I frequently find myself watching American Pickers and am usually befuddled at some of the odd oftentimes useless things people collect. I don't collect anything.
What say you? What do you collect and why?
Hmmmm...dust, pocket change, aches & pains, and ex-wives (although I have given up on the wife thing, too expensive).
Thirty-something years collecting McCoy pottery...don't ask me why.
I don't collect.?ÿ I just accumulate.
I have much more sound reinforcement gear than I'll probably ever need. The GPS gear.?ÿ I have four fiddles, one of which I try to play, and a banjo that needs repair and I'll probably never try seriously to play. (For TDD fans: I promise to never survey with it.) I have far too many things filling the shop that have salvageable electronic parts, and left over pieces of wire, plumbing, wood, pipe, etc.?ÿ
I used to go to the annual sale of donated books and bring home three or four boxes full.?ÿ I wanted books on every subject I might get interested in. History, biology and chemistry texts, software references, ...?ÿ Google has reduced the need for such an accumulation, but how could I part with it now?
I suppose you could say I have a collection of books about the WW II scientists and engineers, because I have almost every one I've ever encountered.?ÿ I'm still amazed at the technology they developed in such a short time - radar, bombsights, sonar, servomechanisms, radio improvements, besides the Bomb.
In fiction, I have a not-quite complete set of Mark Twain's works. I once got on a streak of reading James Hilton (best known for Shangra La) and have almost everything he wrote.?ÿ I have (I think) a complete collection of Robert Heinlein's stories, and most of James Hogan's.
I know I should thin things out - anything further would encroach on the living space and I might find something else I have to have.
What: Things that kill Zombies; why: Zombies!
I collect arrowheads, silver dollars and ex-wives.... ??ÿ
Arrowheads, coins, bottles, old books from the 1700's, and of course old survey stuff!!
Early survey computing devices, indian articacts, pre 1975 pinbacks and pre 1960 science texts.
Maps. Antique and contemporary.?ÿChart books.
Early stereoscope photos of?ÿ mostly geographical images and some cultural.
Not as avid as I was in previous years.
Maps. Antique and contemporary.?ÿChart books.
Early stereoscope photos of?ÿ mostly geographical images and some cultural.
Not as avid as I was in previous years.
Me too Alan?ÿ I gave away a hundred or more old quad sheets (+/- 100 years old) because I had nowhere to store them and maybe someone would appreciate them and preserve them.?ÿ A company for whom I worked was about to throw them into a dumpster and I just couldn't stand to see them just rot away in a landfill somewhere.
Andy
I feel it isn't so much the stuff as it is the hunt! Kinda like finding old corners while reconing an old survey.
I have far too many things filling the shop that have salvageable electronic parts, and left over pieces of wire, plumbing, wood, pipe, etc.
Bill and I might be related.?ÿ I often toss junk found while surveying into the truck simply because "I don't have one of those."?ÿ?ÿ I have so many electronic bits on my desk right now that I have to push things around just to make room for a single letter-size sheet to lay flat.?ÿ Getting rid of anything is hard because "I might need one someday," yet it's all so disorganized that I usually end up going to the hardware store to buy the thing I know I have but can't find in all the clutter.
But I *do* have a plan for improvement.?ÿ The remodel project that was supposed to start last spring is still on its glacial pace toward commencement (the concrete sub even jackhammered out a corner of the back patio a few weeks ago to verify the size of the foundation).?ÿ That project includes claiming the entire garage for my shop, instead of having to share it with laundry appliances and miscellaneous storage.?ÿ In pursuit of that project I had to clear almost everything out of the garage so the contractors can work without too much impediment as they re-frame the roof, which meant moving it all into a couple of temporary 10'x10' Harbor Freight tent storage units in the back yard.?ÿ That meant handling every bit of stuff I'd hauled home in the last 22 years, and I did manage to get rid of *some* (though not much) of it.?ÿ When construction is done I'll be able to repopulate the garage in an organized manner, and between the garage and a new storage room I should be able to reduce the volume of stuff in my little office by at least 50%.?ÿ That's the plan, anyway.
?ÿ
Jim, You may turn into one of those hoarders I hear about who packs so much useless crap into their house that a pile collapses on them and they are found years later under it.?ÿ
Jim, You may turn into one of those hoarders I hear about who packs so much useless crap into their house that a pile collapses on them and they are found years later under it.
My wife keeps it from getting too far out of hand.?ÿ Should I happen to outlive her, I may be in trouble.
The church just underwent a major cleanup and reorganization of spaces under the direction of a retired interior decorator. If neither she nor the person next to her knew why we needed it, it went out. Never mind that neither person had ever looked for anything in that closet before so had no idea who might use it again.
That's the other extreme.?ÿ I rescued the light bulb changers that go on a pole, and several other things that I'd expect to need again, but don't know everything she might have given away or tossed.
But my van was parked next to the dumpster, so ...
