Ker_Thwap
09-10-2013, 03:34 PM
So, I'm a volunteer driver for the local senior center. I pick up a 70ish year old man with heavily patched clothes at the end of his driveway and take him to the cardiologist, and we're chatting on the way. He starts rambling about basic economic theory like you might learn in high school. He seems to think it's some kind secret and asks if I'd like some literature that explains it. I decline. He bitches about his tax dollars at work when we pass a paving crew.
I learn he's a science fiction fan, and we discuss what books we've both read, and the discussion constantly turns to L Neil Smith, and Terry Goodkind (who can at least tell a story.) He states he has perhaps 20,000 books at his house. I comment that I'm surprised his floors haven't collapsed. He mentions he build the house himself. We make a second stop, where he buys bacon and fried chicken. I then proceed to drop him off. He asks if I want to see his book collection, I foolishly bite.
I park again, at the end of his driveway. Two (four hundred pound) men are filling a pickup truck with metal for salvage from his massive collection of junk. I suspect they'll be busy for several hundred hours clearing this man's personal dump. The house itself is sided in some kind of linoleum/masonite panels. His wood pile for feeding the wood stove consists of what appears to be about 20 cords of painted and pressure treated used lumber. We enter through the kitchen, with a white fridge that is currently brown speckled, there's a solid half inch of crust on the stove. The book collection is perhaps 2,000 strong and never been dusted, I was having difficulty actually reading the titles. He once again offers me some Libertarian pamphlets on the economy, I all but run out of his hovel.
I still find it kind of horrifying that people get wrapped up in their ideology to the extent that they can barely function.
I learn he's a science fiction fan, and we discuss what books we've both read, and the discussion constantly turns to L Neil Smith, and Terry Goodkind (who can at least tell a story.) He states he has perhaps 20,000 books at his house. I comment that I'm surprised his floors haven't collapsed. He mentions he build the house himself. We make a second stop, where he buys bacon and fried chicken. I then proceed to drop him off. He asks if I want to see his book collection, I foolishly bite.
I park again, at the end of his driveway. Two (four hundred pound) men are filling a pickup truck with metal for salvage from his massive collection of junk. I suspect they'll be busy for several hundred hours clearing this man's personal dump. The house itself is sided in some kind of linoleum/masonite panels. His wood pile for feeding the wood stove consists of what appears to be about 20 cords of painted and pressure treated used lumber. We enter through the kitchen, with a white fridge that is currently brown speckled, there's a solid half inch of crust on the stove. The book collection is perhaps 2,000 strong and never been dusted, I was having difficulty actually reading the titles. He once again offers me some Libertarian pamphlets on the economy, I all but run out of his hovel.
I still find it kind of horrifying that people get wrapped up in their ideology to the extent that they can barely function.