Dreaming of the Wilderness

You know, I used to like going to garage sales and second hand stores in the hopes of finding things that I needed. I still like certain second hand stores, but I haven’t been to a garage sale in years. I think the problem is that I just don’t need anything much any more. If I don’t have it by now, then in all probability I just don’t need it.

In years past I would be looking for tools that would add to my small collection and enable me to do more things, after all, the job is always easier if you have the right tool. Now I have lots of tools and a good portion of them go unused for the most part. However, if I am feeling productive I am able to do the job using the proper tool. I will still buy a tool that catches my eye, but that is just the hoarder in me dropping by for a visit.

I also used to cruise the garage sales for camping and biking equipment. People grow out of camping and either give it up entirely or they move on to campers and RV’s. The equipment needed when RVing is quite different than camping or backpacking. Sometimes, not often, I would find what I needed or wanted. Most of the time however, I would just enjoy the search. There is no fun searching and knowing that you won’t buy anything. I still like to find bike related items, but I have a shelf or two in the garage that are overloaded with bike related bric-a-brac. Come the warm season I will be on the hunt for cheap bikes, just for parts. I will strip them for the pedals, cables, bearings and anything else I might use on my bikes.

I used to do a lot of work on bikes when the kids lived at home because kids are hard on bikes. Now, I just need to do a tune up on Louise’s and my bikes in the spring and maybe some other work half way into the summer. Maybe I’ll be able to show Hurricane and Tornado how to do basic bike repair in a few years.

A couple of years ago I got a MEC gift card for a birthday or Christmas and actually forgot about it. I discovered it a while back and today I went to MEC to spend it. I needed a couple of 780 X 38C inner tubes for what will become my go to bike this summer. While I was there I picked up a pump for a Whisperlite Stove. I didn’t need it because I have more than a few stoves that I can use, but if for some reason I NEED all of my stoves, this will help. To round out the shopping trip I bought a pair of bike gloves. The ones I have are about twenty years old and have seen better days. I guess I was too excited because the ones I picked up are too large. Probably meant for a bike riding gorilla.

All that means is that I get to go down to MEC again to return them and walk through the store touching the merchandise and dreaming of the wilderness.