Progress: Part 1

My desk can usually be best described as "chaotic." It's a flat surface, and I've long said I'm genetically incapable of maintaining clean, flat surfaces. Paper accumulates. Paper that need handling -- rebates to send in by some certain date that's too often missed, project schedules, receipts, boarding passes, business cards, printed copies of client changes, layouts, articles, and more. And paper that should have just gone into the recycling bin in the first place, though most of the paper on my desk at any given time is paper of interest, with intentions of further action.

Every so often, about once a year or so, the chaos on my desk swells. The piles grow taller and more intermingled. Nearby clean, flat surfaces such as other chairs and the floor begin accumulating bags, boxes, and kipple that would topple the pile on the desk. I'm outside my comfort zone, but that's usually followed by several weeks of "I need to clean my desk" thinking. Then there comes the week where pretty much every day I think I'm going to clean my desk that very day. Other stuff happens and the chaos continues...until I finally clean the desk.

This was that week. Today is finally that day. I'm about halfway through the task. I've been through everything to the left of my computer, and the keyboard shelf, too. There's still a bit of paper, but I can see plenty of clean, flat desk surface, too. The chair on the right is mostly clear, and the floor next to my desk no longer has two backpacks and one canvas bag laying on it.

Now for the rest of the desk...and the rest of the office!

Okay, I'm impressed

The weather has been remarkably pleasant for the last couple of days. I heard of heavy rain and a tornado warning down in New Jersey on Friday afternoon, but it seemed unlikely that harsh weather would hit here.

As I was finishing my desk-cleaning post, an exceptionally strong wind came roaring down my driveway. The Zeppelin Hangar is protected, down in a hollow. The wind doesn't roar much around here. I don't remember hearing anything like this before. Very sudden, very strong.

I closed my office window and walked quickly to the back deck where I'd left the patio furniture uncovered this week. The wind was still roaring, carrying lots of leaves and debris in its fury. It's a good thing the vinyl cover was near at hand -- right behind the wind was rain.

Back inside, I checked the weather forecast. The "partly cloudy" pictures were topped by a ( severe weather warning )

Here's the part that really impressed me:

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE NEAR...
WARREN...BRIMFIELD AND STAFFORD BY 1135 PM EDT...
WEST BROOKFIELD AND WALES BY 1140 PM EDT...

The wind came through right about 11:30; it was raining by the time I saw the warning at 11:41. Doppler radar certainly nailed that one! The storm line has got to be interesting -- Brimfield is north of Wales; Stafford is directly south.

Back to the desk cleaning for real now.