Memories...

Some people "spring clean."  We spring clean... summer clean... autumn clean... and winter clean.  And by "we", I mean: Joan.  My contribution is trying to stay out of her way, and sorting through my stuff before it gets tossed.

Today was one of those days.

I will admit, I am a packrat, but I think I have been doing better.  Especially since we retired.  When we sold the house up north, we had a full basement - plenty of square footage to hang onto stuff.  Stuff we really didn't need.  And in my case: the boxes for the stuff.  I had boxes for cameras and computers that we no longer had.  The packrats reading here will understand: you need those boxes, in case something needs to be sent in for repair.

Yeah, I get it - when a camera has been worn out and tossed, you are probably safe in throwing the box away, too.  We had a much bigger house in our pre-retirement days... there was plenty of room for my "collection."

Joan placed a bunch of boxes in front of me - "Oh, that was a great camera!"  Key word in that sentence: "was."  I tossed out 3 cameras and their boxes.  Yes, I wear out cameras.  It is less expensive to buy a new one than to try to have an old one repaired that won't focus.  I was feeling pretty good about that tossing, without anxiety pangs.  Then came boxes for cameras I do still have... "Yeah, I don't care if we toss these or not... I'm going to use them 'till I wear them out, too."

A couple laptops... "Well, if compact flash cards ever come back... oh, look - my second ever data card (the way we used to connect to the internet, back in the 'olden days.' "  Buh-bye.

A bag full of caps.  Even though I don't wear caps all the time, I seem to have um... collected a lot of hats again.  Some I kept for nostalgia sake, the rest - toss.

Joan handed me a briefcase.  Really, does anyone carry a briefcase anymore?  This is one I used to use when doing seminars...

If you can't see what I'm holding...

Yeah, that's "BS repellant."  I had to pull that out once in a while during seminars.  A sign from one of the seminars...

Goodness, who is that kid?  A few magazine covers of my work (Northern Light was a professional photographers magazine)...

Speaking of my work - 50 bonus points if anyone knows what this is in this leather case...

If you said, "A Hasselblad system!", you win.  A 500CM, an assortment of Zeiss lenses, a spot meter, filter holder, Softar I, II, and III filters.  These were the tools of my trade before digital took over in the imaging business.  Yes, this stuff all retired before I did, but I kept it for sentimental reasons.  Oh, that is an official Hasselblad leather case.  Yep, memories.  No, I can't toss that stuff, even though it has little value in today's world.  That particular Hasselblad was my first - had a bunch of them over the years.  Unlike today's digital cameras, it was darn near impossible to wear out a Hasselblad.  And if you did, they could be rebuilt.

What's in that box?  Goodness, a guitar strap from the 70s.  Joan said, "Does it smell like your band bus?"  I had to sniff it... nope.  For reference, there were 8 or 9 guys traveling on that bus... yes, it had a unique fragrance.  ;-)

I was going through some other stuff when I heard Joan say, "I don't think I can part with this..."  I went into the other room, and she was looking at images on a digital "frame."  This was a popular item around 2006 or 2007, and I had loaded it up with images of our travels (to that point) with the C-Dory.  LOTS of good memories... cruising in Florida with friends Brent and Dixie, lots of images of Molly the boat cat, Desolation Sound, cruising on the Erie Canal, our first travels with the HitchHiker 5th wheel.  Yeah, those images were loaded on there with a smart card, so they can come off the same way... but we both stood there and "reminisced" as each photo came up.  We used to have it out and on when we were home - no idea why we stopped that... I guess there are plenty of more recent fun memories that would be good on there, as well.  Of course, that was pre-blog.  ;-)

The thrift shop on the island will be getting some stuff.  Some didn't make that cut and went into the dumpster... the stuff that is just stuff.  The stuff that makes up the good memories gets to stay.  :-)