In my basement box storage area, there is one entire box devoted to nothing but old computer wires and cables. Now, don’t be ashamed. We are all friends of Bill here… in this case, Bill Gates. So feel free to admit it if you have one too. In the ongoing evolution and onslaught of all this technological wonderment, each one of us has, somewhere in our basement, a toxic waste dump of old wires we don’t need any more.
A lot of these are just basic three-pronged power cables. When I buy a new printer, I have no problem throwing out the printer, but for some reason, I can’t throw out the power cable. Into the box it goes. I have tons of USB cables. There are a fair number of extraneous RCA cables as well. Some of these cables, I’ve no idea what they went to. I had one of the first MP3 players 10 years ago, it cost $100 and it held about nine songs. It had its own custom power and data cables. I have not thrown these out either. Why, I cannot say.
Then there are all these big and heavy square things that convert AC current to 5 volts. Like so many people, I truly believe that someday I will sell these for a big profit on eBay.
Part of me wants to just throw them out, but then… but then… this inner voice cries out and says there might come a day when I need one of these cables, and I just know it will cost me $37 to buy one at Staples.
But to be perfectly honest, I know in my heart that this box of cables will never be used or sold. It’s just one of those things that the executor of my estate is going to have to deal with, not me.
© Justin Locke
