Back in the home office again. The comfort zone of my chair’s and messy desk. Yes, I have 2 desk. One is my father’s desk which I do almost all my personal work from. I just got rid of a 3rd old desktop computer and desk but I have another desk for my work laptop. That one has to go because my better half wants my daughters desk out of her old room and its a nicer desk than the one I have so I’ll replace it because it’s also more functional.

Wow what a boring start to something that I hold special. Each person needs a personal space. Something that is theirs. In my house its my office and workroom.

It’s a different feeling. One I’m allowed to personalize all my own. What pictures go on the walls (there are a lot), how the furniture is situated, when it gets re-situated. I can spread out on counter tops or the floor. I can hang my new muscle car calendar from Eakles auto care proudly in the center of a wall. I can hang a pirate flag on the wall or ceiling. I can put up a digital picture frame and choose the images rotating on that.

I can hang a poster of the current Maryland basketball team. I can hang the American Flag. I can hang the latest silhouette targets from the range full of 45 cal holes. Might make an intruder think about taking a step beyond the office if they enter that way. I can and do have various sports memorabilia. (no nothing of real value to any thief reading along), A collection of various ways Coca-Cola has been packaged to quench my insatiable thirst for it. A framed pen and ink of the Destroyer my Dad was on in WWII and his patches from Operation Deep Freeze.

There are the most special mementos also. Family and parents pictures. Small gifts like the rock my Son painted for me in kindergarten. Or the card and note my Daughter wrote me after a day together in DC. A few notes tacked to the wall together that my better half or children wrote me telling me they loved vacation or have a good day at work and don’t stress out.

Parts of a wall have a bit of my work history, various business cards with various titles I’ve had over the decades, newspaper clips of companies merging/closing. Several important photos of coworkers together. A patch from my pressman’s shirt. A framed front page of our first issue in my first attempt to go into business. Some plaques, a Washington Post Frisbee. The classified jobs ad that I applied for and was hired for at the Post 19 years ago. A staff box from the Times Newspapers from when they were in Main Street in Ellicott City and a few from many years with Patuxent Publishing Company.

In the workroom, I decide where the tools are hung and how they are organized. It can be part storeroom when transitioning my electronics or storeroom for many home and yard projects. I can leave my various Dremel tools out on the counter and plugged in for as long as I want.

It’s a step outside the back door from the house and my office and I’m looking at nature instantly. Its one of the things I miss most about the relocation of the job that pays the bills. I used to have a beautiful window seat for well over a decade, that was lost and now I’m surrounded by glass and sheet rock. But I DO have a WINDOW in my home office in addition to the door. Sometimes during the summer I will just leave the door open and the breeze blowing on my back. I should get a screen door for the back like I do the front?

Anyway, in addition of being in control of the physical layout and aesthetics, I’m in control of the temperature, which is a point of dispute on many days. My wife and I might not be from different planets but we are certainly from different geographic regions of the globe in our body’s response to climate.

Oh, I almost forgot a precious item. The poster of the cast from the movie Animal House on the front steps of Delta House. The headline reads “We can do anything we want, we’re College Students.”  And the picture is of the cast all smiling giving a 1 finger salute. Just like this office. It might look a mess. It might look disorganized and a few other negative connotations but its me, take it or leave it.

Actually they are all precious items and images. As I glance to the left I see a picture of 3 good friends and to the right my parents that have passed so much of it is priceless to me. So make some space for yourself. Let go, let it show you.

Or take a picture of a street front that just says “Offices” and let your mind wander like I just did for this post and write about your space. I’m getting the thought I may have written about my office before but I’m not going to look back because I just finished this and I’m too tired to write something else new right now.

Have a safe travel today if you’re in this coming snow belt this morning.

PS: it might help us as a society if we help the mentally ill or challenged.  For if we don’t we are going to continued to see many tragic events.  The video of those 4 people beating that young man shows the brutality and lack of compassion some human beings can have for another. But many of us who are horrified by that, still have indifference to helping those and other challenged family and friends. And now in Florida many lose their life to a young man hearing voices. Its a very hard problem to solve or even get a grip on when trying. But so many aren’t getting help to even start trying to get better, that we have a crisis.