New Desk Chair

It seems like a good time to acquire a good used desk chair, as the economy slows down and the demand for them dwindles. I got this Steelcase "Leap"at ABE in El Monte, CA for $200. It was made in 2001, but it looks and feels as good as new. 

I love this thing. My old desk chair was also a Steelcase, which I bought used in the mid 1990s. It was still in great shape, but it had no arm rests, and not very many adjustments. I had trouble working at my computer for very long because I would start getting a lot of old-man aches in a very short time. Now, I hope I'll be able to stick to more of the desk tasks I'd like to get accomplished at home in the evenings.

I looked at a very simple Herman Miller chair at Costco earlier this week for $300. I'm sure it was well made, but comparatively, it seemed like a box-kite next to my new (slightly-used) Blackhawk helicopter.

I'm thinking that if you spend a lot of time in your desk chair, the money you spend to buy a good one is one of the best investments you can make, and it's a buyer's market for used desk chairs right now.

It has lots of adjustments to make it fit the owner, and even a mini user-guide beneath the arm-rests, so you don't have try several different controls to find the one you want.

Smoky Skies over Beautiful Southern California

Empty Doorway

A few weeks ago while we were on vacation, Socks stepped out and never came home.

Although neither Sandy nor I are really enthusiastic pet owners, we both missed him and kept thinking we heard or saw him, and both of us dreamed several times that he came home. Aside from our efforts to provide acceptable provisions, and to aid in his quest for the right side of every door, there were several regularly ocurring ritual events that were part of the normal week, and the loss of each of them struck me several times. Here are a few that stand out now.

He had the particularly annoying habit of walking out to greet us when we were pulling up in the driveway, and then casually sauntering into, and around in, the path of the car so we would have to sit and wait for him to get good and ready to move his hairy butt out of the way so we could park the car and get out.

On trash day, each time I returned from wheeling one of the containers out to the street, he would walk directly into my path so I could bend over and pay his road toll of a few strokes long his back.

When I went out to mow the lawn, he loved to assist me by sleeping where I had not yet mowed, and if promped to move, he would begrudgingly relocate - but only to another un-mowed spot.

Socks wasn't very playful in his old age, but he seemed to enjoy our company. He liked to be with us, but of course he maintained an air of indifference. I remember how he followed Ellen around when she came to visit, but always seemed to be looking at something else, and if Sandy and I took a blanket or some chairs out on the lawn under the tree, he would inevitably end up close by, and then turn his back to us. We never were sure if this was to clarify our status, or to do his part to provide for the common good - facing out from the center of the group to keep watch for any neighborhood threats that might approach from his side .

Gateway Monitor Trouble

Grandma Charlotte's 14-month old Gateway FPD2185W monitor stopped working a couple of weeks ago. A helpful fellow on the Internet said that we might get results by replacing these 8 green capacitors, so I gave it a try, and it worked! He's a genius!

The new capacitors:

Radio Shack Part number 272-1030. ( I had to drive to 3 different Radio Shacks to find 8).

Banished capacitors:

Spring in the back yard.

Guarding Her Eggs

Early Morning Decorations

As toilet-paper decorations go, this is the best I've seen. The individual strands were swaying together very softly on a light breeze, and the lighting gave the whole scene an eerie effect that made me forget it was vandalism.

Grandchildren!

..more Grandchildren!

...still more Grandchildren!