Remember that post from last fall, when I told you about the day that Tom demolished our terrible old piano? Here is a photograph of my Christmas present from him: a standing desk, which he built from the planks of our erstwhile instrument, a Wellington model made by the Cable Company in about 1914. He even managed to keep the Wellington label intact.

Before he made me this desk, I had already been doing almost all of my writing standing up, but I was balancing everything on top of a 1910s-era cabinet Victrola that was slightly too short for me and had a tiny, wrist-compressing lid. The new desk has made an enormous difference in helping me manage both my too-much-sitting hip problems and my longstanding carpal tunnel problems.

However, the Victrola is still useful: I turned it into a filing cabinet.

Nor is the desk chair going to waste.

Tom says he is thinking of making a clock from the old piano keys.