With Mary out of town I've been working from home and have barely been in to the office. In particular I've been digging spending ever larger quantities of time out on the deck, looking down at the lake and the critters in the back yard. Which raises the question of why I should go into the office at all, except to use the conference rooms to meet people, which is something I could easily do using a roving membership rather than having an actual office.
One of the reasons I often cite is that the office offers the "absence that makes the heart grow fonder," i.e. that it's good for Mary and I not to be around during the day. And there's an element of truth to that. But there's no reason we couldn't just manage our boundaries better. Mostly I just don't like it when she vacuums and when she comes to me with lots of tech support questions. But she's been getting better about the latter and learning to manage more problems on her own. Surely I could be more intentional on that stuff. Of course, I don't really know all the ways I irritate her.
Yes, my finance library is at the office, but we're building new bookshelves downstairs so I'll soon have more shelf capacity. Plus I could get rid of some of these books I haven't touched for, oh, forty years or so. I could be just be smarter about holding on to books, which would honestly be nice to my kids going forward, as I reflect on the struggles of Rob, Beth and Mary in cleaning out Mary Lee's house. Mostly Rob. If we gave up the office we could save a bunch of money. And I would eat fewer crappy snacks and would generally be more likely to exercise regularly.
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