October 8, 2008
"I don't care about losing all the money, it's losing all the stuff."
Posted by pete at October 8, 2008 12:31 AMThree weeks in, and the crew should be starting on the big build (or as I'm calling it, "Repairway to Heaven"). I finally got "the office" cleaned out, which quickly turned into a sort of violent nerd purge, as I realized how much crap i'd accumulated in the last 20-odd years.
Sure, the losses were pretty significant. Just about every movie poster I'd collected since high school didn't make it (unless it was in a tube, which means I'm still the proud owner of an Elektra one-sheet). Bye bye to my original Terminator and Buckaroo Banzai posters, as well as most of the Simpsons 7-11 memorabilia The Thing That Walks Like a Man procured for me in California.
The Han Solo standee also didn't make it. In the end, water accomplished what Boba Fett never could.
Nothing's irreplaceable, though I'll withhold comment on how likely I am to go out and find another copy of that 27 Dresses poster. And honestly, as I was stuffing debris into garbage bags I found myself getting more and more annoyed. Why the fuck am I carting this shit around with me? Am I really going to go back and leaf through these back issues of Barracuda? How many times in the last ten years have I re-read Uncut's punk retrospective? Two Kenner Millennium Falcons? Seriously?
Three hours and a half dozen trash bags later, here are a few items that I'm happy to say did make it through the tempest:
+ My autographed picture of Marlin Perkins, obtained after striking up a (brief) correspondence with him following a chance meeting at the Hogel Zoo in Salt Lake City circa 1976.
+ A patch of Astroturf from old Busch Stadium. I nodded reverently as my dad told me, "Vince Coleman might have spit on this very piece."
+ The Yuengling poster Peenman sent me last year. It will have a place of honor in the new rumpus room.
+ Snoopy - My oldest remaining toy/stuffed animal, received as a present some time in the early '70s and liberated from the clutches of Evil Little Sister who tried to abscond with him when I was in college. I'll take a picture later, as the closest I could come up with during a cursory online search was this:
He got some water on him, but two wash cycles (and one lost eyebrow - his, not mine) later, he's as close to good as new a 30-year old toy can be.
+ The Opus Collective - Including Shower Cap Opus, given to me by my Sadie Hawkins date senior year. I really appreciate the effort she went to in order to obtain the "Save Water, Shower with a Friend" button pinned to his towel.
And of course, the sickly magnolia tree that's been dying an agonizing death in our front yard for the last three years came through without a scratch.
I fertilized my magnolia this spring, and it has bloomed steadily all summer long. Magnolias are supposedly nutrient hogs. Maybe it’s just hungry. Maybe you’ve already paid somebody ridiculous amounts of money to try that and they failed and I should just shut up.
I never had a Kenner Millennium Falcon. If I had a place to display it, though, I’d be all over the Lego Millennium Falcon like a nerd on a nerdy thing.
Dude, your meeting and brief correspondence with Marlin Perkins is both troubling and creepy.
I should probably have mentioned my father was with me, and was actually the one who got the address and everything.
Maybe you’ve already paid somebody ridiculous amounts of money to try that and they failed and I should just shut up.
Disturbingly, we haven’t heard from the tree guy since Ike.
About four years ago, we had a plumbing-related flooding in our apartment that required us to vacate for a couple months. We moved into a teeny one-bedroom for the duration, and decided to take the opportunity to go through every last scrap of paper we owned. I bet we chucked a third of our stuff. It was incredibly liberating. Of course, very little of our stuff was damaged, and everything we got rid of was by choice, but my point is that we all tend to sit on stuff just to know that we have it, and at some point that just becomes stuff for the estate sale.
Speaking of random autographs, I don’t have Marlin Perkins’, put I do have Mel Blanc’s.
With “Opus” ending its run after 30 years (Berkeley Breathed is now aiming to write children’s books, and already has one done), make sure The Opus Collective is in a prominent place in your new lair. “Opus” has always been worthwhile reading in the comics.
I fertilized my magnolia this spring
I snickered at this. I’m sorry. I’m 12.
Maybe your “Evil Little Sister” was just trying to get payback for all the times you took her allowance money!
Do you even understand the concept of “protection money?”
Glad to hear that the turf from the old Busch Stadium made it! I have a Snoopy from the 70’s too. I feel bad for mine since the stuffing is out of his neck & his head falls to the side. I guess I could have him fixed since I do work for Build-A-Bear Workshop & we have tons of stuffing for the animals. Damn I’m brilliant sometimes! I’m glad to hear that you & your family are doing well considering the circumstances!
Dude, your meeting and brief correspondence with Marlin Perkins is both troubling and creepy.
And I will take one of those Millenium Falcons off your hands….I’ll trade you for afore-blog-mentioned IRON MAN 7-11 slurpee cups. We’ll have your collection of nerdy fanboy crap back up to snuff in no time!