Friday morning, around 3am. My wife wakes me up. “Chuck, the power went out.” Half awake. Figure it’s a momentary blackout caused by all the crappy weather we had the night before. Nope. Lights are flickering on and off – then they die completely. The Ice Storm of 2008 hit us right in the face.…
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Chuck the Writer and the RCA Victor Restoration Project
You are looking at what has got to be – and I’m being generous on this comment – a wreck. And I don’t blame you for saying that. This is an RCA Victor 45 RPM record player, specifically a model 45-J-2.It was manufactured in the 1950’s at a time when the RCA Victor record company…
Read MoreChuck the Writer's Not Fond of Holiday Customer Service
So I’m busy working on restoring my home office on what I call “Project Retro Nuevo,” in essence, incorporating vintage materials to work with modern technology. With that in mind, I recently acquired on eBay a vintage 1970’s Western Electric touch-tone desk phone. It’s big, it’s bulky, it’s green and I could probably knock out…
Read MoreChuck the Writer makes one part from two
People know know me understand that I hate buying things right off the shelf – especially electronics. This goes back to probably the early 1990’s, when I purchased a 386 Packard Bell laptop from Sears. Boy if I could go back in time right now I would have taken that laptop and thrown it in…
Read MoreChuck the Writer No Longer Endorses Starbury footwear
Just as I can give a seal of approval on products, I can also take that seal away. Some time ago, I was actually impressed by basketball playe Stephon Marbury’s promise to help create a low-cost sports footwear product so that families wouldn’t have to play $75 (at the minimum) for a pair of sneakers.…
Read MoreChuck the Writer Endorses Delkin ExpressCard CF Reader
For a photographer who needs to get his photographs transferred from camera to laptop, I’ve run into several obstacles. Mostly involving the transfer from my CompactFlash cards to a device that can be plugged into my laptop. I own a Sony Vaio lapper, which already has slots for SD/MMC cards, so that’s good. But CompactFlash…
Read MoreChuck the Writer and the Elbo Room Trivia Tournament – Week 10 or 11 or whatever week it is
Had a rough start Thursday night at the $2000 Trivia Tournament at Elbo Room – I ended up missing three of the first five questions, to finish the first quarter with a -18 score (I had the first Pro Football Hall of Fame game in the 1970’s, it was the 1960’s; I had the Sandwich…
Read MoreChuck the Writer is Reunited (and it feels so good)
My Pontiac 6000 and I were reunited this morning. I would have picked it from the dealership last night, but I had to work late and did not get out of the day job in time. Essentially what happened was this – the car’s two fuel injectors failed, and it blew out a fuse in…
Read MoreChuck The Writer Wants His Car Back
So here’s the story. Those who know me know that outside of my wife and daughter, there’s only one love in my life. That’s my car. A 1991 Pontiac 6000 that I commandeered from my grandmother because there’s no reason that a 92-year-old woman with cataracts and a valid Massachusetts driver’s license should be behind…
Read MoreChuck the Writer and the Elbo Room Trivia Tournament
Another week, another point for my Street Academy one man wrecking crew team. Things didn’t start out well for me, I messed up on which patriot’s statue stands in front of Faneuil Hall (I said Paul Revere, it was John Adams), and I didn’t know the most populous city in the most populous nation (I…
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