Waxing sentimental

For those of you who are unaware, I have a huge array of interests. In no particular order, the main ones are cycling, trains, model trains, photography, sports cars of all makes and vintage, particularly British, movies, golf, politics, well you get the idea. Since I am interested in these fields, I also tend to do much research, and a few of them also lend themselves to aquiring things.

Cycling. The mother of all equipment needing activities. So all my uniforms, helmet, parts, frames, wheelsets, shoes, pedals, are all over the place. My long suffering wife didn't know that there are certain uniforms I won't get rid of because of what they mean to me. Good race, I was captain for a season, you get the picture. I even have a frame that I haven't ridden in almost a year.

My Schwinn Paramount OS is a hand built, custom steel frameset I ordered in 1990. It was my second race bike, and my first top line frame. I rode it for 16 seasons, and had my fair share of greatness on it. A decent number of wins, trips to the Olympic Training Centers with it, riding with some of the greatest American cyclists with it. The list goes on. So if it's not even built up right now, why keep it?

It means a lot to me. I named it Horse. We've been together for my entire adult life. Through the bad seasons, the good ones, the illnesses, crashes, Horse never wavered. Always waiting, always ready, always willing. So much of my life involves him that I'll never get rid of him, even though I could sell him for much more than I paid for him 18 years ago. (It was a $1300 frameset back then.) I'll never get rid of him. Someday in the near future Horse will go back to Waterford, WI and be restored where he was built. To like new condition.

I have quite a collection of model cars and Hot Wheels and Matchboxes, too. The scale models are all of cars I've owned or raced, and the the toys are a mixture of what I had since childhood and ones I've raced. I will rid myself of many of these in the coming weeks, but again, there are some I can't part with.

My trains, oh how my wife doesn't understand. I have way more than I can possibly use right now, but this is one of those hobbies where the future is always brightest. Enough said.

As if the physical side isn't bad enough (I should be thankful my real car is away from home and I can store those parts there) I have all the afiiliated literature with these hobbies. Now the bike racing stuff, I usually read it and give it to someone at work. The train magazines are actually like reference materials, and the car magazines the same. I am going to have to pare down again shortly. It's hard to get someone like my wife to understand why I need to save this stuff.

It's part sentimental, part technical need. I'm sure we all have the same problem. Too bad we can't just keep what we need and rid ourselves of the rest.