The Theme for May

Ever since doing the alphabet title theme last year, I've been trying to come up with another month-long theme that I could stick to. I had this great idea I'd eat through the alphabet, trying new recipes. That lasted through "d", I think, where I crafted a deep-dish pizza. When I cook, it's really on a whim or whimsy so, some days, I come home and cereal it is. I don't want to put hamburger to sizzle or chicken to bake. Just let me sit in the recliner with a box of cereal and I'll be okay. But, I like the idea of a theme, something, beyond my usual observations, that binds a month together. I hadn't really thought of anything until this past weekend.

I took a bunch of photos of a failed new recipe which I have not posted, yet. I tend to do that. I'll take a bunch of photos and think, "This would make a great blog post". A day later, I look at them and the enthusiasm or what I was going to say has waned. They sit in my Flickr account, waiting for the chance to be on the blog. As I'm approaching my 3rd year of blogging, I have accumulated over 3500 photos in Flickr and many were taken and never used. It's time to haul those out and blog about them. Plus, you will be seeing some old family photos. The theme will be "Old Photos". I'll still blog about things I find interesting, cooking fiascoes and other timely topics, but you're going to see a variety of photos that never saw blogging daylight, until this month, and some photos from the past.

My first old photo. I don't think I've used this anywhere else. When you have over 1,200 blog posts, it can be kind of hard to remember or find the photo. This is my home computer set up. When I got the new chair assembled back in October of 2009, it raised me up higher than the old chair I had. That meant I was looking down and not across at the computer. Because I wear bifocals, the depth of field to play the game suddenly changed. I was constantly having to tilt my head to see correctly. I found my shoulders and neck would ache after a raiding session.

I don't have that problem in the office. I would like a taller chair, but that would mean a taller desk. Right, not gonna get that through the budget. At home, I would like a different computer desk. This one is nearly 10 years old and doesn't really work for me. I'd like something more compact. But buying a new desk means getting rid of the old one and that is not a simple "haul it out to the curb" process. The current desk would need to be disassembled to be removed from the room. You laugh but it is too wide to go through the doorways of my 1953-era house. So how to remedy the problem at hand? Raise the computer to a manageable height.

I searched my house for the proper item. I finally found it in Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare. I'm quite surprised you can still get it from Amazon but for a hefty $72. I got mine in the sale bin at a Barnes and Noble for $15. It a wonderful critique of Shakespeare for those interested in such things. Plus, it's about 3 inches thick and that's just the right height to move the screen to my eye level. If I am curious about Asimov's take on Macbeth, I can just move the computer.

I like to think the Bard is with me at all times, resting comfortably, guiding my words when I sit at home staring at an image on the screen and wondering just what the heck I was going to say about this photo.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb