Nostalgia iMac for Bryan / Gutter Replacement / Thanksgiving in California
My buddy from high school, Bryan, had his 40th birthday earlier this month. For his birthday, we pulled off a nostalgic gift that succeeded in taking away a bit of the sting of turning 40. My brother, Ryan, has a hobby of collecting old school Apple iBook laptops from twenty years ago and while browsing eBay a few months back he stumbled upon a lime green iMac just like one Bryan used to have back in those days. Ryan concocted an idea to get the iMac for Bryan to revisit those days. This wasn't a bad idea as Bryan has expressed to us a few times that if we ever came across one of those older Macs to let him know. Well, Ryan had the opportunity to purchase the green iMac for practically nothing and did so. It's got its giant original retail box and everything. It was wild having the iMac here and thankfully it seemed to work even better than the one Bryan had all those years ago. What's funny is that I actually have a journal entry from the time in 2005 when we sold Bryan's original old green iMac off. How funny to think that 16 years later we'd be working to get it back.
Ryan had the fresh iMac shipped to me so I could spend a week getting it ready and test it out. Sure it's an old computer and can't do much but it was a treat to see it and have it on my desk for a short time. It worked great and even played a few games like old times. I even got some software and game CDs together with custom-printed cases to add to the fun. When Bryan's birthday arrived, we had him out for pizza and revealed the iMac. He was taken aback and after going through the box and looking at everything, we began to reminisce about those days and all the things we did with computers back in the day. It stretched into a couple hours and ultimately Bryan was quite thankful for this ray of sunshine in the midst of the depression surrounding turning 40. He took the computer home and I'm looking forward to hearing how he's been using it as it becomes an eye-catching trinket on his desk.
The never-ending work on our house continues as we finally had our gutters replaced a few weeks back. The old gutters were very old and either dented in places or rusted through with holes in other places. It was causing rain to collect closer to the foundation and was a priority to get done. Strangely, they only sent one person out to do the install and it took the poor guy the whole day and into the dark of the evening. He was rushing to get it done and actually forgot to install some leaf traps which required him to return to complete the install. I'm kind of miffed that they didn't perform an inspection to make sure I had everything done that I was being charged for and that I had to call them on it but that's how it goes with contractors: You kind of have to become an expert on their craft so that you're not ripped off. Ohh well. It's done and behind us and now we're ready for the winter rain and snow. The next big project is to replace all the electrical sockets and switches in the house. That'll be something I'll do myself so I'll save money by not hiring a contractor and I'll get to use the receptacles that I want instead of cheap contractor garbage. More on that in the coming months.
Every month since July, Nicole and I have gone on a trip or vacation of some kind. Even if it was as simple as visiting friends or family, each voyage still required me to take time off work and it added up. A couple days ago we got back from the last trip we have scheduled which was Thanksgiving with Nicole's immediate family in central California. Two years ago we did the same trip and it was a mess due to a set of heavy snowstorms. This time around, the weather was perfect and the driving was swift. We also brought our dog, Chip, with us which turned out to be worthwhile. He tolerated ten solid hours of being in a car better than I expected and seemed to enjoy being in a new place with new people. The visit itself was nice as it was good to get out of the house again even if it was to a familiar place. The weather was incredible, too. 70 degrees and sunny. I did some driving with Nicole's younger brother and we had the sunroof open and the windows rolled down. It felt like summer for an instant.
For many years I haven't been partaking in Black Friday shopping but being in California this year with such incredible weather, I felt restless. I avoided the masses and ended up visiting a big thrift store that was selling music CDs for 75 cents each. I should back up and explain that Nicole and I have decided to abandon some of the streaming music services we use and go with owning all our music. A big part of that is the nostalgia we feel to the music from our youth and how I've given away a lot of those CDs decades ago. We noticed that a lot of thrift stores have a lot of those old albums but I guess we were just waiting for the right time to begin collecting all those CDs again. That apparently happened last week on Black Friday as the thrift store I was told to visit in California had thousands of CDs half off for the shopping holiday. I spent hours there looking through all their stock and ultimately buying nearly seventy CDs spanning all musical genres from the 70s on. I reclaimed dozens of albums from my youth and began a new hobby of rediscovering all this great music. This will become a big project for me in December as I continue to collect and organize those old school CDs. Ultimately, Nicole and I want to build a music collection to satisfy our needs. It's been a lot of fun to have the thrill of the hunt and it looks like I've been bitten by the thrifting bug once again but this time for CDs. I'm looking forward to the final product.
Ryan had the fresh iMac shipped to me so I could spend a week getting it ready and test it out. Sure it's an old computer and can't do much but it was a treat to see it and have it on my desk for a short time. It worked great and even played a few games like old times. I even got some software and game CDs together with custom-printed cases to add to the fun. When Bryan's birthday arrived, we had him out for pizza and revealed the iMac. He was taken aback and after going through the box and looking at everything, we began to reminisce about those days and all the things we did with computers back in the day. It stretched into a couple hours and ultimately Bryan was quite thankful for this ray of sunshine in the midst of the depression surrounding turning 40. He took the computer home and I'm looking forward to hearing how he's been using it as it becomes an eye-catching trinket on his desk.
The never-ending work on our house continues as we finally had our gutters replaced a few weeks back. The old gutters were very old and either dented in places or rusted through with holes in other places. It was causing rain to collect closer to the foundation and was a priority to get done. Strangely, they only sent one person out to do the install and it took the poor guy the whole day and into the dark of the evening. He was rushing to get it done and actually forgot to install some leaf traps which required him to return to complete the install. I'm kind of miffed that they didn't perform an inspection to make sure I had everything done that I was being charged for and that I had to call them on it but that's how it goes with contractors: You kind of have to become an expert on their craft so that you're not ripped off. Ohh well. It's done and behind us and now we're ready for the winter rain and snow. The next big project is to replace all the electrical sockets and switches in the house. That'll be something I'll do myself so I'll save money by not hiring a contractor and I'll get to use the receptacles that I want instead of cheap contractor garbage. More on that in the coming months.
Every month since July, Nicole and I have gone on a trip or vacation of some kind. Even if it was as simple as visiting friends or family, each voyage still required me to take time off work and it added up. A couple days ago we got back from the last trip we have scheduled which was Thanksgiving with Nicole's immediate family in central California. Two years ago we did the same trip and it was a mess due to a set of heavy snowstorms. This time around, the weather was perfect and the driving was swift. We also brought our dog, Chip, with us which turned out to be worthwhile. He tolerated ten solid hours of being in a car better than I expected and seemed to enjoy being in a new place with new people. The visit itself was nice as it was good to get out of the house again even if it was to a familiar place. The weather was incredible, too. 70 degrees and sunny. I did some driving with Nicole's younger brother and we had the sunroof open and the windows rolled down. It felt like summer for an instant.
For many years I haven't been partaking in Black Friday shopping but being in California this year with such incredible weather, I felt restless. I avoided the masses and ended up visiting a big thrift store that was selling music CDs for 75 cents each. I should back up and explain that Nicole and I have decided to abandon some of the streaming music services we use and go with owning all our music. A big part of that is the nostalgia we feel to the music from our youth and how I've given away a lot of those CDs decades ago. We noticed that a lot of thrift stores have a lot of those old albums but I guess we were just waiting for the right time to begin collecting all those CDs again. That apparently happened last week on Black Friday as the thrift store I was told to visit in California had thousands of CDs half off for the shopping holiday. I spent hours there looking through all their stock and ultimately buying nearly seventy CDs spanning all musical genres from the 70s on. I reclaimed dozens of albums from my youth and began a new hobby of rediscovering all this great music. This will become a big project for me in December as I continue to collect and organize those old school CDs. Ultimately, Nicole and I want to build a music collection to satisfy our needs. It's been a lot of fun to have the thrill of the hunt and it looks like I've been bitten by the thrifting bug once again but this time for CDs. I'm looking forward to the final product.