Taking time to smell the roses...

[sweetbeats]

...aka taking a moment to appreciate something or be thankful for something...in the spirit of Thanksgiving for you folks on this side of the “pond”.

We live in a world dominated by the disease called “busy”.

It’s good to slow down every now and again and enjoy the ride.

I’m thankful for a lot.

Even very little things like this 24V “ice cube” relay I pulled out of a vintage piece of Ampex gear the other day...nastiest piece of gear I’ve ever had...50 years old and left for dead some years ago in a leaky storage shed...layer of scunge and grime...rust...top cover was gone so there bits of leaves inside, etc...and then there were 4 of these guys plugged into sockets inside...they don’t make stuff like this anymore. A quick wipe-down on my shirt and it looks like new. Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

 

[miroslav]

I've got a soft spot for old gear that has been abandoned, but that had some glory back in the day.
I hate to see usable gear get tossed for the sake of "convenience" alone...and then replaced with something that has just a fraction of value, and is just another disposable item.

Modern electronics rarely get repaired...and TBH, much of the stuff is either too complicated to repair and/or not worth the effort. Cheaper to toss it and buy a new one. You don't see people taking stuff apart, replacing a component or two, and bringing it back to life. No one wants to take the time...everyone is too "busy" for sure.

My WiFi router that I just bought a month ago shit the bed tonight. Spent an hour with tech support jerking around doing the "try this" dumb shit that I already tried. Finally I said to her I was done with it. I'm shipping it back for a refund.
So...I'm sitting there with the reality that it's a long weekend...it's also the worst shopping weekend of the year, and by the time I order a new router and they ship it...it will be at least a week or more.
Now, I could just hook up my laptop DI to the modem...but, I have 3 laptops that I needed to configure over the long weekend, do a lot of downloading, etc...so, I needed multiple connections.

I look at the clock...it's 8PM...I get on the net and see that Best Buy is open until 9PM and it's a 20 minute ride.
5 minutes later I'm in the car heading to Best Buy....and I walked out of there at 8:58 with a new Netgear router under my arm. Cost me almost twice what I paid for the TP-Link that shit the bed...but Netgear is good stuff.
I figured tonight was my only shot at going out to buy a router before the Black Friday madness kicked in.