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Back, way back in another lifetime I was a freelance illustrator. I concentrated on mostly natural science illustration for various publications and for Cornell faculty. At some point when I decided to take myself seriously I acquired a used desk/drafting table. It was one of those that has a nice movable wooden desk top and drawers on one side plus a tiltable liftable drafting table top on the other. I even had a drafting machine mounted to it. (Yup, pre CAD, pre computer). The top measured 40 by 60 and the desk about 36 by 50 so it was a substantial piece of equipment. That wonderful table accompanied me to every residence (I moved about every 2 years in those days), making sure it would fit before I decided to rent. Then when I bought this house and moved out here we trekked it in and pretty much built a room around it.

I have not been seriously painting or illustrating for some years now. First teaching and then knitting, spinning and designing knitwear seem to have nicely usurped those energies. So when we thought about modernizing the dye studio, making more room meant releasing my hold on the table. I wanted it to go to a good home that would continue to love it. I didn't want it junked. I hemmed and hawed but decided to be mature.  Once that decision was made it still took me a couple of weeks to actually list the table on Ithaca Freecycle. I listed it at 11:30am. 2.5 hours hours later there were at least 10 email replies. Each reply was then sent my general location and phone number. Roy and Celia were the first to say they would come. They asked for 4pm the very same day. Whew, that was so quick I hardly had time to adjust! However while emptying it out and cleaning it up I was able to make a fairly mature goodbye to a piece of rather nice history.

I mentioned that this was one substantial table. It weighed maybe 300 pounds. arghhh. As Jim reminded me, when we brought it in here he was 25 years younger and was the oldest of the 4 guys moving it. This move it was only Jim and Roy. We schlepped as much stuff out of the way and kept removing items from the table to make it not only lighter but inches smaller.

Ah yes, here we go into the Yarn Harlot moment.

Jim warned me that the door to the studio and maybe one moulding would need to come off.
Off came the door and one moulding. No maybe's about it. Then another moulding needed to come down.

OK not too bad, right? Maneuvering this item through the hall took several tries with the desk part going sideways, then on its side and lots of jockeying. Ooops, well it was too wide no matter what to fit through the door into the kitchen air lock. So off came another door.

OK now they put it onto a dolley and were almost out. Bunk. Bunk. They moved that sucker this way and that way, but finally a third door had to be removed.

It was already getting dark. It is winter. It is relatively cold. The house was missing 3 doors for most of an hour while the table and top were bumped up the steps, up a ramp into a truck bed and secured for the trip to its new home.

However its replacement shall not take near as long to be removed should we need to.