Campbell River

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A New Desk and a Place to Sit

My desk was fine while I was only doing a little work from home, but its lack of ergonomics was starting to get to me. I also learned that the importance of drawers should not be underestimated. So, I started to troll Craigslist for a desk. It had to fit under the window within the bumpout, be reasonably lightweight, have at least three drawers, be cheap, and be attractive enough to not drive me nuts until I got around the refinishing it.

Yesterday, I found it. Perfect doesn’t begin to describe it. It looks like it was a Glendale option for the back room, it so matches the style of the rig!

Don’t mind the rat’s nest of wires, I have a plan for dealing with them. šŸ™‚

I believe this was originally meant to be a child’s desk, judging from the low height of the keyboard tray, which I won’t be using. It was priced at $45, but my offer of $30 was accepted.

I have, for now, put the little bookcase next to the desk, but I’m not sure if it will stay there. I would love to leave it there with the printer on top, but I don’t know yet if I’ll be able to secure the printer. It is so heavy that it has never once moved from its perch on a piece of non-skid material at the end of the bed, but it would be just my luck to have it fall now.

The seller is downsizing to a smaller house and had a lot of things for sale. Something told me to go dig through her garage where I found this:

(I just noticed Neelix scoping out his new sleeping spot, LOL!)

It’s exactly what I was looking for! The chair is of high quality–solid metal joints and covered with genuine leather, but the fabric frame is falling apart and the whole thing looks hideous and worn. I convinced the seller to let me have it for $15, calculating that a can of spray paint and new cloth-backed vinyl would cost me less than $50 (I already have some foam that would be perfect for the padding). I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it pretty or not, but it will be a good project and not too expensive of an experiment. I would probably paint the metal frame dark brown and then recover the chair in blue vinyl.

(Neelix has given the chair his seal of approval!)

Here is photographic proof of why hatchbacks rock:

I got the desk, chair, and stool in the car and still managed to close all the doors. The seller suggested I come back for the chair, but I know that when you get a good deal you should run with it. Someone else could have come by after me and countered with more money.

I have lots of work to do in the study and the new desk is going to help immensely. I will have to secure it first using a few brackets screwed into the wall; all the drawers will need is a simple stick down through the pulls. I have to decide how I’m going to manage my wires and peripherals so that I don’t have to put everything away when I’m stopped and that will most likely involve moving the very badly located plug. I’ve been given instructions on how to do so, but playing with electricity always makes me nervous. šŸ™‚

When I planned the renos for this winter, I would never have thought that I would pull out of Campbell River with all the furnishings and goodies I wanted, so I guess some things are just meant to be!

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Intangible Results

You know all that little stuff that doesn’t get done because you ‘have more important things to do’? Well, today was time for me to start on that little stuff. I feel like I got absolutely nothing done today and, yet, I scratched quite a few things off my giant to-do list.

The biggest victory was the stupid catch for the over-fridge cabinet. I can’t even begin to calculate how much time I have spent on this thing. No matter how carefully I measured, I could never get the door and cabinet pieces to line up. Add to that having to work with my arms above my body and it has been a hard job that slowly morphed into a nightmare. This catch problem was starting to keep me up at night. It was such a small thing and yet it had completely defeated me. Tonight, I had an epiphany. I inserted the door piece into the cabinet piece and smeared it with glue. I then shut the door and pressed tightly. The result was a perfect impression of exactly where I should screw in the piece. I don’t know why it takes me so long to come up with ideas like that. šŸ™

Another thing I did was finish two sides of the dishwasher cabinet. The third side, that of the library still requires some fine-tuning and thinking about.

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While digging through the dregs of the scrap pile I found a small piece of solid wood that would look much nicer for the top of the kitchen-side cabinet. I used the plywood piece as a pattern, cut out the top, sanded it, and installed it from under the counter using straight brackets. I also found a piece of oak-type trim that perfectly matched my counters that I used to hide my imperfect cutting along the back of the piece. Looks MUCH better than did the plywood!

I had to do some fine-tuning of the door on the kitchen side, but now it’s done. I’m not 100% happy with it, of course, but it looks a million times better than I would have expected it would.

I also added trim to the side of the cabinet we see from the entry door. It beefs it up a bit, I think.

Finally, I spent an hour today hauling some furniture I found on Craigslist. That will be a the subject of tomorrow’s post. šŸ˜€

Floor trim notwithstanding, the kitchen, *gulp*, is done for this phase of the renos!

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Internet Independence?

IĀ  visit Craigslist almost every day, looking for good deals on items on my wish list. This week, something caught my eye and I followed up on it.

I don’t like contracts because life is unpredictable, but I decided to bend my own rule and take over someone else’s Telus mobile internet contract for a seven month duration in exchange for a free Sierra Wireless 306 Mobile Internet Key.

Sierra 306 Wireless Mobile Internet Key

My initial contact with Telus makes me believe this contract takeover will be a good deal for me since, for a small fee, I can stop it over the summer and restart it in the fall (which would extend the contract into 2011). Telus is the main wireless provider in BC, meaning that so long as I stick to the main roads, ie. the Alaska Highway, I could have internet access most of the way to Whitehorse and back south.

The key alone is worth over $200 and was my biggest obstacle to signing up for such a service since I didn’t want to lock myself into a contract in order to finance the purchase of the key. The plans aren’t cheap, starting at $30 (plus taxes and network fees, of course) for a mere 500mb, up to $65 (plus taxes and network fees) for 5GB. Telus says that I can sign up for a cheap plan and move up to another plan once per billing period if I think I will be going overboard. For May, I will sign on for the $40 1GB plan and see how far that takes me.

I won’t be excited about this purchase until I am parked in a Walmart parking lot or a highway turnout and able to post to the blog, but I can feel the potential of this breakthrough bubbling deep inside me.

Now, I just need to decide on how I’m going to get online in Dawson. One step at a time!

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Making Lists and Plans

I’m starting to feel a bit overwhelmed about everything that still needs to be done by April 30th, so I made myself a list. It is… extensive. I then colour coded it in red, yellow, and green. The red tasks are the big jobs that will require a lot of time and effort. The yellow jobs are little annoying things I need to do that will require some effort and time. The green jobs are easy little projects. I think that having this list is going to help me stay on track and finish up everything without losing my mind as well as make better use of the days when I’m at work.

I knew the list will help for sure when I finished it and promptly got up to complete one of my green tasks!

Even though I have had no reason whatsoever not to trust the glue holding the new shelf in the toilet room, I just couldn’t bring myself to risk a crash. So, I installed four angle brackets with teeny screws. Such a small thing and took only two minutes!

Another list I’m working on is what groceries and supplies I should be stocking up on when I get to Whitehorse. While IĀ  do hope to squeeze in a run back there mid-summer to replenish my supplies,Ā  I’d like to get to Dawson with a fuller larder than I did last year since I hadn’t anticipated spending the whole summer there! I have access to a large freezer in Dawson, so buying things that can later be frozen is a possibility. It can be nice to head into the known!

The final list is what I want to do and see on the trip I’ll be taking ‘down Island’ from April 13 through to the 16th. Taking a weekend off is going to force me to get a lot done this coming weekend and give me a chance to unwind a bit. Yes! There is more tourism to come during the Great Renovation Winter! šŸ˜€

Notice has been given at work and my last day at the gas station will be April 28th. Thirteen shifts (107.25 hours) left!

I’ve made my spending plan up to July, with projections straight through to November, and barring any disasters, I will have a reasonably stress-free return to Dawson City. If the weather is good and I can shoot straight north, I may even be able to squeeze in a detour or two. Unlike last year, I don’t plan to dawdle between the Lower Mainland and Prince George but rather get as far north as quickly as possible, weather-depending, so I can see a bit more of the Yukon this year than I did last year.

I’ve had reports from Dawson that spring is coming very early this year and if the trend holds, I may decide to do something impossibly bold and arrive in Dawson from the west, via the Top of the World Highway, so as to see southwest Yukon and spend some time in Alaska. Having driven the TotWH I feel that I could do it with Miranda and the toad so long as the conditions are reasonable. This is a decision I won’t be making until I get to Whitehorse.

As for the whole Cassiar vs. Alaska Highway debate I’ve been having with myself, it’ll depend on the answer I get about something that could give me more internet independence than I would have expected to get this spring.

There’s lots going on and April is going to be a whirlwind of activity!

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Drew Barrymore’s RV Trip

Croft ‘Roof Ripper’ Randle won’t feel so bad about his RV misadventures when he hears Drew Barrymore’s harrowing tale of RVing across the US of A:

As I side note, I was coming out of the Max Factor building in LA, which houses the Hollywood History Museum, when I ran into a tiny woman who looked extremely familiar. I apologized and she said “No worries, I was daydreaming!” No fewer than four witnesses came up to me to say “Do you realise that was Drew Barrymore?!”

After this clip, I believe it!