keeping it stock, full mods or in between ?
I thought of my Grandfather, Charles Olson, today. I had noticed that the tension strap on my exercise machine is starting to fray. So I wanted to note the spring tension that it puts on the flywheel. For various reasons the tension scale on the machine is worthless. So I took a pencil and made a mark on the nicely finished piece of oak that was used by Nordic Track on their ski machines.
 |
| It's been marked - no longer stock |
My Grandparents lived in Milwaukee in "The Stone House" on 40th street near Lincoln Creek:
.jpg) |
| spent quite a few Sunday afternoons at this house |
It was a 2 bedroom house, nicely furnished. At the entrance there was a coat closet and I suspect that today if the door to that closet was opened and the door jamb near the hinge was examined there would be pencil marks and dates by my Grandfather. A "permanent" record of my increases in height. But hidden away, not a public conversation starter.
So does that qualify as keeping that house "stock" ?
I guess there are three groups of people in this world. Those that keep their possessions completely stock. Those that make slight, unobtrusive changes and finally those who go completely crazy and make it their own.
I was told a story about a fellow in my high school class. He subscribed to a series of military history books. When the new book would arrive he would be very careful while reading the book, never breaking the spine and holding the book only with some tissue paper between his hands and the pages. Apparently he wanted to preserve the value of his investment while still enjoying it as a source of entertainment and information.
I suppose I'm in the middle group. My Elecraft K2 has a few mods but they'd be pretty easy to remove if needed, for example:
OTOH I don't think I even took the covers off of the Yaesu FT-450d - no mods made so far although a cable or two has been rigged up.
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm