A good office chair is hard to find

Office chairs hurt my back.  I don’t sit up straight enough.  I fractured L1.  C4 and 5 are fused with a bone.  There should be a chair to fit that.  When I was younger, before the L1 incident, office chairs were OK.   We bought them cheap; eventually the pneumatics wore out and they went on the curb, and went free to a new home.

I tackled the next to last chair very seriously.  I sat in every chair in two stores and purchased a compact fake brown naugahyde number.  Back at home Tom put it together.  I pushed it to the desk and sat down.  Still comfy, but too short.  Soon I had a neck ache from looking up to the monitor.  The chair couldn’t go up, the monitor couldn’t come down.  I added a cushion, solving the height problem, and negating comfy.

Toby the kitten arrived.  A friendly and nosey little guy.  In the beginning he climbed the chair to get on the back.  Eventually he made it in a single bound, plus a few more claw holes.

Ten pounds of cat leaning on my neck, together with an aching back from the uncomfortable seat, and the compact fake brown naugahyde chair had to go.  It went to Good Will on my way to an office supply store.  This time I took a tape measure, and my primary criteria was a chair that could adjust to twenty inches.  I sat in every chair in two stores and was on the way to a third when I passed an isolated chair, showcased with blaring signage announcing its office chair worthyness.

The salesguy had totally overlooked this chair. Completely.  That was some bad marketing and floor arrangement, in my estimation.  I sat down.  Bliss.   I measured.  Perfect.  I looked at the marketing hype on the surround cardboard pillars.  Tempur-Pedic©.  I won’t mention the price.  And, Tempur-Pedic© has never heard of me.

This chair has seven knobs or levers that adjust everything.  It also makes me sit up straight.  And, the cat that sleeps on top cannot lean on my back.

Embellishments

All the pictures neatly stacked when we arrived, awaiting further embellishments today.

When the bus pulled into take my two home, I found them working on solar systems, which I learn will be finished tomorrow and go home to hang in rooms.

I took a tour of the embellished pictures, drying outside.  Further embellishments scheduled for tomorrow.

We’ll see.

Summer at Camp 61

Summer began Monday; I dropped Laura and Charlotte for an afternoon at the Art Academy.  Charlotte lives down the street, and down the first hill.  That’s great, until you ride the bike home.

Laura spent a lot of Cousin Camp last year at the Art Academy.  She had Charlotte primed, and they are only ten years old, so all they needed from a grandma in the front seat was gas to drive the car. 

I went in to drop off a pack of parental releases and found my two deep in the throng around the table.  The theme is circles, and the project is a coiled basket. 

Here’s Laura’s.  We may never see Charlotte’s finished basket, which may be big enough to hold her baby sister, if she gets all the rope covered.

I was early today, and greeted by this picture. Another circles project, no doubt.  As I was getting the shot, a little fellow leaned into the frame and back out, just as quickly.

“Oh, you’re taking pictures,” he said.

“Just this one.  I like the picture.”

“Thank you.  It’s mine.”

I was done, and he leaned over and took it back inside; it was dry.  What an observant and polite young man.  May he live long and prosper.

The sunflower has a visitor

Common sunflowers, with edible seeds, grow about six feet within the first three weeks, and reach maturity in 85 days.  Our sunflower seed surely was left behind by a squirrel scurrying away from the bird feeder next door.  As close to grade A as that bird feed mix may have been, we can bet the seed the squirrel let fall into the crack did not come from Burpee.

Whatever its humble origins, it’s growing as fast as it can, busting up good township concrete as quickly as it can.  When I noticed the trouble the super took to save it from the Memorial Day parade, it was 31.5 inches.

When the parade went through, the sunflower was up to 38.5”.   

Last week, another three inches, to 41.5”

Today, up to 45.5”.   It won’t be next week, but soon it can peer through the windows and see garage activity, as well as the traffic out on the road

A long cat weekend

An old friend of Tom’s is in town for the weekend, and visiting.  With his dog, Hobo.

Hobo settled in like regular dogs.  He knew “Get out of the kitchen.”

Ryan retreated immediately to his safe place, a basket on top of my dresser, in the closet, two sizes too small.

Toby kept an eye on things.

Euba was pleased to meet a Norfolk terrier.

Cairns and Norfolks hanging and doing terrier stuff.

Toby still checking up on this stranger

And not backing off.  Closed door bravado.

Yep, this is Norfolk living

I don’t think so.

And, Purrl has not been in since Saturday morning, and and must wonder if Sunday evening will ever come.