On the floor under a lot of junk I found three packs of five of RS stock number 484-2864. I remember why we used to use these. It was to stop high voltage spikes on a system that used 24V DC line power, and it worked. Now that must have been a long long time ago, because that system was ripped out in its entirety and replaced in the mid 1990s, and my attempts to keep the old system working were at their height five to ten years before that. Actually it more a case of bringing it back from the dead! I just looked that stock number up. The product is still exactly the same. I wonder what price I paid for those 15 unused thyristors in 1990? More or less than their price now?
I also found a box with some very childish writing on it. As soon as I saw it I remembered what had happened. Carolyn would be about five, and she was 'helping' me. I showed her how I was writing labels on boxes, and wrote one for her to copy. It said '1/4" washers.' I remember it as if it was yesterday. Here is her attempt. She's 35 now.
Today I found a large number of those black flyleads that used to come with every VCR and satellite receiver. How did I come by hundreds and hundreds of these? Well for one thing there was one with every satellite box we fitted at a head end, and of course it wasn't used. Any normal person would have thrown the unused lead away at that time, but not me, oh no...
I found a box carefully labelled 'Spares for Mr Bilsland'. This had all the unused bits for a 1.8m steerable dish I installed in 1987. There were other, similar boxes. My goodness they were good, profitable times. We made a stupid amount of money out of those early steerable dishes. Then all of a sudden everyone was at it and the prices dropped to a silly level, so I stopped doing them. Anyone want a 'transition'?
To be honest this stock sorting job is becoming rather depressing. It's like going through your old photograph albums. It reminds me of how much past I have, which by implication suggests that my future might be limited. The evidence of so much work, all now done and dusted, really does make me feel very old. I'm amazed that I got through all that lot in one piece. Never fell off a roof, never lost a finger, never got gobbled up by a big dog, never got fatally electrocuted, never got killed in a van accident (never even had one!). I've been very lucky.
Bill