Many moons ago I suggested that XMIT fly me down to help sort out his collection. That happened, and it was a smashing success. Cindy, A.K.A. elecplus, was interested in meeting me. Unfortunately, the scheduling didn’t allow a meetup. After a long hiatus from Texas, I received an invitation to visit a month or two ago. It didn’t work out, so we shifted the visit to the week before Christmas.
The twist: elecplus herself invited me down to her home in Kerrville. The deal? Airfare, room, and board for hard keyboard-related labor. The visit was precisely what I expected; it was great!
The way down was somewhat treacherous. Due to inclement (read: blizzards and freezing temperatures) weather, my flight was delayed. The hotel’s transport bus prevented the crew from arriving on time, and de-icing took longer than it should have. I missed my second flight and had to wait in the terminal for 4 hours. I found a spot near a window and slept on the floor like a hobo. It didn’t help that temperatures in the plane and terminal varied from ice cold to freezing hot at the whim of the malfunctioning HVAC pantheon.
After some post-arrival searching, elecplus greeted me at the curb with an AEK. The drive back established some common ground. She’s an interesting person with experience in a number of areas, but her major talent (as XMIT and I see it) is making connections. She has an immense network of e-cyclers and sources, so her acquisition abilities are exceptional. Her husband is also a nice guy, though we didn’t interact much.
Elecplus gave me a tour when we arrived at the house. It was chock full of keyboards and other miscellaneous electronics. They were so thick in some areas that it was difficult to walk. It was pretty clear that her warehouse had been transported directly into her home. I was there to move it back, and it’s a good thing I was. When elecplus says she isn’t feeling well, she means it. Things were pretty rough for her while I was there. She did a great job of feeding me and whatnot, though.
The first chunk of my time at elecplus’ was spent unboxing, sorting, and re-boxing keyboards. Due to my relatively complete collection, few were of interest. There were a bunch that I set aside in an interesting to DT members box, so you should see those up at some point after the holidays. Orange/yellow KPT clones, Blue Alps, and SKCL Browns are a few of the switches that caught my eye.
Once everything was boxed and ready elecplus called some movers to haul the lot off to her warehouse. It’s the same warehouse all the stuff came from, but she has a smaller area to work in. The owner remodeled to an extent. In any case, I helped the movers load stuff into their unhealthy truck (it spewed enough diesel fumes to choke a heavy equipment mechanic) and get it to the warehouse.
With that out of the way, elecplus gave me the okay to hang out with XMIT. He rolled in and helped us move some leftover items to the warehouse. Once that wrapped, he took me back to Austin to hang out for a bit. Mrs. XMIT and the MITlets were happy to see me, though we didn’t have the chance to spend much time together. After some BBQ, a trip to the movies, and some keyboard sampling we all called it a night.
XMIT and I woke up early to hit the Dallas warehouses for a marathon sorting session, head back to elecplus’ warehouse, and unload. We spent more than 9 hours in the car and had some great conversations about class disparity, the future of America, and the state of the world in general. We also touched on some bizarre scenery and signs. It’s worth noting XMIT's trail mix recipe. Beef jerky, pistachios, and dehydrated berries (including mulberries!) make an amazing combination. I typically don’t eat trail mix, but his was addictive.
We were greeted in Dallas by Karim, who showed us what we could dig through and gave us a rundown on his sorting policy. He primarily allowed us in because we’re free labor. USB keyboards, mice, and PS/2 keyboards were to be separated. The additional sorting really slowed down the vintage-finding process. The other major bottleneck was XMIT’s forklift driving, which improved greatly as the day went on. That was a snafu in and of itself, as a professional forklift driver was supposed to show up.
Most of the pallets at Karim’s were quite disappointing. None of his 90 pallets looked promising. We found a few gems, though, including an SSK and a square label Industrial Model M. There were also some Marquette Unicomp Ms, M122s, and other typical finds. XMIT was astonished and pleased when I found a Linux layout keyboard with plate mounted MX black switches. He’s been searching for one since he started collecting. We decided to stop work at Karim’s and visit Ben’s warehouse. Cindy had some presorted pallets there that we thought would be more interesting.
Ben, a boisterous and likable man, gave us a tour of his warehouse before having our pallets hauled out. The scale of e-waste in America is magnificent and horrifying. NIB wireless keyboards, fully functional wireless routers, and all sorts of networking equipment are regular finds. Fully functional PCs are also in the mix, though those are typically deprecated. The most impressive piece of equipment is the shredder, though it wasn’t running while we were there.
The most interesting find at Ben’s was a beautiful Hall Effect keyboard. XMIT really, really wanted to clean it and document it, but he promised that I could have it when he’s done. I set a monthly reminder in my calendar: Harass XMIT about the Hall Effect. In addition, I snagged a split space bar Alps keyboard for the heck of it.
We went back to Karim’s to continue our work. Not much presented itself, so we decided to leave early. Sorting is filthy, frustrating, and tiring work when finds aren’t regular. Thankfully the remainder will be sorted before they’re shredded. Karim intends to outsource sorting to workers in a foreign country, though I can’t remember which one. I need to send him a rundown on switches and beam spring models so his workers know what to look for.
The trip back was uneventful. We did find a great local burger joint. They even had fresh cut fries. We unloaded at the warehouse and said our goodbyes. I expect to visit XMIT again sometime in the next year or two, as he’s encouraging me to get a job in Austin or San Fran.
After a night of comatose sleep, I awoke to more work. Shocking, right? After consuming some very authentic breakfast tacos, Elecplus had me build some shelves using scrap lumber. I completed the first one without a miter saw; it was shockingly decent. Thankfully, elecplus acquired proper tools for the second shelving unit. Lots of the 2x4s were warped, so it was difficult to get everything square and level. I’d fail in a woodshop course with the work I did, but the units are passable as shop shelves. In any case, it was such a hassle that I only managed two shelves in an afternoon.
We rolled back to the house. I crashed. I woke up, prepared for travel, and was chauffeured to the airport by elecplus. We said our goodbyes and I waded through security. I wrote this sitting in the terminal, as there were fewer lines and traffic issues than expected.
Back to the far North... I'll miss my extended family in Texas.
I am returning with two keyboards. The third will arrive later.
