October 24, 2024
#500
Gentle reader,
First of all, THANK YOU for taking the time to read my writing and viewing my images! This article, since it is the 500th, is going to be a bit different. This blog has always been about what Nancy and I have collected. It began on December 12. 2008, just as something to do. That was almost sixteen years ago. Sixteen! I had no expectation whatsoever that anyone would read it. None. Wow, did you all prove me wrong! And THANK YOU for doing that! It truly warms my heart.
This is our humble abode which we have occupied since 2001. We love where we live, our neighbors, some of whom are also friends, our town, our church family and all kinds of other folks we have encountered while living here.
This is what was the former bedroom of one of our daughters, transformed into something else by the two of us. It was going to be our TV/Media room. Brown walls? I know, I wasn't too sure about that either. But, with the white trim, it works.
It is my understanding that certain words are no longer allowed to be uttered. Oriental is one. Now, we must say: Asian. Another is: Master. Oh, no, not a nice word! Well, pooh! In this case, the room, so many of you know of as The Listening Room, was originally the Master Bedroom. There, I said it! However, the house was purchased new in 1987 with the first floor unfinished. A coworker/friend who bought his house (almost identical to ours) in the same town, years before we did, bought his that way and finished the lower floor (the house is a split-foyer) all by himself.
The upper floor consists of: a living room connected to a dining area with the kitchen to the left (or right, if the house floor plans are flipped) of the dining area. The kitchen doorway is directly at the top of the stairs coming up from the front door. Down the hallway is: a linen closet (we use it for a pantry) a hall closet, a full bathroom, two smaller bedrooms and the master bedroom which had a vanity in a short hallway on the way to a second door into the master bathroom.
The upstairs hallway with new Acacia flooring. The Office's door is at the end of the hallway, straight ahead. The Listening Room's door is to the right at that end. I am sitting in The Office, within it right now, typing this 500th article.
This is what the wall opposite me looked like several years ago. The small speakers (Radio Shack Optimus PRO LG4 and Minimus 7W) are gone, a pair of Klipsch KG-4s sit on each end of the shelf, which I made, with a pair of BOSE 301 Series VI directly above them. Nancy bought the latter, many years ago for me, hoping that I would use them in the living room instead of the large speakers I was using at the time.
On the other side of that same wall (above) is the other daughter's bedroom. That has become Nancy's "Office". Although, she rarely goes in there. She sure does have a lot of stuff in there, though.
Now, you have the lay of the land, so to speak, of the upper floor of our humble home. Downstairs is a family room which houses our very first HD TV, a 32" Samsung Monitor. Nancy surprised me with that too. She likes to buy me things. It still works fine, so why get rid of it? I found an early Pioneer Soundbar and subwoofer at a thrift store. It is rarely used (as is the family room itself) in it there are three aquatic turtle tanks. The middle one houses Tony a Northern Red-bellied Cooter. Nancy brought him home fresh from his egg. The other eggs did not hatch and it was far from any water. He is HUGE now. Two much smaller tanks, one on each side of his, has a female Southern Painted Turtle in it. So, the Yankees and the Southerners are well represented.
Our bedroom is also down there, but much bigger than the "master" bedroom. Another full bathroom across the hall from it and the laundry/workroom at the end of the hallway, finishes off the lower floor's layout. Why am I telling you this? Because you have seen parts of some of the rooms, the backyard and now, some of the front yard. Even some of our cars you have seen because there were articles about them.
The link below will take you to the web page with has all of the links within it to each category of articles I have written over these almost sixteen years:
From the very first article:
"The title of my blog: The Robb Collections was chosen because we both have the "collector's gene" as many of you out there also may have. We have both started and eventually stopped collecting numerous things. Below is a partial list, in no particular order:
Me: Old Cameras of all formats (also digital cameras and lenses)
Me: Vintage and high end audio equipment
Her: Beanie Babies
Her: Glass paperweights
Me: HO slot cars and track
Both of us: HO train cars and track
Both of us: Die cast cars of all sizes
Her: Glass bottles
Me: Auto racing posters and photos (NOT NASCAR!)
Me: Chronograph wristwatches
Me: Books
Me: LP records
Both of us: CDs
Me: Movie scores in both formats (soundtracks)
Me: Toy and trainer rifles
Her: Clocks wall and floor standing"
The parts in italics I added. So, let's see, what do we still have from that list in the house?
Film cameras: I owned a total of 505 over several years. Around two hundred or so at any given time.
The cameras are mounted upon my invention which I named: CameraLock. I tried selling plans to camera collectors, but very few bought them to make their own from said plans. That wall is behind me right now. Those panels are long gone as are 98% of all the cameras.
What is left are these eight cameras, plus a large format press camera, sent to me by Nancy's dad from Puerto Rico, and a paper camera which looks like a really old large format camera (below) Nancy gave me the camera kit. It is a pinhole camera and uses 35mm film.
Next on that list from sixteen years ago is Vintage and high end audio equipment. This photo shows a whole lot of speakers which I had found (all but the BOSE 301 speakers) in thrift stores. None of them still remain here. All went to live in other peoples houses. This shows but a tiny fraction of the hundreds of speakers and components I have bought, enjoyed, then later on, passed on to others to enjoy since 1976.
Also, all of these were found in thrift stores. Including that pair of Spendor (BBC) LS3/5A monitors (actually on stands with other on top). They cost me ten bucks for the two of them. I did not know what type of speakers they were until I got home and looked them up. ALL of these are also long gone.
Nancy's Beanie Babies are next on the list. ALL of these were Nancy's. A guy I worked with sold them on the side. I paid $35 for a BB squirrel from him! 80% of them are gone. And what's left are probably worth less than they cost new in a store. The cabinet with the diecast cars and cameras in it, I built to house her collection.
Nancy's Glass Paperweight collection. ALL are long gone.
HO Slot Cars.
Again, most are long gone. We still have a lot of track.
We still have a bunch of them, but have not done anything with them since 2000.
Nancy's daughter, now 37, playing with the HO trains before we moved down here.
This is all of the HO cars and locomotives. We still have them and track, all in the attic. We inherited Nancy's father's cars, track and various things. The rest we bought new.
Diecast cars, all sizes, is next on the list. This was 2019. We got all of the Hot Wheels scale cars and laid them all out to count them. We were (and still enjoy their races) fully immersed in THE BEST You Tube diecast car racing channel of all: 3Dbotmaker - YouTube
I had designed and built this downhill diecast cars racing track and we planned to make our own YouTube diecast racing channel as so many others have done, who were also impressed by 3Dbotmaker's awesome success. But, eventually, we lost interest. The track and most of the cars are still in the attic. The kids will discover them and more, when we are gone from the Earth.
Glass Bottles. I think all of these are also in boxes in the attic.
Auto racing posters and photos (NOT NASCAR!) These photos serve a dual purpose: They show a portion of the desk and chair (photos are from 2008) and the white walnut shelf I made fifty years ago. All are in the same position, but all of the posters have been moved and there is a different shelf to my right. Also, I use two 27" monitors now.
These are all on the wall opposite me now, see below.
Chronograph wristwatches. I had as many as thirty of them. Some fake Rolex watches, purchased via eBay before Rolex sued them to force them to stop allowing fakes on their auction site.
Movie scores in both formats (soundtracks) Yes, I still have many in analog and digital formats. The top shelf above (this is the white walnut shelf I made fifty years ago) holds Classic Rock and Pop. Bottom shelf is scores and soundtracks. I have MANY CDs also with that type of music.
Toy and trainer rifles are all long gone. I do have two Airsoft rifles and a BB rifle. None of which I have used in a long time.
Clocks floor standing and wall Oh, yes, we still have way too many clocks. Most are mechanical, some are battery powered. Those are the one collection I have never written about.
NOW, I will tell you what will be different about my blog. I will NO LONGER be writing about possessions. On Sunday, the pastor's Sermon was about choosing what is truly important in life. Buying a home and filling it (and the garage, we don't have one of those) with STUFF is not what our focus should be. Especially if you have to rent STORAGE SPACE because your have too much stuff!
We have been on a decluttering kick lately. Several times I wrote above about things being in boxes in the attic. All of those things have monetary value, but I have seen things, which used be "worth a lot of money", like Beanie Babies for example, are worthless now. Do we want to saddle our adult kids with clearing out the house and perhaps having an estate sale to find homes for much of our stuff?
Setting priorities is the key. We are both involved in things with our church, me more so, since I'm retired. Many things our congregation does are to help those less fortunate in our community. Things I am involved in are: teaching adult Sunday school, KAIROS prison ministry (my true calling) Boy Scouts (now called: Scouting America, we have boys and girls in the troop and pack) Holy Fitness which is for folks 55 and older, serving communion, reading Scripture and leading prayers from the Pulpit, Men's Breakfast, Bible Study and more.
So, I challenge you to look around, with truly OPEN eyes and really see just how many things you have which have been sitting right there for SO long that you not only have forgotten that you have them, you haven't even SEEN them sitting right there, and they are likely quite dusty as a result. So, do you NEED those ignored things?
Really think about what you have been led, by advertisers, to think that you MUST OWN the latest of, things such as: Big Screen Television, The Latest Cell Phone, A New: Crossover, Full Size Pickup or SUV (we have bought perhaps five new vehicles in our long years of driving. The rest, including the sedan, station wagon and compact pickup we drive, were bought used. They are respectively: 19, 11 and 3 years old) and countless other things which STRANGERS, who are fighting for your attention, are using all kinds of tricks to convince you to give THEM your hard earned money RIGHT NOW, or you will be ASHAMED when your friends see you don't have what THEY have!
These things are important in our lives: God, Family, Church (we belong to a Presbyterian church which welcomes ALL to worship) Friends, Neighbors and doing things which will HELP others, especially those who are homeless.
Okay, I believe I have made many points. Do you want to know what I do the first thing every morning and the last thing every evening? It is this, I Pray. I thank God for keeping us safe and healthy, I pray for the people in our church family who need the Lord's help in their lives. I pray that if we travel this day that we will reach all of our destinations safely and return home safely without health issues as a result of our dealings with others that day. I suggest that you give it a try. It costs nothing and I have had SO many prayers answered and had others who were praying for me, which were answered. So. Many.
I end this here with these words: I have never made a dime writing this blog. I do not know you, but I love you. You have taken time to READ my blog, when you could so easily have just spent your time looking at videos on the Internet, as so many others chose to waste their precious time doing. I thank your for sixteen years of reading my words and viewing my photos. I am truly humbled.
Scott Robb
October 24, 2024
#500
