TheBanyanTree: Out with the old

[JMoney]

When we came home from our holiday to Singapore last January one of the
first things I noticed was that "someone" (not mentioning any names,
pointing, whistling or stamping feet) had left the airconditioner on in this
room even though there's really nothing in here that any "someones" are
allowed to use.  This is MY space and MY computer equipment.  Of course my
husband gets spousal privileges, but sons?  No, no, no.  A thousand times
no.  They can wreck their own system with cranky downloaded games,
screensavers and music.  And then they can pay to get it fixed.  But I want
my system working.

So that was the first thing.  The second thing was the waste of power (and,
by extension, money) due to airconditioning an uninhabited room for many
hours.  The third thing was a problem with the airconditioner itself.  It's
a split system and every six to 12 months (depending on how good a job the
last maintenance fellow did) a drainage tray in the inside housing gets
blocked.  Water that would otherwise be discharged outside remains inside.
It leaks out of the machine into a large vase that I keep under the usual
leaking point so that I will hear (and catch) any dripping and can turn the
thing off before too much mess is made.   Unfortunately, during its
period of extended, unwatched operation, an overflow occurred.

The fourth thing was the placement of the desk on which sits the box,
printer and scanner.  Because of the size and shape of this desk it sits
directly beneath the airconditioner.  Thus the leaking water dripped down
onto the desk where it splashed and splattered all the electrical equipment
and then made its way to the floor where it accumulated to the extent that I
know now the floor is not level.  The corner where I am now sitting was
under a good inch and a half of water while the rest of the floor was fairly
dry.

The fifth thing was that the desk (which we salvaged from our business
premises down in Wollongong) is standard cheapish office furniture.  That
is, it's made of grey laminated particle board and has edges trimmed with a
flexible strip of darker grey T-shaped vinyl.  Prior to our homecoming that
day I had no idea that the strip was T-shaped but now it's easy to see
because the joint between the laminex and the strip obviously was never
glued, sealed or otherwise water-proofed.

The water got in.  The particle board soaked it up and swelled.  The laminex
cracked.  The vinyl strip fell out.  It hangs from its still attached ends
like a very wide smile and the groove that was milled to accommodate the
protuding part of the vinyl strip is in plain view.

As it dried out the desk developed a distinct, but fairly minor, sag in the
middle and the drawers now hang skewwhiff.  They still slide in and out
without difficulty so the whole set up is still usable (though I wouldn't
stand on the desk again as I have done in the past) and I have used it, as
is, for the last eleven months.  But it looks sooo shabby!  And I'm so tired
of shabby.  I don't mind old (and this desk is certainly that - we bought it
about 18 years ago) but I really hate shabby.

So today (now that I've cleared up all the piles of stuff that were on top
of it, and on the floor and everywhere else anything could be put) I went
out and bought a new one.  It's laminated particle board too because I'm not
a high flying corporate executive with a bundle of company money to spend on
tarting up my work space with gleaming genuine wood, glass and leather.
But, ha, ha!  I bought a desk that would fit along the wall under the
window.  In future there will be nothing but floor underneath the leaky part
of the airconditioner.  My peripherals will be safe (unless a cyclone comes,
flying debris smashes the window and water gets in that way).  Furthermore,
when I sit down to work I will be facing the door and no one will be able to
sneak up behind me and scare me nearly to death just by saying hello.  And
I'll be able to look out the window without risking a wry neck.  Lovely.

Janice