We have talked heating, lighting, storage, flooring for shops, and now I would like some input for a durable boombox-type solution. What are you guys using?
Heading into the Christmas season (SWMBO was in it back in April already) friends and family are all very busy trying to find out if anybody has any particular wishes.
The kid? Easy. She would like a cell-phone. She'll be 12 a week before Christmas, and we're allowed to 'double-up' the gift in order for her to rationalize the concept of greed looking like need. She has confided in me that not all phones are created equal. Although her mother is perfectly capable to set her own VCR, swap video cards, string ethernet cable through the house, and other technical high-wire acts, the kid still prefers to discuss those matters with me as I have a better idea of 'toy-value'. She has arranged a folder on my business computer with a whack of bookmarks all set to take me to the sites which feature all the latest phones. "Well, dad," (whilst rubbing my shoulders) " The one I listed with FIVE asterisks, will need a bigger memory card, otherwise all you get is about 20 seconds of 1.3 megapixel video, and if you already have 100 iTunes downloaded, well, you get the picture, right dad?" *squeeze, rub, and hug and a kiss* "Oh, by the way, is there anything YOU would like?" I heard a snicker from up the stairs. Little Shit's visit in my office had a dual purpose...she was on a spying mission. "I want better sound in the shop" I said without any part of that utterance having gone through my brain. She lit up: "Like a Blaster Boom Box??"....."COOL!!" She was gone, in two strides, up 13 steps to where she had heard her mother snicker earlier.
When you want to know what's on sale in Hong Kong, my trusty Grundig will dial in a SW radio station that will tell you. As is the trouble with so many geek-radios, they'll suck in a walky-talky discussion from two scientists swimming under the South Pole ice-cap, but the sound quality invariably sucks. Mine has a tone control, which changes the sound from awful/screech to awful/grumble. It is, however a capable piece and built like a tank, it just has a rough time setting my foot to tappin'. Music is in my blood. I have the bruises to prove it. Just a few days ago, Little Shit and I were in the mall walking past a store which sells things you can poke through your skin/lip/ears. The music, at that particular moment was Joey Ramone's version of Wonderful World, I automatically switched into headbanger mode and made a few dance steps culminating into a sharp pain on my upper right arm. Looking to where the punch had come from, I saw Little Shit, with her eyes bigger than I had ever seen them, hands on hips: "DAD, somebody here might recognize me!!"
Better sound for my shop. Needs to be loud, good low-end, preferably detachable speakers, so I can spread that image out a little. I have lots of speaker parts lying about, so I could cobble a few speakers together and go to the pawnshop and find me an old Technics receiver with 100 watts per side.....BUT... I don't have the time/will/inclination to go through that exercise. I guess I do want a boom-box. I wrote off the iPod idea as on a previous occasion, I found the earbud wires were getting snagged all the time. Bosch makes one, Milwaukee makes one, DeWalt makes one and I have seen others. None jump out at me. The Milwaukee sounded a bit better, but no CD, CDR or MP3. Bosch scored points, big time, when I found a video of them literally kicking the shit out that radio, throwing it down concrete stairs, no less.... but anemic sound--->no balls. Those job-site radios have stuff in them I don't need, GFI plugs and chargers, work lights and a 12-pocket tool pouch. *G*
So help me out here, folks.... please
TIA
Rob