Jill's Journal: One yard forward, one foot back

The desk in my office is a beast. In fact, all of the desks at the Journal office are beasts.

They can’t be moved – even an inch. I’ve tried. Several times. And I’ve been defeated. Several times. 

Together, over the years the staff and I have tried. Several times. And as you may expect, we’ve been defeated. Several times.

I write about this because I’ve lost two pieces of artwork to the narrow tunnel that exists between the desk and the wall it sits against. As you would expect, I’ve made multiple attempts to retrieve these two pieces of artwork from the “tunnel of no recovery.”

While I was fortunate to retrieve one of the two pieces of lost artwork with the aid of a yardstick I scavenged from home. I also scored an ink pen that I surely wasn’t missing.

Both items gave me a sense of achievement. Although not a life-changing achievement, I gained a sense of pride that my “sometimes challenged mechanical mind” actually works.

Then I lost the yardstick to the “tunnel of no recovery.” For whatever reason, I dropped it. Don’t ask me how or why. I wish I knew.

That, of course, now leaves me with one piece of missing artwork and an absent yardstick.

Not ready to throw in the towel just yet, I remembered a second yardstick that I had propped up against the wall in my garage. It’s been sitting there idle since I placed it there years ago after an estimated foot of the 3-foot stick broke off.

But don’t ask me how or why that happened. I don’t remember. 

The shortened yardstick proved to be no help at all in retrieving the yet missing in action artwork and now the second – although condensed – yardstick.

Then I remembered the “grabber” that I scavenged from mom’s house while packing it all up.

I brought it to work, excited to retrieve the missing artwork, and if luck would have it, the condensed yardstick.

As it turns out, the “grabber” is simply too big to grab what I need to in the allowed space.

Hence, the beast continues to win.

As I wrap up this week’s installment of “Jill’s Journal,” I’ve comet the conclusion that the “tunnel of no recovery” is just that. And if  you happen to keeping score, the “tunnel of no recovery” is winning this war by a yardstick – and a piece of artwork!