Dolorous Tuber

Moving madness continues... with Pocket of Bolts on crutches: a mystery foot ailment periodically brought on by something vaguely definable as "overdoing it". It is showing the four signs of inflammation (hot, red, painful, swollen), which I gloss as "cauldron of rhubarb and dolorous tuber." In fact, PoB's foot looks like a dolorous tuber. To his credit, he has done absolutely as much of the unpacking as he can while standing in one place and/or on one foot. But in an unfortunate role reversal, I have done most of the heavy lifting!

Also, as it happens, I have been going to work in my new office every day. I am excited and intimidated in equal parts. Classes start Monday...!

I am currently writing form the study in our new place. We had barely gone into it at all because it was so full of disorderly furniture and boxes still waiting to be unpacked. Last night PoB and I sat down and did a lot of measuring and head-scratching, trying to figure out how to fit all the furniture we want in here. So many constraints! One full wall of closets is all very well, but closet doors have to be able to open. One part of one wall is curved. The futon has to be able to open easily into a bed. The file drawers have to open. My desk is insanely long and big. The hermit crabs also need a place for their home.... etc. It took us all evening, but we finally got a configuration that's not only workable but cozy and pleasing.

Now I am dead tired and ready for bed. Will try to post pictures soon!

A Done Deal

Last night we slept at our new place for the first time. It was fantastic. There are small quirks and problems, but this just makes me all the more grateful for my handy husband, who has set to work right away. (He has already unclogged the garbage disposal, figured out how to work the built-in espresso machine, and was working on replacing the toilet seat when I left.) Now I am back at the old place to finish up the last bits of packing. Life is good. The actual move will be on Tuesday!

Summer All At Once

Apparently, Chicago is trying to cram two and a half months worth of heat and humidity into one weekend. Hitherto, we have had the coolest, most pleasant, moderate summer I have ever experienced. Now all of a sudden, 90 with 90% humidity, hotter tomorrow. We camped out in the bedroom most of the day (it has our one window-unit AC), with the rest of the time being spent in air-conditioned public spaces--the coffee shop, the community center. Boy the central air in that condo is going to be great.

In between bouts of more or less productive work time, we got into a long happy conversation about furniture upgrades--when, to what, etc. In the course of this, I decided we needed to measure how many books we have in linear feet. I reasoned that this would help us decide on what kind of bookshelves we'd need and where they could go and so on. In case anyone is curious, we have approximately 88 linear feet of books, of which I'm hoping 20-24 linear feet can be moved to my office. (Forgot to measure those bookshelves.) The wonderful built-in bookshelves we have now--on either side of the fireplace, so vintage-y!--hold a whopping 30 linear feet, for loss of which we're going to have to compensate. With the Ikea catalog and a lot of calculator work, we think we can do it affordably enough...!

A Note to Luddites

I went running today, in the rain. I don't go running too often, since I don't like it much, but I'm temporarily between gyms, and was feeling unusually virtuous. Anyway, I'm going along the lake-shore path and suddenly I see, oncoming, a guy with no legs. Running. Fast. I mean, the guy did not even have any knees. He had an impressive pair of prosthetics with curious, long, flexible feet. His gate was slightly odd but he didn't seem in the slightest danger of falling. And as I said, he was very fast. (Faster than me.) I mean, and it was even raining and everything. He also looked really happy. It was one of more inspiring sights I have ever seen.

So here's the thing. You can say that technology has its dark side. You can even say that medical technology may have its dark side. But this guy's legs? That's the bright side, and the existence of things like that, which give a guy that kind of freedom--I guess I just think it's worth a lot.