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I feel horribly consumerist today, in light of the misery elsewhere. H and StY are installing the big widescreen tv, the new cable/dvr hookup and home theatre router that will take the place of the low-tech pushbutton jobbie we've been limping along with. But several months of saving, planning, bird-dogging sales and eventual acquisition have culminated in installation this weekend.
StY was born in November, and that January, H built a wall unit, a single piece of furniture to house our state of the art stereo components, LPs, reel-to-reel tapes, books, tv, and various objets. He built it from hardwood 1 by 1s, a sheet of 3/4" ply he bartered a bottle of peach schnapps for, metal L brackets he painted flat black, several linear feet of rounded-over edge moulding, a length of linen-textured table skirting he bartered for, and a can of walnut stain. He cut the ply with a borrowed power saw and built the unit in our living room. The unit stood eight feet long, seven feet high, and 16 inches deep, with a platform running continuously across the bottom, four shelves on either side, and three widely-spaced shelves in the center. Various sections are backed with cloth-covered ply, to give the unit stability.
When we moved back to the states from Germany, the movers broke the unit down, packed the shelves, and threw the upright poles, L-brackets still attached, into the trash. H recovered them and made sure they were included with the shelves, and we reconstructed the unit here. We removed one of the center shelves to accomodate the increasing size of our upgraded TVs, and the stereo components and reel-to-reel containers gave way to audiotape and VHS storage racks, CD and DVD racks. The huge AR speakers are gone, and in their place are tiny bookshelf lamps illuminating photographs and a trickling fountain, bits of sculpture and pottery, a bowl of found rocks.
The shelves have also attracted tschotchskes, more photographs, bits of flotsam collected and kept as mementoes over the years. I filled four shallow tubs with framed photos, bits of statuary, candlesticks, votive and tealight holders, potpourri simmerers, and just stuff this morning. I also found a few books I'd thought had strayed, as well as an assortment of kitchen and office items, empty small containers of various shapes and sizes, that had been used to stage items on a couple of the shelves.
I emptied all but the top two shelves on either side so H and StY could strip out the old wiring and connections, remove the aged-out components, and install the new equipment. Everything is bare and vulnerable-looking right now, with holes cut into the cloth-covered plywood back, and they've gone off to the store to buy a 3-foot S-Video, or an R-6 or whatever-the-hell kind of cable they need to complete the beast. I live in hope that this evening we will be watching a movie in the comfort of our cushy furniture, a widescreen picture large enough we no longer need to squint to see.
As for the four tubs of flotsam? I'll be doing some serious sifting, and adding back only a few things. The rest, much of which I'd planned to pass down to family, will have to wait till we have a house with at least several more rooms. Or till I summon fortitude enough to set it loose on ebay or at Goodwill.
StY was born in November, and that January, H built a wall unit, a single piece of furniture to house our state of the art stereo components, LPs, reel-to-reel tapes, books, tv, and various objets. He built it from hardwood 1 by 1s, a sheet of 3/4" ply he bartered a bottle of peach schnapps for, metal L brackets he painted flat black, several linear feet of rounded-over edge moulding, a length of linen-textured table skirting he bartered for, and a can of walnut stain. He cut the ply with a borrowed power saw and built the unit in our living room. The unit stood eight feet long, seven feet high, and 16 inches deep, with a platform running continuously across the bottom, four shelves on either side, and three widely-spaced shelves in the center. Various sections are backed with cloth-covered ply, to give the unit stability.
When we moved back to the states from Germany, the movers broke the unit down, packed the shelves, and threw the upright poles, L-brackets still attached, into the trash. H recovered them and made sure they were included with the shelves, and we reconstructed the unit here. We removed one of the center shelves to accomodate the increasing size of our upgraded TVs, and the stereo components and reel-to-reel containers gave way to audiotape and VHS storage racks, CD and DVD racks. The huge AR speakers are gone, and in their place are tiny bookshelf lamps illuminating photographs and a trickling fountain, bits of sculpture and pottery, a bowl of found rocks.
The shelves have also attracted tschotchskes, more photographs, bits of flotsam collected and kept as mementoes over the years. I filled four shallow tubs with framed photos, bits of statuary, candlesticks, votive and tealight holders, potpourri simmerers, and just stuff this morning. I also found a few books I'd thought had strayed, as well as an assortment of kitchen and office items, empty small containers of various shapes and sizes, that had been used to stage items on a couple of the shelves.
I emptied all but the top two shelves on either side so H and StY could strip out the old wiring and connections, remove the aged-out components, and install the new equipment. Everything is bare and vulnerable-looking right now, with holes cut into the cloth-covered plywood back, and they've gone off to the store to buy a 3-foot S-Video, or an R-6 or whatever-the-hell kind of cable they need to complete the beast. I live in hope that this evening we will be watching a movie in the comfort of our cushy furniture, a widescreen picture large enough we no longer need to squint to see.
As for the four tubs of flotsam? I'll be doing some serious sifting, and adding back only a few things. The rest, much of which I'd planned to pass down to family, will have to wait till we have a house with at least several more rooms. Or till I summon fortitude enough to set it loose on ebay or at Goodwill.
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