Cooling the Home Office

I know, I was just complaining about how cold my hands always are, and that is true. But I worry that it gets too warm in my office for the poor computer. Because the office is disconnected from the rest of the house, it doesn't get the benefit of the heating and cooling systems therein. And lately it seems that the ceiling fan may not be keeping pace with the heat coming out of the back of Ms. Dell.

But what to do? Luckily, this is the desert. For those of you in less favorable climes, here's the deal: if you add humidity to the very dry air and just kind of move it around, it feels about fifteen degrees cooler. It sounds crazy, and when we moved here from humid and sticky Baltimore, we were unconvinced. But after spending last summer with nothing but a fan blowing over a giant sponge to cool our home, I'm a believer.

So I'm plotting the acquisition of a portable swamp cooler for Stellacommute central. I guess I could jury-rig a swamp cooler by taping a wet sponge to the front of a fan, but I think the nice people at the Fuji company have probably spent a little more time on the design and function than that. Stay tuned for an in depth report on how it's working.