The Virtual Explorers' Lounge

[Jim Avery]

I guess we are the opposite.  We used to live in Florida and at one point lived on our boat for 7 years.  If you bought a pair of shoes you had to get rid of a pair.  DW has had her hands full training me as on our first date I opened the car door (always polite at least) and she noticed the 36 beer huggies, the workout clothes, the running shoes, etc. in the car.  Haha, she said we had a few differences.  But now, we pack mostly in carry ons and even on a WC we take less than most.  As they always said: " different strokes for different folks".  Far out......😎

[JeriGail]

On 5/21/2021 at 10:08 AM, Peregrina651 said:

 

That would be nice. Maybe a note(s) to tellus@vikingcruises.com would get the ball rolling if they don't already have it.

I asked the question to Tellus.  My other question about the World Café received a phone call response so I'll see which I receive for this question.  It was strangely exciting to see Viking Cruises identified as the caller.  🙂 

[Twitchly]

After some resistance, I now prefer reading on a Kindle most of the time. I like being able to set the font size, read in bed without keeping my husband up, and travel with a full library. When it comes to thick books, the Kindle is definitely easier on my wrists, too! And I used to have way too many books scattered throughout the house. It felt liberating to donate most of them. In fact, I’m feeling the urge to do another purge.
 

That said, I still enjoy reading a physical book sometimes, too. I especially like being able to flip back and forth within a book, which e-books make it awkward to do. (The whole digital bookmark thing just doesn’t cut it sometimes.) And I think books can be beautiful. I do like the aesthetic. 

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, OnTheJourney said:

Man, I hear you. We rented the biggest freakin' dumpster the outfit had and paid a fee for something close to a thousand pounds over the limit. That thing was filled to the brim. Even threw in my old Lowry tube organ (went a bit hard...great sentimentality over that one). Funny story on that too..my brother figured all the copper wire was worth something since he frequently took barrel after barrel of heavy metal (my Dad owned a service station his whole life so the basement was full of parts of engines in various states of repair or disrepair along with a myriad of other mechanical devices and parts thereof) and you-name-it over to the dump, so, when it came time for the organ, he said, "I know this'll go hard for you, man, but if you wouldn't mind snipping off all the wiring and then save it to be taken over, that'll be great". And there was aLOT of wiring in that old tube organ. Alot of tubes too. Unbelievably heavy for the size of it. My poor Mom wanted it out of the house for decades but, of course, noone got around to doing it during routine visits. Her eventual attempt at getting rid of it was to literally saw off the legs of the bench (which was a shame really since the bench was a nice piece that could have went along with everything else at the sale). However, the really humorous part is that....the legs simply unscrewed!  To give you an idea of how much stuff my Dad truly had, one of the first times I had my wife-to-be up to the house to visit, she NEVER NOTICED the full-size farm tractor that in the basement since it was surrounded by so much other stuff. Narrow paths sort of meandered between these mechanical and other items so as to truly obsure something as large as a huge tractor. Gigantic basement too. There were old corvair engines, other parts of blocks, a lathe, welding equipment, drums full of all sort of service-station related items from his years of being a mechanic. His workbench down there was like an archeological dig - all sorts of projects that he had going over the decades. Once he passed, I used to tell my Mom, "every time you go down there (to the basement), if you see something that looks like junk, pitch it". But, she just seemed overwhelmed to make any inroads into the massive accumulation so it befell my brother and I. 

Sounds familiar except change farm equipment for printing presses! LOL

[OnTheJourney]

14 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

change farm equipment for printing presses! LOL

Oh  NO!!!  Equally heavy stuff to move!!  Guess we all have our stories to tell 😆And the items themselves could tell some interesting tales too. 

Edited May 22, 2021 by OnTheJourney

[LindaS272]

2 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Very true! Always tried my best, though, to minimize physical clutter, e.g. thus far at least a minor foray into the whole idea of downsizing!  A LONG way to go yet with it. Started selling on ebay a few years ago, but that's one piece at a time. Can't stand going in peoples' houses where there is 'stuff' piled up in the corners, etc. and so we don't do that. Wouldn't be able to stand it. Funny..when my daughter's high-school aged friends used to visit they always (to her anyway) remarked that the house looks so spartan wth hardly anything setting around. Perhaps a bit of OCD maybe stemming from being a school teacher where things (for me anyway) had to be reasonably organized in order to function in the classroom. A bit of a curse, too, being only one generation removed from that which grew up during the depression since it's inevitable to have inherited at least some of the 'save this cause you never know when you might need it' mentality. I do my best to work against that but my closets and such unfortunately bear witness to it. My dad exercised that philosophy par excellence, much to my brother's and my chagrin when it came time to clean out the house in preparation for sale!  Gotta try to stick to the adage...if you haven't used it in the last 5 years, chances are you won't..so...toss it or move it along. My dad saved EVERYTHING so trying not to do that lest my daughter and son-in-law someday have the uneviable task of having to do at least a portion of what my brother and I had to do at my parents' place. 

My mom was born in 1918 in the Midwest—definitely a Depression baby. Her mantra: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!

[CharTrav]

Re digital vs paper. This is just one of many bookcases in our house. Every room has at least one. 😊

[CCWineLover]

46 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

My mom was born in 1918 in the Midwest—definitely a Depression baby. Her mantra: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!

Same here!  Mom born Iowa 1917.  That generation was indeed the greatest!

[CharTrav]

15 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Same here!  Mom born Iowa 1917.  That generation was indeed the greatest!

Mine experienced the dust storms in the prairies of Saskatchewan. And a complete nut about dusting and fingerprints on door jambs. Re the latter that's why the door frames in our house are stained golden oak/dark walnut finished with polyurethane. If there are fingerprints on the jambs I can't see them. 😉

[deec]

3 hours ago, Twitchly said:

After some resistance, I now prefer reading on a Kindle most of the time. I like being able to set the font size, read in bed without keeping my husband up, and travel with a full library. When it comes to thick books, the Kindle is definitely easier on my wrists, too! And I used to have way too many books scattered throughout the house. It felt liberating to donate most of them. In fact, I’m feeling the urge to do another purge.
 

That said, I still enjoy reading a physical book sometimes, too. I especially like being able to flip back and forth within a book, which e-books make it awkward to do. (The whole digital bookmark thing just doesn’t cut it sometimes.) And I think books can be beautiful. I do like the aesthetic. 

that is exactly how like to read....haven't been able to do that on a kindle...but I love being able to travel with it and read it in the sun or on the SUN (before she was sold).  Has anyone bought the newest kindle that I think will read to you too?  I often listen to a book while walking, cleaning or doing yard work.

[OnTheJourney]

5 hours ago, CharTrav said:

This is just one of many bookcases in our house.

Yep..looks real familiar. Were our place raided in search of printed material during a hypothetical "Fahernheit 451" scenario, they'd simply torch the whole house. 😳

[OnTheJourney]

5 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

That generation was indeed the greatest!

Oh yeah....no doubt. My parents were both born in '22. My Dad was a POW in the war - captured during the first day of the Bulge and spent the rest of the war in German prison camp. My Mom was expecting with my brother, at the time, and had no idea if my Dad was alive or dead for quite awhile. And, of course, my Dad had no idea that back home my brother was born in April of '45 - it happened just around the same time he was liberated from camp by his own division (99th infantry). Quite a story, like many others. Came home (thankfully or else I wouldn't be typing this) and started his garage auto-repair business - family owned ever since and still continues today by my brother. Will never see another generation (or time in general) like the one they grew up in. We lived in center city Allentown and never even locked the doors at night. Noone we knew did. Different era. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by OnTheJourney

[OnTheJourney]

5 hours ago, CharTrav said:

Mine experienced the dust storms in the prairies of Saskatchewan. And a complete nut about dusting and fingerprints on door jambs. Re the latter that's why the door frames in our house are stained golden oak/dark walnut finished with polyurethane. If there are fingerprints on the jambs I can't see them. 😉

LOL...love it. Great story. 

[Tom.in.nc]

Viking is cruising again! Venus is heading to Liverpool.

 

[CharTrav]

21 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Yep..looks real familiar. Were our place raided in search of printed material during a hypothetical "Fahernheit 451" scenario, they'd simply torch the whole house. 😳

Fahrenheit 451 is in our hallway bookcase (inset into the wall). Solid science fiction. 😁

[OnTheJourney]

3 hours ago, CharTrav said:

Fahrenheit 451 is in our hallway bookcase

Nice bookcases! I don't have the book...but do have a VHS copy of the movie. DW and my favorite book of all time is the Lord of the Rings. Have several different copies of it. I think Peter Jackson did a phenomenal job turning that into a movie. Love sci-fi though. During the pandemic I got through all of the Asimov "Foundation" series. 

[OnTheJourney]

On 5/22/2021 at 2:41 PM, CharTrav said:

Every room has at least one. 😊

wow....your place really would be torched!!  Looks like mostly paperbacks (?)  We have most of our books in the master bedroom sitting area. Too many!!!  Every year we fill a few boxes for our church flea market or else other book donation locations nearby. I'm promising myself that unless it's a book I REALLY think I'll re-read, some of them have to go. Have to make room for more photo albums - another (slow) ongoing project since we have loads of envelopes full of 35mm prints from the years before we had digital cameras. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by OnTheJourney

[CharTrav]

27 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

wow....your place really would be torched!!  Looks like mostly paperbacks (?)  We have most of our books in the master bedroom sitting area. Too many!!!  Every year we fill a few boxes for our church flea market or else other book donation locations nearby. I'm promising myself that unless it's a book I REALLY think I'll re-read, some of them have to go. Have to make room for more photo albums - another (slow) ongoing project since we have loads of envelopes full of 35mm prints from the years before we had digital cameras. 

That part is all paperbacks but we have quite a few hardcovers - about 800 of various genres. I'm in the middle - after a multi year hiatus - of a project to digitize years worth of slides and negatives (mine, my husband's, and my Dad's). I stopped keeping photos in albums and now save my photos on my hard drive and/or my photo site. 

[Twitchly]

4 hours ago, CharTrav said:

Fahrenheit 451 is in our hallway bookcase (inset into the wall). Solid science fiction. 😁

I am impressed at all your books are the same height. Quite a feat. 😉

[CharTrav]

12 minutes ago, Twitchly said:

I am impressed at all your books are the same height. Quite a feat. 😉

Those shelves were designed to hold paperbacks of the same height.  We have paperbacks bigger and smaller in bookcases elsewhere in our house. 

[OnTheJourney]

10 hours ago, CharTrav said:

I stopped keeping photos in albums and now save my photos on my hard drive and/or my photo site. 

Yeah. I don't print out pics anymore. All is uploaded to Shutterfly, but I still would like to get the remaining 35mm pics into albums - which, in and of themselves, consume considerable space. 

 

That really is something how you have all the same sized paperbacks for those shelves. WAY more ambitious than I would be when it comes to organizing books, though my wife has loads of paperbacks that are indeed the same size. If a book doesn't fit vertically on a shelf, it simply gets turned the other way and sits horizontally. Sounds like you guys do have more books than we do.

 

Oh Lordy have mercy. I keep thinking about someday when our (only) daughter has to go through everything, so the time is now to start weeding out. I KNOW she'll otherwise have absolutely no interest in reading probably 90% of what's here. Our safe deposit box is full of the original 8mm video cam cassettes that were used for decades prior to getting a digital video camera just a few years ago. I suppose those'll wind up in the trash someday. OH...and the negatives to just about all the 35mm pics are in there too!!  Can you say OCD????  Got cabinets full of VCR tapes and DVDs too, as well as other cabinets full of vinyl LPs. Started selling some of those that I no longer listen to on eBay. If it's something that catches buyers' interest, they can move along pretty quickly. Others just sit there as part of my overall listings. Our '97 and '95 cars still have cassette and CD players. Will miss that someday. Have yet to buy a car manufactured in the 21st century. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by OnTheJourney

[OnTheJourney]

On 5/22/2021 at 12:21 PM, Twitchly said:

I like being able to set the font size,

Now here you have a good point!  The paperbacks haven't gotten any easier in the wake of having to use reading glasses for the past many years!!! 

 

10 hours ago, CharTrav said:

digitize years worth of slides

That's something I never got into...the old slide projectors. Bought a (reel to reel) movie projector at our church flea market about 5 years ago - never used it once yet. Have a bunch of those old movies too. MANY years ago I spliced together many of  them (as in....literally splicing...this contrivance that glues one end of the film to another), since they used to come on those real small reels - so put them together on larger reels 8-12" reels. All that stuff is in a closet here somewhere. Then, eventually took a bunch of those to a guy that consolidated and put much of it on VHS - came out ok except that he added this really corny elevator-type music as a soundtrack background. A bit weird. Otherwise, no sound - so we're talking video taken with 60s technology movie cameras. Many weren't even in color. Wow...how things change. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by OnTheJourney

[CharTrav]

20 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Yeah. I don't print out pics anymore. All is uploaded to Shutterfly, but I still would like to get the remaining 35mm pics into albums - which, in and of themselves, consume considerable space. 

I use SmugMug. Have many 35mm slides to digitize, some (from my Dad) going back to the late 1940s. 

 

SciFi paperbacks tend to be in a pretty standard size. That bookcase wall contains only SciFi, and not all of our SciFi either. The hardcover SciFi are in our bedroom bookcase (the one I shared earlier); the oversize SciFi paperbacks along with normal size SciFi paperbacks by Authors with first initial A are in another bookcase. 

 

I'm quite familiar with the idea of dense packing books, using a combination of horizontal and vertical orientation to maximize how many books can fit into what might be limited bookshelf space. Got good at it in when I was still working full time (retired now) as my company kept reconfiguring our offices steadily decreasing our book shelf capacity. 🙄

[Clay Clayton]

59 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Oh Lordy have mercy. I keep thinking about someday when our (only) daughter has to go through everything, so the time is now to start weeding out. I

You made me remember an article I read a couple of years ago (but can’t find now 😢irony I know). The thesis was to help your kids and to decide three areas of your life that you wanted to be remembered for. For me, it would be travel, family, and I’m not sure yet.  Once you decide on these, to then start getting rid of anything not related to these three areas of your life. The author suggested letting your children know what was going so that they could express interest if they wanted anything. 
 

Once you had cleared out anything not in the big three, she then suggested culling through items related to these and only keep the most important or meaningful. She then suggested preparing these items to make it as easy as possible for your kids to keep them. If it was pictures, put them in frames, if it was music and albums, have them inventoried perhaps with a story about why a particular album was meaningful. In all cases, she said don’t store in cardboard boxes, use waterproof bins. 
 

Anyway, I’ll get off my high horse, I’ve tried to convince Mike’s mom to do this to no avail...we have said it will take us months to clean out her house unless we decide to just pull up a dumpster.  Which I would absolutely hate to do. 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

In a relatively short time (by cosmic standards) the earth will be swallowed up by the sun as it goes through the red giant phase, on its way to becoming a white dwarf.  But the white dwarf will shine for trillions of years.  A fitting memorial to all our junk.