The power of red

[gerisullivan]

After two weeks of pretty much camping out (well, indoors) here at Toad Woods, I continue to say, with utter pleasure, "I like it here. I like it here a lot."

The correct desk was finally delivered today and the wrong desk taken away. It was a case of the manufacturer changing a couple of features that were important to me. So I ended up with the showroom model, and another $100 off the price. That works rather well with my budget, and I'm thinking favorable thoughts toward Raymour and Flanigan. If the budget permits while the furniture is still in stock, I'll likely return there for a dinette table and chairs. This set, to be specific.

They don't have the desk in their online catalog, but this mule dresser and this sofa table, which I am using as a desk return will give you an idea of the style. The mule is my answer to needing lots of storage space for software and data CDs, paper, and office supplies while helping the room look at least somewhat home like as it's in a very public area of my house.

I decided to use the garage loft as a getaway office/reading room/quiet space instead of having it be my main office. I didn't want the expense of cooling it in the summer and heating it in the winter that making it my primary office would have entailed. It also would have needed some increased support and electrical work to be my primary office, both of which I'd rather hold off on for the time being.

In the last week, I've obtained Massachusetts car insurance, license plates, car inspection sticker, and driver's license. My 7MPLS3 vanity license plates expire at the end of May, and I have just notified the Department of Public Safety that the car is no longer registered there. From my reading of the rules, I could only transfer the 7MPLS3 plates to another vehicle I owned, so I expect they will soon be available should anyone else in Minnesota want them. Alas, I'm not getting vanity plates here -- there's a $50 annual fee rather than a one-time $100 fee plus $14 every 7 years for their replacement. Given that I had the Minnesota plates for about 18 years (and I only paid the replacement fee once since it's a more recent invention), the annualized cost of the plates was a bit under $6.50. They were well worth that to me, but my current budget doesn't support 7.5 times more than that, even if it does work out to less than $5/month.

As for the power of red, this week's progress also included the purchase of a *shiny* red Bissell vacuum cleaner, a not-quite-as-shiny red Craftsman lawn mower, and a red, metal wheelbarrow. Only mine came already assembled, and was accompanied by the discovery of the nearest real hardware store and lumberyard. It's been a couple of powerfully red days.

In the case of the wheelbarrow, I provide the power. My daily exercise routine has expanded to include moving at least two wheelbarrow loads of driveway sand from the bottom of the hill, where it's washed down to, back up to the middle part of the hill, where it's washed away from. I somehow suspect the need for this will be continuous, unlike the first part of my daily exercise routine, which involves carrying at least two rocks up the hill from the rock pile to the pond. I'm using them to further cover the edge of the pond liner, of which there are some 40 rocks fewer square feet now showing than there were when I moved in. Eventually, the rock pile will be depleted and the liner will be adequately obscured by rocks.

burningriver was here for most of this week, which was both lovely and helpful indeed. We finished lining the kitchen shelves, stripped wallpaper from the stairwell, retrieved Baskerville from the kennel, shopped for powerful red things, and enjoyed having non-convention time to hang out with each other and catch up on life du jour and All That Jazz. We got a lot done, but the visit was much more relaxed than the chaos of getting me out of Toad Hall last December, which she also helped with, along with minnehahaK, mks, and many additional friends.

The moving truck arrives on Tuesday and brings with it the rediscovery of My Stuff. I started packing last August, and finished in December. I also got rid of a lot, so the question of what I have is non-trivial, as is the question of where to put it all.

Onward! And All That Jazz....

Thanks for all of your journal updates -- they're helping me stay connected with very important parts of my world. Please -- keep 'em coming!

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I have no idea where the terms "mule dresser" and "mule chest" came from. There's a yarn-spinning mule, and the animals, and shoes, and poor, female drug runners...according to the online dictionaries I found, anyway. There's a picture of a Flemish chest built in 1704 that is cited for its "large mule feet" and several different-though-similar styles of dressers and chests that have "mule" in their names, but the online furniture dictionary doesn't recognize the word. I'd never heard of it before I saw it on the tag of the furniture I bought.

Curious, isn't it?