Change is good

Happy Monday, all....hope you had a good weekend, doing what you like to do when you're not at work.

Something my wife and I like to do is to shake things up a little bit here at the ranch.  That might mean some new placemats for the kitchen table, or something equally minor.  We've been talking a bit recently about a new kitchen table, owing to the confined space that our kitchen dining area allows.  We replaced an older one a few years ago, but, that one, too, was a little too wide for the space.  So we've been talking about that.

A few months ago, we decided to modernize our bedroom.  Out went the old box-style television ("but it still has a good picture," I argued) and the stand upon which it lived, and in its place a sleek 32" ultra-thin LED model.  Nice, right?  Only problem was that I simply couldn't justify spending the additional $15 per month for an HDTV cable box, so we were watching an analog signal on this new TV.  And what's worse, because it's ultra-thin, so are the speakers, so it sounds a lot like a transistor radio.  Summing up, we have been disappointed by this foray into technology upgrades.

If you've visited here previously, you know of my fondness for Apple products, and my latest yearning was for an iMac, the all-in-one desktop computer.  Sleek, extremely vivid display, and it's a Mac.  But I really couldn't justify that expense, since I just bought a Macbook Air last summer and a new iPad recently, too.

Anyway, Saturday night my wife and I were talking about redoing our bedroom and NOT including a television.  My thought was that it's only about fifteen feet from our bed to the living room, where our main TV resides.  She agreed, and asked what I planned to do with the LED TV that was there.  "I'm going to see if I can use it as an external monitor for the Macbook Air," I responded confidently.  

So yesterday after church I changed into old clothes and headed to the attic.  My mission was to retrieve the mirror and mounting brackets that go with our dresser, since I had removed them for this modern television marvel.  Within 45 minutes I had restored our dresser (a very traditional model that matches our bed and nightstands, the first significant purchase of our now-nearly-26-year marriage) and carted LED TV to my office.

Boy, it really looks big on your desk, doesn't it?  my wife offered.  I nodded, but decided to see how this would work and found some simple instructions online for what to do to operate your Macbook Air with the lid closed and an external monitor, keyboard and mouse (the latter two I already was using), and off I went to find the video adapter that would make it all work together.

Got the adapter, connected everything, and here I sit in front of a 32 inch monitor.  Kinda nice, actually.

I don't know if I'd recommend this kind of shuffling of items and furniture positions to everyone, but it works for us.  It did this time, anyway.

Wish us luck on the kitchen table......