Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  It was such a beautiful day here yesterday!  We had a few clouds, and lots of wind – but the temperatures were in the high 50s, and there was lots of blue sky.  Birds were chirping, flowers were flowering (like our 3/4 dead flowering plum at right), and spring was in the air.  Just lovely!

Most of my day was consumed by wiring and cutting holes for heating registers (second photo below) in my new office in the shed.  I finished both, and now the office is ready for cleanup.  It's in rather desperate need of cleanup, as you can tell by the first photo below.  The detritus of construction is everywhere, there are tools scattered hither and yon, and the entire room is blanketed by a layer of gray dust.  I'll be spending this morning (and maybe beyond!) just cleaning all that up.  Then I start moving in!

My moving has to follow a careful sequence in order to keep me from being cut off from the Internet.  The first step will be to install the router, switch, and WiFi access point that will “run” my office.  That equipment is already up and running, just outside my office door.  I've already installed (and tested!) the through-wall wiring.  So ... theoretically all I have to do is to move that equipment 3 feet or so into the office.  I've never had any sort of network reconfiguration work that easily, though :)  I'm fulling expecting some unanticipated glitch.

Once the networking gear is up and running, I'm going to move my little Mac Mini server from the house to the new office.  Theoretically that should only involve a change in its IP address, but once again, I'm expecting the unexpected on that front.  Finally, once all that is up and running, it will be time to move my personal computer (a MacBook Pro and associated monitors, keyboards, etc.) over.  That, at least, should go easily, as its IP address is obtained through DHCP.

I have quite a bit of “stuff” currently scattered all over the second floor of our house that needs to be moved into my new office (where I have plenty of room!).  Much of this is not computer-related at all: a microscope, electronics, etc.  For the moment, this will all go onto the same set of folding tables that we've been using for office furniture in the house.  Later I plan to start building out my own furniture, making good use of the cabinet shop I have downstairs.  I'm really looking forward to that – should be lots of fun for me!

The “infrastructure” of my office still has some ways to go besides furniture, too.  I have a little refrigerator coming in a week.  I'm planning on installing a small sink and counter-top, so I can have tea and snacks without having to come back into the house.  There's the heating system to finish, too.  And most likely (after I see what summer is like) I'll be installing a little split-system air conditioner as well.  Something tells me I won't be done this year :)