Stars In His Eyes

My name is Lyrehca and I am married to a Craigslist Addict.

The Mister spends hours cruising the listings of Craigslist searching for gadgets, free or cheap, that he can acquire, futz with, and show off to our family and friends

Our house is sort of like a museum.

Tonight, we became the proud owners of a jukebox that has 45 records from the 1960s and ‘70s. It took three of the Mister’s burliest friends, the better part of four hours, and $80 (for the music; the jukebox itself was free) to get this thing into our house.

Why free, you ask?

The jukebox has electrical problems and doesn’t currently work.

For the Mister, this poses an interesting challenge and bragging rights. He tends to get things like this working again. For the next week or two, he will submerse himself into all things jukebox, pondering and tinkering. He already joined a Yahoo group of jukebox enthusiasts and posted questions about the electrical system.

(Never mind that four days ago, the Mister didn’t even know such a group existed, or that he would become its newest member. The man never even bought a 45-record for himself as a kid.)

The jukebox is sitting in a room with a full-size antique telephone booth that’s been fully restored. The next room in our house is filled with dozens of antique telephones that feature fruit (a banana phone), TV characters (the Incredible Hulk) and personal hygiene (the Crest toothpaste phone is my favorite), among others.

And did I mention the airplane seats?

These were the first things the Mister found on Craigslist—two actual business class seats from a retired TWA jet. They sit in front of a cheap TV also acquired from Craigslist. Right now they’re rooming with the jukebox.

I only agreed to the jukebox because I found my own 45 records from the 1980s in our basement. We’ll swap out the ‘60s stuff we don’t know for my tunes. Ten years from now, our son will nod and smile at his crazy parents as he’s plugged into his iPodmicrochip-music-device of the future.

All this to say that I’m about to have a stash of unopened vintage Minimed 508 supplies as soon as my new Animas Ping arrives. I have lancets and old boxes of syringes, too.

You think someone will want the stuff on Craigslist?