“Remoted” – Workday 95 /Day 129 (Thursday)

Shelving before.

The morning was quiet, but it turned into a rainy and thundery day. There were three thunderstorms throughout the afternoon, synchronized perfectly to the three meetings on my calendar. It was as if Hollywood set the scene and perfectly cued the sound effects. Another storm rolled through after supper with a thunder clap that shook the house, so it’s been very noisy during parts of a seven hour stretch. Last night had storms with winds strong enough around midnight to blow over a basketball hoop at the end of the street. The noise woke the dogs and me, but it was morning before I could see what had fallen.

The chrome narrow shelf ordered several days ago arrived. It took a bit longer to assemble than expected, but that is because, despite the rather straightforward looking three step instructions, I was still doing it wrong. It finally was assembled with the shelves at the recommended heights, but the clearance wasn’t tall enough to house the five liquor bottles, the vegetable oil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar I planned to put there. It took two adjustments before I got it right, but it was fun banging with the rubber mallet, so there’s that.

Shelving after.

Now that it’s done, the five big liquor bottles are gone from daily view on the dining room buffet where they have lived for three to four years, depending upon the bottle. It turns out I don’t really drink liquor, and it's not clear why I have it, but at least I don’t have to see the bottles every day now. The shelf is a couple inches deeper than it should be, which I knew when checking the measurements, but when the price dropped $10 I couldn't not buy it. If it makes be too nutty, it may need to be relocated. 

The smallest counter in the entire kitchen is neater, having been liberated of the big bowl of dog biscuits and the oils that don’t fit in any of the cabinets. It amazes me that the shelves could have been set at varied heights, but some genius who apparently never bought or stored food in this kitchen set them all at the exact same height, which is one setting too short for every bottle and most boxes ever manufactured in the food industry. It seems that, although the shelves have settings for different heights, once the shelves are slid into the guides, they can't be changed without removing the entire front facing of the cabinets. The other nine miles of kitchen counter still look a whole lot like crap, but that 15-inch span next to the stove is magnificent