Still Alive

Yes, still alive...

I've simply not had the drive to contribute any further personal observations regarding my situation.  As such, any readers who may have stumbled upon this blog site had been saved from having to read my incoherent ramblings and meaningless drivel.

Not that I've gone totally underground.  As frustrating as this disability is - significantly robbing one of their ability to freely move about wherever they may wish and whenever the desire to do so strikes them, life still goes on.

My interests have not changed - only my ability to pursue them to the fullest.

My interest in television had died years ago.  Still I have to thank television--for it was that "idiot box" that persuaded me to increase my consumption of the printed word, primarily books.  I can leisurely tear through three or four books per week.  While many have begun to develop "cabin fever" from their CorVid-19 imposed isolation, my disability has inured me to such isolation while my personal library has, as always, provided pleasure and mental stimulation.

 Home base.

 

 One of my bookshelves between two CD towers.

When the eyes become fatigued from hours upon the printed page, I revert to my music library: classical music, folk, but primarily classic rock.  From the 1950's to the mid-1990's (music after that period died, or like myself, became severely disabled in that it stagnated--in my humble opinion).

My record collection and another CD tower.

45's, 78's and other musical formats reside elsewhere.

Yet my stereo system, like myself, has become somewhat disabled.  My injury occurred during renovations during which I had dismantled my Stereo. Only years later did I resurrect it and to my horror discovered that capacitors had dried out in my Linn Sondek LP-12 turntable's power unit while other maladies plagued other components.  My pricey Denon CD player had developed a digital stutter while a secondary Pioneer player's door refused to open on command and then chomps down on a CD before it can be loaded.  Analogue and even digital home hi-fi repair shops have died off at a rate comparable to 1960's Rock musicians.

 Old and dated, as I am...but I still favour it over an iPod.

I never claimed to have an audiophile system.  The audio-gods would frown upon me and others who don't have gold-plated, cryogenically treated audio-interconnects or Tos-link fiber-optic cables of the shortest length suitable for the purpose.  I have an old "head-banger' stereo from the 1980's with a spaghetti bowl of copper cables - a virtual Gordion knot, which if taken apart (as I did), can never be recreated in any usable fashion.  The secret of its operation has been lost forever.

 Forgive me audio-gods, for I have sinned.  My Gordion knot of interconnects.

Someday, finances permitting, I may want to join that elite group of audiophiles who spin vinyl on $10,000 turntables through equally pricey Class A amplifiers and electrostatic speakers.  Then again, they're spending a fortune just to squeeze the most they can from a $3.00 piece of vinyl.  It makes no sense...nevertheless, I understand.

Then again, I wonder what the Coronavirus and the stock markets are going to do to my pension?

Perhaps this Pandemic is the perfect time to take on such a challenge--to resurrect my system, however I'm certain my wife thinks otherwise.  As an American, she prefers the TV, following the antics playing out in her homeland south of the border.  (I suspect she may have long ago sabotaged my system.)

Soon after I became disabled, I scrupulously cleaned each and every album in my collection.  However, before preserving them in archival-quality record sleeves, I digitized each recording and saved them to two mirrored Fantom terabyte drives.

So, while I don't get to rattle the house with some heavy metal through my Infinity speakers - I do get to play my digitized albums through some fine Altec-Lansing monitors.

Someday, I will "shake, rattle & roll."

Rock on!