Readers who have been following the blog for a while may remember that last year in January I posted about the death of my betta Moonfire and how his passing encouraged me to rearrange my office where I do most of my writing. This #writerlife101 post seems the perfect opportunity to show the most recent rearrangement although it came at the behest of another unfortunate incident.
To begin, I must tell you that last week I was struck down with a terrible stomach bug and missed a week of work. While one is not normally grateful for getting ill, in this instance it turned out to be a blessing. My being homesick meant I was there to notice when Andy wasn’t behaving like his normal self. Further, it meant that when the problem got worse the following morning and he wouldn’t even attempt to play with his monkey toy, I was available to take him straight to the vet.
Unfortunately, at the vet, I learned that my little guy had somehow developed three compressed discs in his back that were causing him a good deal of pain. How this happened is unclear. He may have injured himself somehow, or he may be the victim of genetics as he’s 3/4 Shih Tzu and this is apparently a common problem in that breed. Nonetheless, I was there to care for him and see him through the first few days without worrying myself sick at work.
In the event this does turn out to be an issue of genetics, I decided it would behoove me to do a bit of rearranging in the house so as to discourage as much as possible high jumps on and off of furniture. While I was rearranging I decided to relocate my office at the same time.
My former office
Previously, my office was located in a little nook of the house situated between the kitchen and the mudroom. I like the natural light and the view from that nook but there were issues with it. Foremost, I had recently discovered that the nook has no heating vents, thus explaining why it gets incredibly cold during the winter time. This, as you can imagine, rather discourages writing productivity and was something that needed to be addressed.
Rather than spend a fortune in electricity trying to spot heat a poorly insulated nook on one side of the house I decided instead to relocate to the spare bedroom, which happens to be the best-regulated room in the house temperature wise.
There are many advantages to the new office space. Andy likes it better for sleeping at my feet while I write. The new window provides a nice view of the bird feeders in the front yard. Most importantly of all, I’m much more comfortable spending a lot of time in there and can get much more done. You can see the results of these efforts below.
