Inventory Control...and the Art of Dying
I got to a point in my life where I must think about my future, er well, THE future whether it includes me or not. I'm having a great time buying a whack of used planes, mostly wooden molding planes, and a lot of transitional planes. Anyway, I'm salting them away for eventual future reference. At one point, I was carefully documenting my plane collection with photos and other means of identification. The reasons were two-fold: one, there are typically good reasons to worry about floods in my neck of the woods, and the resulting insurance claims, and two: I ain't gonna live forever! I am disturbed by visions I have of my wife trying to sell off my menagerie of perhaps 175 planes, and myriad lifelong collecting of hundreds of other tools and woodworking devices. This is really a disturbiing situation for me. Yeah, if I'm dead, what will it matter where my stuff ends up? I mean, should I put a price sticker on each of my tools, in case the day to liquidate my treasures comes to pass? And, holy moly, I've got a collection of wood that would be harder to document, it changes day by day!
Anyway, I have gotten slack about continuing to document my more recent acquisitions. How do I do a good job of this without appearing as though I'm obsessed with my own mortality? A recent blog by Martin drove the point home, he did an "In Memoriam' blog about Lumberjocks who have passed on, alll of them seemed to be mid-40s to mid-fifties…and I'm pushin' 60!
As resistant to change as I am, I must accept my new realities and deal with it…but I really don't know how. I am trending toward less dependence on power tools, and I do entertain thoughts of a minimalist approach to woodworking. Are you in the same boat as me? How do you cope with the sunset slide of your life, how do you prepare for it? Sorry if this all sounds morbid, I don't mean for it to be that way, I'm just having a bit of trouble downscaling my shop, and my dreams, cuz I ain't no spring chicken anymore. Please, no oafish offers to take posession of anything I want to downsize…sheesh! That's what the 'Woodworking Trade & Swap' forum is for.
Is there anybody out there pondering the same thoughts as I have?
I got to a point in my life where I must think about my future, er well, THE future whether it includes me or not. I'm having a great time buying a whack of used planes, mostly wooden molding planes, and a lot of transitional planes. Anyway, I'm salting them away for eventual future reference. At one point, I was carefully documenting my plane collection with photos and other means of identification. The reasons were two-fold: one, there are typically good reasons to worry about floods in my neck of the woods, and the resulting insurance claims, and two: I ain't gonna live forever! I am disturbed by visions I have of my wife trying to sell off my menagerie of perhaps 175 planes, and myriad lifelong collecting of hundreds of other tools and woodworking devices. This is really a disturbiing situation for me. Yeah, if I'm dead, what will it matter where my stuff ends up? I mean, should I put a price sticker on each of my tools, in case the day to liquidate my treasures comes to pass? And, holy moly, I've got a collection of wood that would be harder to document, it changes day by day!
Anyway, I have gotten slack about continuing to document my more recent acquisitions. How do I do a good job of this without appearing as though I'm obsessed with my own mortality? A recent blog by Martin drove the point home, he did an "In Memoriam' blog about Lumberjocks who have passed on, alll of them seemed to be mid-40s to mid-fifties…and I'm pushin' 60!
As resistant to change as I am, I must accept my new realities and deal with it…but I really don't know how. I am trending toward less dependence on power tools, and I do entertain thoughts of a minimalist approach to woodworking. Are you in the same boat as me? How do you cope with the sunset slide of your life, how do you prepare for it? Sorry if this all sounds morbid, I don't mean for it to be that way, I'm just having a bit of trouble downscaling my shop, and my dreams, cuz I ain't no spring chicken anymore. Please, no oafish offers to take posession of anything I want to downsize…sheesh! That's what the 'Woodworking Trade & Swap' forum is for.
Is there anybody out there pondering the same thoughts as I have?