Giving up

[tedmich]

Not giving up, transforming as we all must! Entropy (eventually) ends up winning but we gather our fellowship, warmth, family and love until it does.

Best of luck to you and yours Enzo, you're a remarkably consistent and accurate oscillator of positive waves here on the interwebs and your amplitude has been LARGE. Be flexible and overt, don't shy from asking for help in the transformation(s) and you'll keep ringing true. Stuff is stuff but love matters most.

[kilphody]

Next time I go to Elderly I'll stop by and give you about a cubic yard of Fisher receivers. lol.
You'll have them done in a week.

PC

[gearhead63]

Hate to see you have to give up your things. It's always tough. I've done it more than once in my life.
I personally want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!
THANK YOU!
I've learned a lot from your experiences. And I'm kind of with some of the others in that you should consider
"training" vids or something along those lines. There are a lot of people out there that supplement their income by doing just that on youtube for one.
Of course, you would need to have some of your equipment there to do that.
I wish you luck with whatever way you go. I know you will miss the headaches, fried circuits etc! LOL.
But we must all do what we must do.
Again, thanks ENZO for sharing your well earned knowledge! Much appreciated!

[nsubulysses]

A friend of mine is very business-minded and one day I was telling him about Enzo and how he answers so many questions and seems to know it all. I was telling him how I wish I could be that knowledgeable one day. He suggested that if I want to learn how this tech thing works and I want to be really good and not waste a ton of time learning it all by myself, I should email Enzo and offer to match his bench fee for an internet consulting session via skype or somethign like that. His mentality (he is an ambitious personal trainer, always flying to conferences in other states) is that if you really want to be good you need to learn from the BEST people in the industry. He suggested trying to set something up with ol' Enzo so when I am seriously stumped and can't find the will to keep trying, I can present my most troubling repairs to him.

If Enzo ever reads this thread I'm sure he could make a nice amount of cash off this idea if he wants to do it.

[Enzo]

when I am seriously stumped and can't find the will to keep trying, I can present my most troubling repairs to him.

Him? No, THEM. That is the whole point of this forum: when you don;t know what to do, here is a whole group of people with lots of knowledge who are willing to help. I am just one voice in this chorus.


Thanks guys.

There is no better way to learn something than to have to teach it.


I have a go-to-guy story I like. I spent a long time in the coin-operated amusements field as well as music. They overlap at jukeboxes, but I tell you, the learning I got doing field service is a major thing to me. I was the head tech at a large coin company, I trained and supported all our service guys - and took my turns in the on-call rotation too - and we even had a couple training sessions we took in a couple competitor's techs and trained them for cash. When I left there, I was on top of my game. Spent a year at an amusement park - that's intense, I'll say - came back and worked independently. I was a go to guy for several smaller companies when they couldn;t fix something. Bob calls from one company one night and asks me to meet him at Tony's bar. The jukebox keeps rejecting records. He'd spent the day on it. I met him there, wen;t over everything that could possible reject a record, cleaned and adjusted every involved contact. I made it right. We watched it play for half an hour flawlessly. Problem solved. I said Bob, it is fixed. I got out my business card and waved it over the machine, and handed him the card. "There, this machine will never cause another problem." And as far as I know it was fine evermore.

A few months later, Bob calls me from some other place, has some jukebox problem, and would I meet him there. Sure. I get to the location, Bob has the box apart. What have you done so far, I ask. He has checked the connections, measured the voltages, done the diagnostics, etc, and he showed me that old business card and said, "And I even waved your business card over it." I forget what it was, but we figured out the problem, and fixed the thing, but when he told me he had even gone so far a to wave my card over the machine, well, that made my day.

So all you techs out there, please be aware: you cannot just print out one of my cards, you have to use one I have actually held in my hand and waved.

[Enzo]

when I am seriously stumped and can't find the will to keep trying, I can present my most troubling repairs to him.

Him? No, THEM. That is the whole point of this forum: when you don;t know what to do, here is a whole group of people with lots of knowledge who are willing to help. I am just one voice in this chorus.


Thanks guys.

There is no better way to learn something than to have to teach it.


I have a go-to-guy story I like. I spent a long time in the coin-operated amusements field as well as music. They overlap at jukeboxes, but I tell you, the learning I got doing field service is a major thing to me. I was the head tech at a large coin company, I trained and supported all our service guys - and took my turns in the on-call rotation too - and we even had a couple training sessions we took in a couple competitor's techs and trained them for cash. When I left there, I was on top of my game. Spent a year at an amusement park - that's intense, I'll say - came back and worked independently. I was a go to guy for several smaller companies when they couldn;t fix something. Bob calls from one company one night and asks me to meet him at Tony's bar. The jukebox keeps rejecting records. He'd spent the day on it. I met him there, wen;t over everything that could possible reject a record, cleaned and adjusted every involved contact. I made it right. We watched it play for half an hour flawlessly. Problem solved. I said Bob, it is fixed. I got out my business card and waved it over the machine, and handed him the card. "There, this machine will never cause another problem." And as far as I know it was fine evermore.

A few months later, Bob calls me from some other place, has some jukebox problem, and would I meet him there. Sure. I get to the location, Bob has the box apart. What have you done so far, I ask. He has checked the connections, measured the voltages, done the diagnostics, etc, and he showed me that old business card and said, "And I even waved your business card over it." I forget what it was, but we figured out the problem, and fixed the thing, but when he told me he had even gone so far a to wave my card over the machine, well, that made my day.

So all you techs out there, please be aware: you cannot just print out one of my cards, you have to use one I have actually held in my hand and waved.

[Drewline]

Enzo,

Thanks for the help I've gotten from you either directly or indirectly. Whenever I'm on this forum I look forward to your posts. Best wishes. Enjoy your retirement.

[Chuck H]

Enzo,

Thanks for the help I've gotten from you either directly or indirectly. Whenever I'm on this forum I look forward to your posts. Best wishes. Enjoy your retirement.

And here we are!!! Finally, a post that doesn't approach the thread as if Enzo is leaving the freakin' planet!?!

C'mon guys.?. It's not the end! It's just Enzo's next move in life's game.

Hey Enzo... There's at least one guy here that understands that you're retiring, not expiring

I'll look forward to hearing what you're up to with your new digs and circumstances. If you move into an "independent living" sort of place I expect there will be WAYYY too many ladies that will be taxing your skills. Wenzo will be the envy of all! !

[J M Fahey]

Giving up

Enzo

Enzo WHO?



















Hey!!! I'm just kidding !!!!!!

[Enzo]

The old lady got laid off a while back, and this thing here makes no money, so we qualified, and we went for it. I had no idea, I was expecting to be homeless. This place is a converted old small town high school. Dark old brick, spire on the top, but nice apartments inside. It is an elder community, but not a place for droolers. Most live independently there, I am not sure what amount of nursing is there.Each room does have a pull string dangling, yank it and it calls 911. So we have to make sure we tape those up, well, because we have cats. On the other hand, the guy that lived in the unit we are taking was 101 years old. Talking to the rental agent earlier today, we discussed employment at age, and she points out some of her residents have been retired 30 or more years - not so looking for a job.

She is a nice young girl, and I can say she does find the Enzo/Wenzo show amusing. Wife gave her an Enzo tote-bag. So I have collected at least one fan. Unfortunately sitting there a couple days ago,she... she made the Santa Claus reference. "Anyone ever tell you you look like Santa Claus?" Um... not yet today, but it is only noon. Hopefully the new neighbors will be past that.

We just checked today, no dishwashers. Damn.


Paperwork seems to be complete, and we were already accepted, just waiting for the unit to be ready. Paint and carpets. Still possible we might go in this weekend. Water died in the old house, so we been going over to the truckstop Wed and Sun each week for showers. We are daring to hope yesterday was the last of that, but surely Sun will be if not. We are genuinely excited to look forward to a place that seems like living indoors.

I thought a moment about moving in. I saw a block full of Sabatier knives on the new counter, I saw a crock full of new spatulas next to it, I saw a Fluke meter in the drawer, wait, what? As I sat here musing, I looked over at my Pace and Weller solder stations and thought...


AAARRRGGGHHHHH, had to splash water on my face.


This will all be very confusing to my cats.

[nickb]

Not giving up but moving on! I have no doubt you'll soon the the go-to guy when anything in the neighborhood goes on the blink.

Very best of luck Enzo in the new phase. You are a rare individual indeed.

[J M Fahey]

Your new place looks exciting

Someday maybe you share some picture.

As of those very independent guys known as "cats" , they'll survive , don't worry about that.

It will take them 5 microseconds to find the warm sunspots, etc

[Steve Conner]

Enjoy your retirement, Enzo! You have certainly earned it! Your contribution to the DIY community over the years has been huge and very much appreciated.

My favourite Enzo trick is turning sheet metal screws backwards before screwing them in to make sure they drop into the original thread. Does anyone else have any to share?

[techineer]

Enzo, best wishes for a happy retirement.

You might watch for hamfests in your area.... that kind of stuff would probably be popular at one. Especially if it is identified with specs, such as transformer ratings. Check around for amateur radio clubs and ask someone when and where the next hamfest is. Or spread the word via the clubs and host an 'open house' electronic garage sale - have your own hamfest. You might be able to unload lots of it without having to move it yourself.

I'm 60 and have been considering the options for closing my own shop.... there's no way I'll get all this stuff back in my house where I started. But I don't want to keep paying $600 /mo just to hang on to it.

[olddawg]

Good luck on your new adventure Enzo. It's always a pleasure to read your posts. There should be a dedicated archive just for that. "The Enzo Museum of Electronics Wisdom"! I certainly hope you continue some kind of presence on the board. I had to quit the electronics industry because of health reasons over a decade ago. It may be different in MI than CA, but there are tons of regulations on how you dispose of electronics with all of the lead, chemicals and stuff as you probably are well aware. I also don't have to tell you that our technical treasures at times are just treasures of the mind. My advice. Sell the valuable amps if you don't use them. Sell the test equipment, sell the manuals. I guess having a big yard sale is out of the question this time of year in MI. Here in San Diego, there is a huge electronics swap meet once a month. I know guys that rent a storage locker and pull stuff out to sell there. If you are totally retiring, you might not mess with something like that. I have a friend that closed a shop. He did just that. Brought stuff to the swap meet from storage a pickup bed at a time. What he didn't sell he tossed at the end of the day. There was electronics recycling on site. Also people would ask what else he had in storage and would go to the locker by appointment. It took 6 months, but everything was disposed of... And he got some cash out of it. Maybe some starving young local musicians that you have helped would help you out. They aren't all lazy fools. I just paid a local front man $10 an hour cash to clear out and organize my garage. I can't lift stuff, but I can point my cane. I call in my markers all the time. All the best. Ronnie E...