Saturn is a tough taskmaster, and when that planet is present in your chart by transit it's a good idea to be thorough and organized and patient. Some days you need more thoroughness, organizational skills, and patience than others to carry the weight of that Saturn transit.....On Saturday we bought a desk, a very nice, all-but-new office model from a business that closed, for a mere $20 (what a deal!). This was purchased so that my beloved would have a more substantial place for his computer. We put aside an hour to move it on Sunday morning. "This will go in through the back door", sez Jamie.
So, we attempt to bring it through the back door...we lift the 150 lb desk out of the truck, up the back stairs, across the deck, to the door.
It won't fit through the door.
Ok. Go to plan B. We carry the 200 lb desk back down the stairs, load it back in the truck, and drive it to the front door. Using the front door means we have to move the computer and the file cabinets Jamie used for a computer desk, away from the doorway, so the door will open all the way. We move all that stuff that weighs several hundred pounds...or so. Then Jamie insists on shoveling a few feet of snow off the front steps and deck.
Did I mention it was about 5 degrees and windy that day? And that we hadn't shoveled earlier because the snow was safer to walk on than the layer of ice beneath?
Then we lift the 250 lb desk out of the truck and carry it up the front stairs, v-e-r-y slowly over the ice.
Hurray, the 300 lb. desk is now IN the house.
Next, I want to put it in middle bedroom, so I can work in peace. The plan is to let Jamie use the big, HEAVY desk in our bedroom, since we don't want to move that monstrous thing, get rid of his makeshift file cabinet computer stand, and place the new desk in a more private spot.
Jamie sez, "Let's move it to the front bedroom then both beds can go in the
middle bedroom, and you will have an entire room for an office."
"Nah", Bette sez, "I don't think it will fit thru that hallway to get into
front bedroom, and the 200 lb trestle table that I want
to use for layouts is already in the middle bedroom. That trestle table is
heavy. We don't want to move that, too. Anyway, I measured and my old heavy
desk would fit in there perfectly."
Jamie sez, "Ok, whatever you want."
We carry the 350 lb. desk to the middle bedroom.
The new desk doesn't fit. It is much longer than that other HEAVY desk that we didn't want to move. We measure. We plan. No, we don't want to move the HEAVY desk. No, there is no way to have both the new desk and the trestle table in that room unless we remove the bed. No, we can't fit both double beds in the front bedroom.
We have now spent 2 1/2 hours moving the desk, and take a break for lunch.
Again, Jamie sez, "Let's move it to the front bedroom then both beds can go
in the middle bedroom, and you will have an entire room for an office."
Bette sez, again, "I don't think it will fit thru that hallway."
"Sure it will...just watch." sez Jamie.
Bette sez, "Ok, whatever you want."
We lift the 400 lb desk and try to make it fit thru the door that's too
small. It jams in the turn in the hallway.We angle it. We twist it. It
begins to tear a hole in the wall. It won't fit. We lay it down on the
floor. We try unscrewing the thing. It appears to be glued together. It
won't unscrew.
We scrutinize the front bedroom window. We measure. We plan. We are sure we can make this idea work. We lift the 450 lb desk, carry it back down the front steps, load it back in the truck, and drive around near the window of the front bedroom. Jamie goes to the barn for the clippers and trims the forsythia beneath the window.
First, however, to move the desk in through the window, we have to clear a space in the front bedroom so we can manuever. We take the bed apart and move it. It only weighs about 200 lbs....or so. We move all the books out of the 4' x 8' bookcase so we can push it out of the way. The books only weigh a few hundred pounds....or so. Behind the bookcase and under the bed we find evidence of Jamie's daughters' recent 5 month visit, including some things we are afraid to examine too closely without surgical gloves. We get out the vacuum cleaner. The vacumn cleaner clogs.
We spend twenty minutes taking apart the vacumn cleaner, and removing the obstruction.We spend almost an hour putting it back together, since it is an ultra modern, lightweight, compact, state-of-the-art model.
Finally. We are ready. We go out to unload the desk from the truck once more. We look towards the barn. Something looks different. We look more closely. We squint. We peer. Two horses are gazing at us from inside the part of the barn where we store the feed. It seems that Jamie left a latch open when he got the clippers.
Did I tell you that by now it was snowing, and blowing harder, with a wind chill factor of -10?
We trudge to the barn. The horses had a wonderful feast while we were moving furniture, and had torn apart several bales of hay, scattered them, and left enormous piles of droppings. We clean up the mess, fill up the wheelbarrow, dump it, and since it is almost dark we feed the horses what is left of their evening meal. We trudge back.
Finally. NOW, we are ready. We return to the truck. We lift the 500 lb desk out of the truck, up in the air 6 feet, over what is left of the forsythia, and thru the window.
We have now spent another 5 hours moving the desk, so we break for dinner.
Then we go back to move the 400 lb trestle table into the room. We wrestle with setting up the 300 lb bed. We move 500 lbs of computer equipment. We replace 1000's of pounds of books.And we repair the window sill we broke.
I have a very clean, PERMANENT office now, with a 2250 lb desk, and a sore
back to prove it.
And I guarantee....this desk will NEVER, EVER leave this room.
(hehe)
January 18, 2000.....
Now there is a cute update to this story. On February 22, we went to the Unveiling of Windows 2000, and entered our names for drawings of prizes. I won an $800 dollar ergonomic, award winning designer office chair to go with the $20 desk. Saturn is a funny fellow, isn't he?