It's time to pack? Already???

I'm a packrat. In this household, that's an endangered species. With the move coming soon, my wife has been diligently packing up most of the household belongings over the past couple of weeks, liberally ridding herself of anything she feels she won't need in the new house. I've assigned myself the three rooms I use most often: my home office, the adjoining "storage" room, and the TV room. Yesterday, I started packing in earnest, spurred on my by wife's not-so-subtle ploy of piling all the empty equipment boxes in the room where the equipment resides.

Since I've been spending most of my time recently in my office, I started there. I can't actually pack the "working" PC equipment just yet. The movers will probably have to pry me away from this equipment when they come into the house. Instead, I have started with the older stereo equipment located in the storage room - the equipment that still functions perfectly, but was simply replaced because newer models had more features, more power, or just more appeal. In many ways, the older equipment is far better - showing rare quality control and artistry of design that is missing from much of today's equipment.

It goes without saying that I can't bear to part with any of this older equipment, nor do I have an easy time allowing these serviceable units to "pass on" to other family members who might benefit from them. Beginning yesterday, I lovingly placed all the older equipment back into their original boxes, along with original receipts, manuals, cables, remotes, and in most cases, the sales literature (glossy brochures) that brought me into contact with them in the first place. Unless I build some museum, it's unlikely any of these pieces will ever see the light of day again. But you never know...

I did manage, as a token gesture, to consent to the disposal of two pieces of computer equipment that stopped functioning over 10 years ago. An original IBM green monitor, circa 1983, and an early uninterruptable power supply (circa 1984) were taken to the city dump today, where they were given a hero's sendoff. I'll probably have nightmares about this trip, but to see the look on my wife's face when I hurled the monitor into the trash bin, it was worth it!