Dad’s stereo, still rocking

I hate wires.  Everything has at least 40 wires these days.  Case in point:

The living room has been in a constant state of flux due to some flat screen TV changes (i.e. we actually joined the new millennium and got a flat screen only to realize it was super tiny and got another, larger flat screen.)  As a part of all this craziness, the audio equipment has also been moved around and around. 

Here’s how it landed . . . at first — this wall used to be the “tv wall”. 

Then the little flat screen moved into the bedroom and freed up my $3 Value Village metal cart to be used for other media . . .

Then JT got busy and hung some Ikea Lack shelves for me above the desk.  It’s starting to come together . . . some of the picture frames are still empty because I’m not a big picture displaying person, so I’m working on that.  Worse case, we’ll put in an image of two of Elvis and that will finish it all off nicely.  The large image is a certificate from the Union Army that is addressed to JT’s great great great(?) grandfather.  Definitely something I would grab in case of a fire, methinks. 

You can start to see my obsession with the letter “t” slip out . . . and also lucite and white vinyl, but who’s keeping track . . .  I have all the wires corralled under the right foot of the desk and everything has been banded and painter’s taped to the back of the desk like you wouldn’t believe.  Wire problem solved!

My dad built the speakers from a kit back in the day.  Everything had been hanging out in my parent’s basement for a while, being badly abused by us kids.  Thanks to Craigslist, I ended up with a visit from Zaw Win who owns Alpha  Tech Electronics.  He restored the set back to life and we’ve been enjoying it ever since. 

Here it is, back in the day . . .

I’m assuming this picture is circa 1977.   Is that a bright yellow bean bag I spot in the corner?  The reel-to-reel is still in our basement, waiting for some more funding to give it a trip to see Mr. Win.    I’m pretty happy to have this family relic in our living room.   It is meaningful, functional and beautiful.   Plus, it gives us an extra incentive to cruise the local vinyl stores . . . that along with the vinyl burner that lets us put all that great vinyl sound into our iTunes.  Life is good.