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Saying goodbye to The Thing In My Trunk
Mar. 7th, 2005 11:00 pmWe've finally decided to get rid of The Thing In My Trunk.
It's a bit of a sad farewell, since we've been carting it around for the past, oh, 12 years or so (though it hasn't actually been in the trunk of my car all that time). I originally found it at a thrift store and didn't know what it was. I suspected, just from looking at it, that it might be a really big modem of some sort and I'm a geek... I knew that if I didn't buy it and take it home with me, I would forever wonder exactly what the heck it was. So, it ended up being stuck in the trunk of my car.
I believe it was at the next Barnes & Noble Night (the weekly gathering for the folks who frequented my BBS -- yes, this was back in the Ancient Days of Yore) that I began talking about it... and realized it was still in the trunk. So, one or two at a time, people trekked out to see The Thing In My Trunk, no one quite knowing what it was, but all of us taking wild and slightly educated guesses. It stayed in the trunk and at the next major BBS party (which I believe was the Jumping On the Bed Party -- who says you can't have massively wild fun without getting drunk... and it was an event where the tale can quite honestly include the phrase "...and then the bellydancers showed up") it once again got brought up, with several more people heading out the parking lot to see if they could figure it out, leading to more wild speculation. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, a multiplexor (IOW, I was right, it's a really big modem of some sort).
We're still not sure exactly how we're going to dispose of it, since a bit of searching on the web reveals there may actually be a market for these things. Who knew? Not that we have the equipment we'd need to refurbish it... but there's a remote chance someone is out there looking for a fixer-upper.
It does just seem a bit sad, like the delayed ending of an era... and I know it's simply gotten tangled up with all the memories of the good times I had with the folks from my BBS (a number of whom I've lost track of over the years... though![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tomte (my co-SysOp) and her husband (whom she met on my BBS and through associated BBS parties) gidgiddoni, at least, have nominally made it onto LJ and a few others will do drive-bys of my LJ from time to time). Those were some incredibly wacky and wild times... and even without the multiplexor around to remind me, I'll always recall them fondly. Besides which, I've got pictures around here somewhere.
It's a bit of a sad farewell, since we've been carting it around for the past, oh, 12 years or so (though it hasn't actually been in the trunk of my car all that time). I originally found it at a thrift store and didn't know what it was. I suspected, just from looking at it, that it might be a really big modem of some sort and I'm a geek... I knew that if I didn't buy it and take it home with me, I would forever wonder exactly what the heck it was. So, it ended up being stuck in the trunk of my car.
I believe it was at the next Barnes & Noble Night (the weekly gathering for the folks who frequented my BBS -- yes, this was back in the Ancient Days of Yore) that I began talking about it... and realized it was still in the trunk. So, one or two at a time, people trekked out to see The Thing In My Trunk, no one quite knowing what it was, but all of us taking wild and slightly educated guesses. It stayed in the trunk and at the next major BBS party (which I believe was the Jumping On the Bed Party -- who says you can't have massively wild fun without getting drunk... and it was an event where the tale can quite honestly include the phrase "...and then the bellydancers showed up") it once again got brought up, with several more people heading out the parking lot to see if they could figure it out, leading to more wild speculation. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, a multiplexor (IOW, I was right, it's a really big modem of some sort).
We're still not sure exactly how we're going to dispose of it, since a bit of searching on the web reveals there may actually be a market for these things. Who knew? Not that we have the equipment we'd need to refurbish it... but there's a remote chance someone is out there looking for a fixer-upper.
It does just seem a bit sad, like the delayed ending of an era... and I know it's simply gotten tangled up with all the memories of the good times I had with the folks from my BBS (a number of whom I've lost track of over the years... though
tomte (my co-SysOp) and her husband (whom she met on my BBS and through associated BBS parties) gidgiddoni, at least, have nominally made it onto LJ and a few others will do drive-bys of my LJ from time to time). Those were some incredibly wacky and wild times... and even without the multiplexor around to remind me, I'll always recall them fondly. Besides which, I've got pictures around here somewhere.
