It’s Saturday and I’m clearing the bathrooms in the usual desultory manner. Let’s face it - it’s not that much fun to clean the bathrooms.
I start with the mirrors because they are very easy to do. Using a squirt bottle of vinegar and rag, you squirt and wipe until it looks good. Do all the mirrors one after another, then toss the rag in the washer. Now, it’s time to clear the surfaces that need to be cleaned. I’ll spare you the details, since writing them will bore me as much as reading them will fail to interest you. After the junk has been moved, I take the towels and lay them on the floor in front of the door to the bathrooms. That way, if I track water out of the bathroom, the carpet will stay clean.
It was at this point I went downstairs to get the broom and dustpan to sweep the floors, which I did. When I returned the broom and dustpan to the closet, I was drawn to the mouse on this computer which was lying forlornly on the carpet, in front of the computer, belly up.
The mouse was suffering because its cable (I don’t believe in wireless mice) was routed around the front of the table, rather than the back. It was really annoying to use and had been for a good three or four months since I’d hooked it up. With a sudden burst of ambition, I decided to reroute the mouse cable, which I did.
The clutter.
My work table includes clutter. Excellent clutter. In the clutter, I found a packet of wildflower seeds (ironic), amplifier, last year’s dog tag, two 8 ohm speakers, 2 USB sticks, a digital camera, a pen, 493 business cards (mine), some cables, and a museum ticket. In the clutter on the stereo stand, I found a wireless doodad and a bit more cable. A vision came to me.
I crawled under the table and hooked up a splitter. Now the audio could go from the computer to the wireless box as well as some existing speakers. Then, I realized the 8 ohm speakers are better than the ones connected to the computer, so I used another splitter to split the computer audio once more into an A/B switch. This was getting good.
The power strip had all the outlets arranged in such a way that it was difficult to connect everything up, so I grabbed one of the big ones I was given at the office and hooked it up. I wanted one outlet available for a laptop. I also found my eyeglass cleaner in front of the bookshelf that’s under the table. I’ve been looking for that!
Now, it was time to test out all this exciting stuff.
I turned on the stereo and sent some waves out the wireless box. They were immediately picked up by the new wireless receiver and poured out the speakers. With the stereo still playing, I turned on SHOUTcast and got some tunes out of the computer. The 8 ohm speakers delivered them as soon as I flipped the A/B switch. Everything worked!
A side effect of this was that the clutter was a tiny bit tidier, but let’s face it - that wasn’t the objective.
That was about six hours ago. I’m ready to wash the floors in the bathrooms, which I did eventually clean. I wash the floors last so they can dry and I don’t slip and fall.
Then, I’m going outdoors! It’s nice out.