December 26, 2002

Christmas glut

Christmas gifts gone mad: look at our tree on December 25 and assume the most spendthrift family in the world lives there; then open up the gifts and find things like calendars, cans of compressed air, golf tees and balls, and clothes of the denim persuasion. We have so many "musts" each Christmas that a keen observer could look at the packages and determine "ah, Sister's calendar; ah, Mother's engagement book; ah, Brother-in-law's weird stuff." The surprises are few and far between, which is just the way we like it.

Last Saturday our poor postal delivery person mailman was trying to stuff our streetside mailbox with yet more catalogs, when suddenly the post broke off at the base! The poor guy was seated in his truck, holding on to the post with one hand, and you could almost see the wheels in his head turning. "What do I do with this thing while I get out and go tell the homeowner about it?" Fortunately I noticed the dilemma and came out to solve his problem. My brother-in-law, being the bright observant sort, noticed the absence of the mailbox and gave me one for Christmas. It was one of the weirder-looking packages I've ever seen.

Having said that about surprises, have a look at my new toy! Suddenly my 300 vinyl LPs are available for play again. The 30-year-old Pioneer turntable gave up the ghost in about 1985, and I've been unable to find anyone to repair it (even the manufacturer would rather sell me a new one), so all those early Neil Young, Stevie Winwood, Airplane and CSN albums have been lying fallow for a long time indeed. 'Course, the upside of that is, they've suffered very little wear!

Posted by Linkmeister at December 26, 2002 03:20 PM
Comments

Excellent! Last summer I finally gave in to the inevitable and gave my albums (and a Garrard Zero 100 turntable) to a guy at church who still had all of his stuff. I figured at least that way they'd get some play.

Let's see... Line out to line in on the sound card...

Posted by: dan at December 26, 2002 09:13 PM

I just hope the stylus and cartridge hold out and/or can be replaced when they go! ;)

Posted by: Linkmeister at December 26, 2002 09:27 PM

It's not hard to find a turntable, it's just hard to find one that's not got all the bells and whistles for DJing. I was hoping to take back all the records I'd left here (half of my collection), but seeing as how dad has placed two full filing cabinets in front of them in the closet, it looks like I'll try again next year...

Posted by: bunny at December 27, 2002 12:05 PM

I wish I kept all my old records! I had the 45's and the album size (33's ?) and my dad had the even older ones. He had quite a collection back in the day! Happy New Year!

Posted by: ali at December 31, 2002 12:53 AM

I found, among other treasures, an old Traffic album, my brother's copy of Blizzard of Ozz and numerous little 45s at my parentals last weekend. Alas, I left them there b/c the trunk was too laden with Star Wars schtuff of the boys and I don't have a turntable anyway!

Posted by: Skatemom at December 31, 2002 09:51 AM

First album I played was a "Best of Winwood" album, which included some Traffic.

Posted by: Linkmeister at December 31, 2002 11:15 AM