Back to the basement....

This is a picture of my office mid-book. Those are some of my covers on the wall, along with my university diploma, which clearly was not for keeping a tidy office. But you should have seen it when it was a mess and was still in its original 50's era state, with the charming cheap wood paneling. A few years after I sold, we (and by we, I mean a contractor), ripped the room apart and redid it, including upgrading the wiring.

However, one thing remained unchanged. There's no window in that room.

After working window-less for several years, I had the brilliant idea to create the Franken-computer, using the computer tower from my son's old computer, the keyboard from another old computer, and a new flat monitor and to put it in the living room, which has a window -- and how! It's six feet by twelve feet. Kinda like living in a fishbowl if the sheers are open.

Nirvana -- until my daughter pointed out that I'd originally moved the desk into the living room so that she could work on her laptop there. Also, the desk is, well, small. Nothing like the arrangement in the office. Also, I prefer silence when I work, yet I had moved myself into the house equivalent of Grand Central Station.

But I had a window! A honkin' big window.

Still, and although Daughter is not one to whine or complain, I felt bad when she was sitting with her laptop on her lap, writing an essay with her papers on the sofa beside her. And the desk really was too small. As you can see in that picture, I tend to have a lot of notes, etc. around me when I'm writing. And it really was like trying to write in Central Command.

So yesterday, the Franken-computer was installed in the office, to the right of the computer in that picture, which is an IBM Ambra with Windows 95 (ie an antique). That we still use, and that, in fact, I must print from, because the Franken-computer is not hooked up to the printer. Hopefully this will change soon, but first, we have to figure out what we need from the Ambra.

I don't think I'll be doing that until the book is done. At least now, although I don't have a window, I just have to swivel in my chair from one computer to the other to print.