Desk Craziness

Forgive me, but I am going to reuse a picture I posted yesterday.

Working from home has caused some desk setup questions that I didn’t want to deal with, but I think I finally have.

Prior to social distance I had two laptops on my desk in our home office.  I used my MacBook Pro along with a second monitor for all but the eight hours I was telecommuting on Thursdays.  While telecommuting, I switched to a second laptop, running Windows 10.  I used the same second monitor.  I have a 3-1 adapter that has a USB 2.0, HDMI, and USB C input into a single USB C plug.  I had my USB dock, my monitor, and my power all running into it.  When I switched from Mac to Windows I’d just pull the adapter out of one machine and plug it into the other.  Done.

Once the lockdown started I brought my work PC home from Waltham and used that instead of the Windows laptop.  I couldn’t use the same monitor cable for both machines, and the desktop doesn’t have a USB C port, so I was pulling plugs in and out twice a day.

On top of that, Jen and I are both working from home, both in the same room, and both having to join meetings at the same time.  To deal with this I moved my Windows laptop to our bedroom and jokingly called it the conference room.  At first I was using a dinner tray table as a desk, then I setup one of Jen’s old desks instead, and then Jen brought a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse out and turned the spot into an actual work station.

Yesterday Jen and I both had meetings scheduled for the better part of the day so I bit the bullet and moved my Waltham desktop into the bedroom and spent the whole day in there.  I was planning to move it back to the office this weekend, but instead I talked it over with Jen and we decided to keep a Windows desk in the bedroom and an Apple desk in the office.

Now I am a two desk crazy person.  Certifiably.

237/365

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The minute the lock down ends, my Waltham machine goes back to Waltham and I move all my stuff back to the office. This is temporary.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 22

We expanded our instacart experiment today by placing an order at BJ’s. Double entendre aside, the order consisted mainly of dry goods.  Garbage bags, kitty litter, stuff like that.  I selfishly and frivolously included a request for some wild bird seed.  Jen found one option on the website and we ran with it.

Had I noticed that it was actually a FORTY (40!!) POUND BAG I probably would have thought better of it.  As it is, now I have both bird feeders full, and enough left over to refill them probably three more times each.

Come on birds, the dinner bell is ringing!

In closing, here’s a picture of my cat…

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Empty

Patches’ food bowl was about 40% full, but there was one little spot where you could see all the way down to the bottom of the bowl.

Because of this, she’s been in a panic over her imminent starvation and has been sitting at my feet and meowing at about 98 decibels all afternoon.

I filled her bowl so now she’ll ignore me for a day or two. Cats… ya love ‘em, right?

Upgraded Again

Jen brought a whole bunch of stuff over to the conference call nook and upgraded it again.

233/365 - The updated conference call nook.

It needs one more change because the “o” key on that keyboard is wonky.  I’ll swap it out for the keyboard hidden off to the right at some point tonight.  I stole that headset from Jen because she wasn’t using it.  The postman just delivered another one.  Almost as soon as I stole it she decided she wanted it back but she was still nice enough to let me keep it.

I expect that I’ll be the one using this desk, but it’s just a laptop dock so Jen can use it if she needs it.  The kids too.  We’re all set up.