island of sanity

I took advantage of the long weekend to make some little progress on the massive sorting-purging-tidying process that is a constant in my life just now. I have achieved a small island of sanity in the necessary chaos:I had been using a table with no drawers as a desk for way too long. So I came to my senses and re-established the desk as a desk, as opposed to "a handy surface upon which to pile stuff whilst trying to decide what to do with and about everything." These drawer things are amazing -- have you heard about these? -- I can stuff a lot of my stuff in the drawers, close them, and then mirable dictu! all the stuff is still at hand but the top of the desk is relatively clear and open and suitable for use as a napping spot for Beau.

This is Beau:
Beau showed up in the yard one day, hunkered and screaming. The screaming misled me into thinking "This is one mean junkyard dog of a cat." But Beau was mostly terrified and, when translated, the screaming went something like Pleaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeassssssssssssssssse Hellllllllllllllllllllllp Mmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Now Beau is a house cat. In this photo from the transition, you may be able to tell from his expression that he was still a little uncertain of What Just Happened. But he swiftly got into the swing of being inside and has become an indispensable member of the household.

Beau helped me revise my syllabus:
pitches in with the vacuuming
[aka hoovering, for my overseas friends]
is an enthusiastic mouser
adventurous
and a perceptive critic although his attention span is not all it might be
And now I have some serious work to do, so I will turn my back on the rest of the room -- which, quite obviously, is still in transition and have at it.
Being a virtuous sort, I did throw out that bag of shredded paper featured in the foreground. The Queen of Industry, that's me. . .

Excelsior, mes amis. Ever and always, excelsior.