Shelving some ideas (among other things)

I have to figure out SOMEthing to do so I can put the router and the CD and floppy stacks back up off my desk, and get to essential things like the printer and the scanner, but I didn’t want more particle-board horrors.  Let’s go for something a bit more consonant with the rest of the house, yeah?

With that goal in mind, I went off toward the junque shops of SoCo to see if I could find a clock shelf the right size and length (about eighteen inches wide, and eight deep—enough to set the router on solidly).  The first several places I stuck my nose in seemed to have everything but, and when I finally did find a shop that had what I was after, they were asking $125 for it, which was way outside what I had available to spend.  The staffer at the shop had her brains turned on, and suggested “Why don’t you go to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and see if they don’t have some older pieces of wood that you can make a make-do shelf from until you can afford a proper one?”  First cogent thing anyone had said to me all day, so I took her advice.

I walked out of the shop–and right into the path of a pick-up second-line band in feathered csakos and T-shirts, marching up the avenue.  Jo’s Coffee, a few blocks up the street, had got up an Easter pet parade and I happened to be there at the right time.  I’m generally happy to listen to second-line music, so I stood there until they were past me and down the block before I left.

I didn’t get to the Re-Store, though.  Driving up Lamar, I passed by the Bookcase Center across from Central Market and had an “Aha!” moment.  Those who have read my house pages know that the Bookcase Center built all our bookcases when we bought the house, and we were very pleased with them, so I pulled in to see what he could do.  A few minutes later, we’d agreed he would build a basic, utilitarian clock shelf for $25 and I could pick it up Monday.