The View from the Hill

OilMan bought a new computer today. We came home from Oregon and the old one had quietly given up the ghost while we were gone. Fortunately, with Jim's help, he was able to retrieve the hard drive, which he took with him to the computer store where they are transferring everything. He'll go pick up the new computer and wireless printer tomorrow.

When we moved here, the largest bedroom became our shared office. There are two desks, and a tall stand-up work table with shelves. OilMan's huge printer, large computer, large monitor, file cabinets and numerous files, binders, and the neatly boxed remains of our last dog, Lucy, immediately took over every inch of his desk. (I insisted that his mother's remains still in their original cardboard mailing box, were not going to spend another fifteen years in this office, that it was too late to resolve his issues with her, so we took the ashes and scattered them in the Russian River near Guerneville, where she was born. ) Clearly, he needed some workspace, so I grudgingly generously gave up my desk to him, taking the stand up table for myself.

This morning I found the corpse of his old computer, leaking wires, screws, and cables, on MY stand up worktable. I am beginning to feel a bit territorial as I sit in the living room with my laptop. I'm going to have to go back in and establish a beachhead pretty soon, but maybe I'll finish this and have a glass of wine and a little discussion with OilMan first....

The vineyards across the way were looking particularly pretty from the top of the field behind our house this morning. Overlooking the arbor and the new garden hut by the fence, and the roofline of our house down below, it is a good vantage point--the fall colors and neat rows of the steep vineyards show up clearly amidst the oaks, and the three yew trees punctuate the boundary fence.