Perfection

This is the last weekend the family is together before my oldest heads back to school.  We wanted to go out to eat and narrowed it down to two choices.  Chilli's or Olive Garden.  We set out for Chili's because we had a gift card...  Got there and it was a mess.  Hardly anyone working, a line, staff complaining about being short staffed, kitchen being slammed, etc.  So put our name on the list and after hearing the staff continuing to complain, we decided to leave and go to Olive Garden across the street.

There was a wait at Olive Garden, too.  No big deal.  When we were seated our waiter came and introduced himself and he was most professional, polite and attentive.  Good enough.  We ordered and he brought the salad and breadsticks.  And a bowl of pre-grated cheese for us to share.  Nice touch.  He said he didn't like reaching over people to put the cheese on.  OK.  Anyway, the food was awesome.  It was brought out and we all shared our meals...  Our waiter checked in with us a few times.  At the end we asked for some boxes and he brought out a bag of breaksticks to take with our boxes.  Another nice touch.  Then he brought us the bill and had the mints in a wine glass.  Another nice touch.  I thanked him for his service, paid the bill and left a generous tip and shook hand when we left.  At the exit, I spoke to the manager and told him everything was perfect tonight and Prince (our waiter) was spectacular.  Everything was on point.  They nailed it.

It turns out we should have just gone to Olive Garden to begin with.  It was perfect.  Almost like it was meant to be.  My expectations were completed exceeded during our meal.  It was most refreshing.  Sometimes things just work out that way.  It was a great meal.

In other news my amplifier has been acting up in my stereo.  It took about a week to find someone who was willing to work on it.  I was referred to a few places and in my initial interactions, they were not interested in working on it and some said that parts would be difficult if not impossible to find.  Really - it's a bunch of transistors and capacitors.  Not much proprietary stuff in device but whatever.  I found a guy in the local audiophile club that actually wanted to work on it.  He works from his home and we met in a post office parking lot.  A little odd, but OK.  He's backed up by about 3 weeks.  That's fine.  Take your time.  He said I had a good amplifier and he said he would likely be able to fix it.  Cool.

I decided to go to some local stereo stores.  One was an analog repair place that sells restored unites for the 70s.  The other was the place I bought our home theater system.  I explained I had an amp that was flaking out and discussed my system and what to do if the amp couldn't be fixed,  Both stores said I had an incredible system that was definitely worth fixing as opposed to replacing parts of it. My entire system cost less than a new replacement amp of similar power and quality when I bought it all used over time.  

I spent about 5 years putting my two channel rig together.  Buying what I could afford, enjoying it, flipping gear when I found another upgrade at a good price...  Three or four different sets of speakers, two or three different receivers, and one amp along the journey.  It's kinda cool to have the guys that deal with this stuff everyday compliment my system based on the gear alone.

After we went to the Olive Garden we bummed around a shopping center and went into a bookstore.  They're selling cds and vinyl records.  My oldest was really interested in the records.  I found that interesting seeing how neither he nor I have a record player.  I was shocked at how expensive records are.  20-30 dollars for a record.  I buy used cd's for 3-12 dollars on average.  I guarantee you my used cds will always sound better than a second hand record.

Oh... and while I was at the vintage stereo store, this guy came in with a stack a receiver, a turntable and two speakers.  He bought a new cartridge for his turntable it wasn't happy with it and Brought the entire rig into the store.  Turns out this dude had all his stuff wired wrong.  Like the record player was plugged into the wrong input of the receiver.  The wire to the speakers wasn't connect properly and the turntable wasn't grounded.  The employee patiently talked him through what was wrong and plugged everything in correctly.  He got everything working and the customer was happy as pie with his modest system and scratchy record.  That's cool.  But my question is this.... what kind of grown ass man doesn't know how to properly connect audio components and speaker wire?  Like seriously.  If you don't know how to connect it, are you even worthy of having it?  Stick to streaming from your phone.  At the same time we all start from somewhere.  I've been around audio gear all my life.  My Dad was into it a bit, too.  Setting up a stereo comes natural to me.  For as much as I know, this guy's modest little system will ignite a passion in music and stereo enjoyment.  I'm still shocked that a grown ass man had no idea how to connect audio components together.  It's like not knowing how to connect a monitor to a computer.  Young men today aren't real men.  They're a genetic mutation of what it means to be a man.  Too much estrogen in the water?  I don't know. There's something wrong with them.  Maybe they lack suitable role models.  My wife tells me I'm intolerant and display toxic masculinity.  If this is the world we live in, we need more, not less, masculinity.  On another note, I wonder if the guy even needed a new cartridge for his record player to begin with?  It' was probably fine and he had it all connected wrong to begin with and wasted the money to have a new cartridge put on his record player.  

Also, there was a lady at the vintage stereo shop picking up a marantz receiver she had serviced.  She was complaining about the sharp corners of the metal faceplate on her unit.  The technician mentioned you could get a wood cover for the reciever that would be flush with the faceplate.  She looks at him and says she doesn't like would and she would rather have rounded corners on the faceplate.  Like what?!?!  Why did she even bother having the unit repaired if she didn't like it to begin with.  Maybe she liked the sound of her marantz? I dunno - it seems peculiar that someone would spend $750 dollars fixing a piece of gear they don't like...  My entire system cost a few dollars more than her repair bill.  Mind blown.

Then there was this guy at the office...  A full grown man incapable of reasonable human interactions, wearing his pajamas in public and carrying a stuffed rainbow color unicorn.  This is the fall of America and the destruction of the family unit right before our eyes.