The Thursday Ramble: What am I thinking about?

Does a bird living in a cage, consider it confinement, or protection from the outside world.  It is all a matter of perspective.  For a bird born in a cage, being free outside of the cage might be terrifying, and predators unexpected.  For a bird born in the open, it must be terribly confining.  

I have been reading a lot. It is a great way to fill the "what next" time in the afternoon.  I have regained my enjoyment of printed books.  I still use my Kindle, especially when I am away from home, I can carry an entire bookcase full of reading.  I read the original "Wizard of Oz" book, there are surprising differences between the book and the movie that I know and love.  The shoes were silver in the book.  The flying monkeys could only be summoned three times in the book.  It is an interesting and relatively short read.  

I re-read Encore Provence, it is hard to believe it was printed 25 years ago, I can remember buying it the first time I saw it in a bookstore, anxious to read the latest in the series.  My printed copy was donated with nearly all of my print books when we sold the other house.  The local library had it on the shelf.   

Back in March of 2020 I jammed a second computer onto my small desk at home, for what was thought to be a temporary work at home period.  My desk is small, we live in a small space.  And my desktop was home to two 27-inch computers, my personal machine, and a monitor, keyboard and mouse to plug into my office laptop.  File security dictated that my office computer needed to be used for most of my work, and I didn't want my personal matters on my office machine.  Last week, I finally cleared away the office work space at home. I cleared off my desktop, gave it a good clean, and reorganized it.  I should have done this weeks ago.  I have regained my personal space.  I have space to work on the desk, that had been cluttered with the extra monitor and paraphernalia. Remote or hybrid work, means work intrudes into our personal lives, in ways we don't even realize, until the work is done and the intrusion cleared away.  A decade from now the shrinks will be dealing with the "I can never get away from my work" depressions.  

Last week was the first time I had a week with nothing on the calendar.  And I seemed to stay busy, how did I ever find time to work?