01 September 2016

Another year older and deeper in...

Tundra Towing FeatherHeavy Tons

APR 2010, '05 Tundra Battlezone to MI, new trailer in IA en route

2500 (+1000 upstairs) square foot warehouse space @ $1200/month

May 2011 was a business venture and a way to get all the games out of multiple storage units and start working them. It was grand when we got them all inside and signed the lease. Getting comfy with such collecting accomplishments in one place was inspiring --the 'museum' looked very real. Fire code prohibited any way to open the doors to the public for gaming, but we sure had great pride walking people around the space whence they got a gander inside or they knew. It's impressive to see so many vintage games in one place - now to get them ALL working clean. Start whittling down junk for money to work the hundreds of restoration projects sitting there staring dark. Running around scarfing up good sales and cherry-picking Wolfman's great hauls was easy: have cash, grab game(s), store safe, next, repeat. OK so 100s later the project plate, like the first game needing just a week of good attention, fills up with months of tasking and sorting and storing and moving and fixing ad infinitum. (This is still just a hobby dream remember).




"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans..."

You can't trust anybody.
My better half likely woke me up wisely to the low path of company I had newly ventured with.
My venture half bragged my games were his all over the internet and stole stuff while I wasn't watching. He was good for bringing in games and filling in lots of museum gaps, bringing a good technician, but also bringing in the old fodder of strange folks (likely stealing stuff too). What was a purely kind gesture of rehabilitative support on my part became a nightmare of reality. It's simply not possible to help someone out of a hole when they continue to carry the shovel that they dig themselves in with -notwithstanding the obviously uncorrected method of beating up everyone else with it. Boy was I a poor judge of character despite the great dog (and I trusted too fast with blind compassion to an unforeseen record).
So I packed all my games tight for any more thievery and thankfully got him out without altercation.


Soon I was able to help a true old friend run his glass business for a good sublet price. Things seemed workable still despite the added dust - trust in giving keys to responsible people is invaluable. All through this warehouse transition the domestic front caved in and it became a second home to me and my dogs. At least things were safe and intact and I could work somewhere while my entire life shifted out of marriage. Lots of games got worked on during this duress, as keeping my hands busy seemed the only compensation for all the mental anguish swirling around my days.


/// APPL side note here, my stacks of Macintosh computers and parts and leftover truckload of closed business got stuffed into this game warehouse as well (refer to the defunct garage-based home business now divorced move out proximity stress). I had a young genius friend who was keen on whittling down some profit via eBay etc. (like I'd left it in 2007) with all this vintage equipment. So playing with old Macs is not actively parting out and down hundreds of pounds of stuff. Although trusting him with a key to the space and having another friendly body watching over things and having some away place was good.* Nothing seemed to get gone nor any greenback appeared in my pocket. My nostalgia for the System 7 has long vanished and everything hauled around all these years just became a pile of junk to recycle (properly). ////



Colorado becomes a legal Amendment 64 in 2012 -growers and industry start moving in and landlords get wise to all the cashflow. I had a good landlord, they let me continue to frustrate my hobby dream at $1500 a month stipend that somehow I was able to keep paying. Exceeding any income that came out of the place, it became a real problem when they asked for $2500 a month by 2016.
Guffaw! Time to get all this drama gone.


Early July I get the increase notice, going up September 1 to something I refuse to nor can pay (pisses me off the lack of compassion and quick notice - no way he'll move all that I could just hear for that 1K greed). Quid pro quo (as I was restoring his Pachinko game for him too), fellow tenant let me stash the big stuff and sublet only 200' across into his unit (altogether another charade).


I started losing sleep. I got my storage units back at a decent price and just commandeered my -only- good friend to help. Then became a series of every day from July 20 - August 31 of clearing out. Friend tenant loaned a forklift too to get stuff down from the mezzanine that had added that precious livable 1K xtra 'wearhouse' (Computer) Space. Slowly it got hauled out with daily trailer loads/unloads to some semblance of prioritized purpose (the gems, vector Ataris, and desert island games go to free heated family, the best vids have logic together like the pins, the cocktails, sellable EMs and etc., they find their stash unit #).




/// (Several hundred pounds including monitors and stacks of legacy units), Mac kid gets fire sale via inter-webs going and manages it well enough to stress me out thinking fast straws, grabs the cash mostly (s'ok he needed it and got it 'tendered' pro bono, so what), and leaves me with 20% of 'the pile' remaining. So too stash the last remnants of The Missing Byte and eventually donate the bulk of it to a favorite vintage Apple support business. Meh ///

Rock & Roll Music to the World



I had callouses on my callouses when we were done. I equated roughly 25-30 TONS of 'collectible' stuff. I lost the entire month of August, literally; getting enough rest and nourishment to daily work to see it done by August 31. Like the college term papers, I am the King of last minute all-nighter A dissertations --I did not quit. Done, 11pm August 31st. $900 a month now. Sleep (for a month).

I did, sleep that is. Finally when it was stashed dry with a good locks, finally, I could sleep. Tired 50+ bones now and the 'museum' is still safe, growing cobwebs like me in the fast-paced crazy of people who have attentions of gnats (let alone deep game challenges).



(This is still just a hobby dream remember).
And so it goes, a whole collection of vintage 1st-generation arcade games that I can't make viable here. I had museum in mind when things just fell into place for dating myself and doing this. I literally copied Funspot's game list in 2008 and said I would rather build this here in the West than travel to New Hampshire. What's a museum without things? Working so hard to get the things I didn't realize how difficult it would be holding on to it. Wow time flies.

The callouses and back pains, seeing 50, the death of my beloved dog, ending era of marital dreams, good sleep finally alone in my own bachelor house secure, games safe, I took the most of 2017 and played hooky. Finding myself again and keeping near only a Robotron and the yellow relic, I've slowly regained strength. Health is wealth.

Priorities.





*Get away. It was cool, this space. Walking around tons of games then maybe settling in on a good one to while away some free-time was simply outstanding. Hot summer days heat of divorce I cherished the dark cool shop with the AC/DC Back In Black, hammering out frustrations with giddy flippers. The other guys too sought some sanctity-away evenings to preserve some sanity back home -I was always glad to have this place for that cool reprieve; mountain of glorious games, please let me stay here rent cheap until I can open a real working place somewhere! Oz...