Hard year

I agree that the economy is worse than it looks at first glance. There are going to be suicides when the third Q 401(k) statements come out. And I'm not kidding. And just in time for the election. I'm fortunate to be working for a company that's pretty light, tight, and smart. I think I'm working smarter AND harder (both at work and collecting)! OTOH, I think I'm more proud to show something I've restored to good appearance and function than just having something I bought. Buying a broken, dying ADM-3A for $25.00 and then restoring it gives me more satisfaction than getting a perfectly restored one for $300. And I'd feel that way even if I HAD the $300. If there's a recession, it sure hasn't hit the hard-core geeks yet. I still get blown away on what people pay on eBay (recently, over $500 for a 4004 CPU board out of (maybe) an EPROM programmer - with PLASTIC parts, fer gods sake, never mind ceramic/white ceramic, and not an entire working computer ,either, of course). Nonetheless, you can STILL catch bargains there! __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com