Finally the The festivities are over, the decorations have been put away, the cards and tree have been recycled, and I can finally play with one of the gifts I gave myself: a home theater kit. That’s not what this post is about, but it needs a little backstory…
A few years ago, before my fatherhood days, I spent all my free time rebuilding our house. I planned out the wiring and buried all the speaker wires for a surround sound setup in the walls, with nice banana plugs on the ends. About halfway through construction, we somehow managed to get pregnant; I have no idea where we find the time or energy for that. The imminent arrival of ‘Oops’, as she was then known, changed many of the house plans and a home theater kit was no longer a priority.
Fast forward to now, Dulcie is old enough to appreciate a good movie (even if they all feature princesses and fairies) and she needs to listen to them in glorious 5.1 surround sound, right? So I found the right system on eBay: it has to be silver and slim to match the decor, with small speakers since the room isn’t very big, and everything arrives just before Christmas. So the first chance I get, when the living room is no longer Christmassy, I start setting everything up. Now, where did I put those gold plated banana plugs…?
Oh yeah, I remember, they’re hidden in that special storage area that all the GeekDads surely have for that kind of thing: I call mine. The redundant technology drawer. Yours could be a closet, a box hidden in a closet, or perhaps a shelf in the garage, maybe even the entire garage!
Wherever and whatever yours is, is where that obsolete camera lives. It’s the final resting place for replaced iPods. It is a nest of tangled (or possibly carefully coiled) cables and wires of all kinds. Power adapters for long-lost cell phones, a wide range of digital media storage devices, knotted and broken headphones or earbuds, spare parts for things you don’t even own anymore – they can all be found inside.
These are just a few of the select items that my drawer contains:
