“Remoted” – Workday 82 /Day 112 (Monday)

Another nice day. It’s so much easier to work on a beautiful day when seated near windows, and especially windows that can be opened and closed at whim. The climate control aspect of the home office is amazing. Cold? Turn off the A/C or jack up the heat. I can do that! And I haven’t had to wear three or four layers in months. It’s amazing.  

One of the few walls with art.

At the office-office the overall space is amazing with a vaulted ceiling and beams, but the quirks of the building’s heating and cooling system mean several of us freeze all year long. For real, the cooling system would kick on in the afternoon in the winter, even when 30 degrees out. There are team members who ran space heaters in the summers to keep their blood from turning to slush.

The home-office space is cozy, but three of the walls are windows so the natural light is amazing. The direct view has included the ground hog family, blooming flowers, and numerous birds in a variety of colors. If I rotate in the chair a few degrees, there is a view of the stove, kitchen table, usually cluttered counters, and on the far wall near the bathroom, the trash container and one of the few walls that actually has art. 

The view from my seat at the office-office is cubicle walls and a massive wooden column.  By rotating my chair a quarter turn, I could see out the big half circle window which offers a full range of live entertainment. From that window we have seen spectacular storms and sunsets, festivals being set up downtown, and people heading to and from the farmer’s market at Lucy Larcom Park. A commercial with an actual feature movie actor filmed in the street below the window. Snow banks and parked vehicles preventing fire equipment from passing down the street was the divertissement one day. 

Then there was the almost daily entertainment of the man in the apartment across the street. This dude stages multiple regular performances involving him standing shirtless in his window, foot propped on the sill, as he surveys Shattuck Street below. It seems like every time I would pass the window en route to the kitchenette water dispenser, microwave, or refrigerator, I would see Shirtless Dude in the window. It was a year-round production, and the snow could be flying outside, but Shirtless Dude would be posed in the window inside. This sort of punishment shouldn’t be suffered alone, so his presence would need to be announced to the room. (I like to share whenever possible.) Our best guesses are 1) the poor guy doesn’t own a shirt, or 2) there is a super-charged heating system over there with heat included.

Home office lunch options
 are awesome.

The lunch game is definitely better at the home-office. No need to plan the night before and pack containers of lunch that may have lost its interest before the time to eat it. The kitchen with all the food is just steps away, and lunch can be prepped on the fly. Even my beloved ramen with hot pepper and cheese is a lunch possibility and ready in under five minutes. No more waiting until supper for the fine dining. The home office is comfortable, offers many fine amenities, and  the doggy office mates are great, but downtown definitely wins for the variety of the live productions.