A Different Breed of Sag...

I should have taken a photo. I guess I could run snap one really quick before the large-item pickup comes...

Back in our bicycle touring days, my motto was "Death Before SAG." SAG stands for "Support and Gear" and is the affectionate and/or comical term for being picked up when unable to ride any further. I've never really liked the word. It has a negative connotation all the way around. But I see SAG in a whole new light now. Sagging isn't just for weary cyclists. It can mean SO much more.

I was beginning my daily task of adding the previous day's high and low temperature squares to my 2024 digital temperature quilts when I noticed my external computer keyboard was not level. I looked beneath my first home standing desk set-up, which consisted of a very inexpensive short table atop my old sewing machine desk, and was horrified to see two of the table legs leaning so far inward, I was shocked they hadn't yet collapsed.

All four screws on the bottom side of the table had completely stripped their housing, dramatically tilting all four legs. Two legs were severely skewed. If I had leaned on my desk, which I sometimes do while closely inspecting photo details via my (now four-month-old) computer monitor, that little table probably would have squished my year-old laptop and perhaps even destroyed my camera, which was nestled atop the sewing machine desk. I'm sure my computer monitor would not have survived the crash. The keyboard would have been usable, but I'm not sure any of the rest of the electronics would have lived to tell the tale. If I'd leaned just right, I think the resulting disaster probably would have physically injured me, as well. Especially if I'd been vintage me and had tried rescuing my camera, which you can darn sure bet I would have risked just about anything to successfully accomplish.

The old desktop table had lasted a good six years of perhaps way too much weight whenever I leaned on it. I couldn't really have asked for a longer life for the $40 or so I spent on it back in 2018, long before I ever knew I might one day be working from home most of the time.

I knew the desktop standing desk my bosses bought for me in about 2012 was very expensive; that's why I had such a cheap model at home. I was blown away when I looked at the post-pandemic prices of new desktop standing desks and new standing desks. I had initially thought it's probably time to just replace that old sewing machine desk. Now that I've thoroughly explored potential standing desk (scary price) purchases, I think that approximately $90 1984ish sewing desk has quite a few more years of very precious life in it!!!

Last summer, a variety of furniture from our old work office was offered free of charge to anyone who wanted it. I asked if any standing desks were available. Lizard wasn't using his work desk anymore, so he gave it to me for my work-at-home office. It's tough as nails because he bought it way back when he was in college, back when we weren't expected to replace everything every time something new came out. I just love his desk, but, it doesn't go up and down. And I couldn't afford to purchase a new desktop standing desk in 2020. Or now...

I had given the desktop standing desk my bosses had given me to Lizard for his virtual LOUD therapy a couple of years ago. It wouldn't fit on the desk he gave me, and we had to make it fit on the little desk we set up for his laptop. I quickly claimed one of the available desktop standing desks at work last summer, and that's what I'm using for my work computer at home now. PERFECT setup. Absolutely perfect. (At our new office, everyone has motorized standing desks, which also are absolutely perfect but absolutely unaffordable for me at home.)

Once again, Lizard told me he doesn't really need a desk anymore, even though he still tries to use his computer now and then, particularly for virtual doctor visits. He helped me move the desktop standing desk I had given him onto the old sewing desk. My new personal computer space takes some getting used to because it's pretty cramped compared to what it was before the old desktop table nearly folded. There was no room for my mouse if I centered everything!!! It's a tight squeeze, but my re-gifted desktop standing desk is free, and it works. I will adapt. I'm getting pretty good at adapting these days!

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