The thought struck me yesterday that I would rather have the computer downstairs. It seemed like an impossible job for one person, but I couldn't help myself. The first problem was moving the desk that I had put in the upstairs studio down to the first floor. With no plan in mind, I pulled the drawers out and dragged the thing into the hall. Once I looked down the stairs, I could see that the best way would be to turn the desk upside down and slide it down on it's top. I got in front of it and walked down, my back against it to keep it from careening down on its own. This worked like a charm and nothing got scraped, gouged, or otherwise damaged in the process. Next I made several trips up and down with the various computer components, then set everything up beside the phone jack in the dining room. As soon as I made the last connection, I realized a flaw in my plan. The phone jack could not accomodate both the computer and the telephone. I decided to install a phone jack with two receptacles. I had bought two of them earlier for the upstairs and hadn't used one. This turned out to be a very time-consuming job considering my inexperience and lack of the correct tools (a screwdriver that fit the screws). First I couldn't get one of the screws out of it's hole, stripped it, and had to take the jack off the wall upstairs instead. , leaving no phone up there. I worked sitting on the floor, stuffed between the desk and the wall, with a flashlight balanced on the baseboard for light. I removed the single jack fairly easily. I have no idea how many times I failed to get all three little wires of the same color wrapped around the tiny screws in the new jack, but it seemed like hundreds. Every time I put the final twist to the phillips screw, one of them would always pop out. Eventually, though, because of my usual grim determination, I accomplished the job. Mounting the jack back on the wall proved to be almost as challenging and now it dangles there rather precariously by the one screw I managed to get into the wall.
I will say, though, that my sense of accomplishment when I plugged in the phone and heard a dial tone was probably equal to Lance Armstrong's when he won the Tour de France. Heady with success, I decided to put the single jack upstairs where the double jack had been. This went somewhat more quickly (practice makes perfect) and soon I had a phone working upstairs as well. On my way down the stairs I realized that I could have simply plugged the phone into the back of my computer.
For a change of pace, I spent odd moments throughout the day making spanakopeta. I needed to use up various containers of cheese and had some Fillo dough in the freezer. A bag of spinach had been sitting in the refrigerator for a week, bought during one of my fits of vegetarianism that come and go lately. It made a delicious supper.
