the standing desk came in to prop up the standing desk on my old sewing desk. I couldn't put a lot of weight on my laptop without crushing the box, and it wasn't the most steady foundation I've ever used, but it would work until I could figure out something else.

The next day, my standing pad was on my porch waiting for me when I got off work. I didn't have to adjust anything to begin using it. After just one night of typing in my journal with the new (wobbly) standing desk and the new standing pad, I was hooked, and I immediately ordered another identical standing pad for work.

I asked Lizard if he could cut me a piece of plywood to serve as the standing desk base on top of my sewing desk, and he took care of that the following weekend.

I can stand for hours while working on my laptop now! Between the solid foundation, the comfortable computer position and the awesome standing pad, I no longer have to sit to type at home. I LOVE IT!!!

I told Lizard I might have to get another full-size standing desk for my sewing machine now. Plus the standing pad...

I know, the last thing on earth anyone wants to do is have a reason to spend even more time on a computer, but Photoshopping is once again a joy for me, and I hope to show some beautiful proof soon!

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