I carved out a little corner of sanity back here in the machine room.  All right, so the aquarium needs work...




This, of course, means that the rest of the place is...

Yes, you guessed it...

A total wreck.

The question thus becomes: Will I be able to force the mess back before it pours into this room again?  Stay tuned, folks.

Perhaps, God and Nature will finish the job on the smallest (six or eight inches at the base) tree.  I surely have enough to keep me busy in here.  I do want to install an air conditioner in the machine room.  I didn't move the network closet into the library for nothing, kiddies.

I am pleased to announce to all concerned (and several who aren't) that , for the first time in several years, it is possible to navigate freely between the living room and library.


Yay for me.

Oh, sure, there's some mopping up to do:  that homemade shelf on the left, for example, has pretty much outlived its usefulness; I'll replace it with a dedicated bookshelf when I have the available credit.  The rack on the right isn't going anywhere; that's the network closet.

It is novel to see carpeting, though.


Believe it or not, the living room has remained navigable through all this.


Please don't mind that tool on the floor; I have some tree surgery to do before I put it back in the locker.  The drying rack on the right will be in use, too, just as soon as I finish this post.

The British and Americans did it at Normandy, in 1944. I did it at Homestead, in 2007. Yes, folks, it is now possible to enter the living room from the vestibule.


This is a Good Thing®, because no-one is about to enter the living room from the library any time this week.


As it is, let me revel in the tiny bit of sanity in the midst of the landfill, even if I do have to hang my laundry in the living room to avoid getting shot if I stand too close to the communal washers and dryer while someone else's clothes rest therein.


Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.
(Crapski!  I remember the Latin, and I haven't been Catholic in 35 years.  It sounds impressive, anyway.)

60.0 ft².  It's a five-foot-deep strip across the entire south wall of the living room.

Bit by bit, I'm getting there.

To be fair, there's a lot to go, though.  This is what the rest of the living room looks like:

I'm still shooting for autumn, 2009.

This has been a public service announcement from FnordNet.  FnordNet is not affiliated with The Cleaning Authority, Merry Maids, or any other institution.

I know because I measured it. 42"x54". It seems that I clean house the same way I fight battles in Axis&Allies: work my way into a corner then fight my way out, keeping the perimeter as short as possible.



The thing is, counterintuitive as it may seem, cleaning gets progressively more difficult as I proceed. The reason is actually quite simple: there is very little trash in the apartment; it's all stuff, all quite useful. Now comes the fun: the stuff:space ratio is astronomically high. Contrary to some opinions, simply stacking the stuff doesn't work; one needs to be able to access the stuff. With this in mind, the stuff:space ratio must always be less than unity; it can creep a little higher as you find wall space from which to hang stuff, but you still need to be able to get at the stuff, so it really can't get up to the ceiling.

At this rate, then, I should come close to finishing Spring Cleaning 2007 by autumn 2009. C'est la vie.