Collecting vs. My Wife

From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh_at_shell1.aracnet.com>
Date: Wed Jul 11 20:04:07 2001

> My wife has grumbled a bit about my collecting, esp.
> when I use the loft in our house as a staging area.
> Most of the stuff is either in the computer room or
> the garage, but nothing beats being able to spread
> a system out on the floor and coffee table to either
> repair or build the system.

Before I asked my wife to marry me, I gave her a tour of my storage units,
and the computers I had at my folks (especially the ones in the garage).
Plus I'm the one that came up with the rule that computers are only in the
computer room in our apartment. Although at times there are computers, or
computer related stuff in the entryway or hall.

> I've recently decided to limit myself to VAX, PDP-11,
> and Alpha systems. I'm going to be selling off my
> CP/M and TRS-80 collection (except for my Cyzern
> System 7000 and possibly my very rare Norcom clone).
> When I mentioned this to my wife, I was extremely
> surprised when she said I should keep the stuff!
>
> I guess that's one of the reasons I love her so
> much; she supports my computing habit (she even
> bought me my first Alpha).

In my case I'm trimming my collection down to being primarily DEC because
that's what I find myself the most interested in, and spending what time I
have for the hobby on.

The most shocking hobby/wife event happened about a month ago when she told
me that she really wanted to go big swap meet. It wasn't just me that left
with stuff either, she found about as much stuff to bring home as I did (it
just weighed less).

OTOH, a certain part of my interest in collecting classic computers has
shifted over to collecting old video game systems and games, as that's
something we can enjoy together. The scary thing with that is she's
encouraging me to get a Neo Geo arcade machine! Anyone know of any cheap
ones in the Portland, OR area?

                        Zane
Received on Wed Jul 11 2001 - 20:04:07 BST