I am a long time wreck lurker. and a recent post by Jim Laumann "A 'puter
in the shop" got me thinking.

In 1994 when I purchased my first house I wanted to buy a RAS to help with
some of the fix ups needed. My father who lived close by talked me into
getting a tablesaw because he already had a ras and said it would be nice to
have both between us. So it was off to the local sears and I purchased a
contractors table saw. I purchased the saw for $449.00 and I could not
believe that I spent that much on something I didn't event know how to use.

About a year later, my wife and I decided to purchase our first computer. I
am a CAD tech and I did not want anything less than I was using at work at
the time.
So I went to the local computer shop and had one built to try to save money.
I had to have that new HOTTT Pentium chip. I was really excited to get the
Pentium 90 that ran so hot it needed its own fan. I paid $150 bucks extra
to double the RAM to 16 megs, and I got a huge 15" svga monitor. Final
price for that computer was $2300 but man was I styling......AOL at a
whopping 14.bps ...... life doesn't get any better....


Now 2004, I have a used $449.00 craftsman table saw that I still thoroughly
enjoy, and that $2300 computer is darkening some corner in a land fill right
now..... what I wouldn't give to has that $2300 in tools now,
Funny what we are willing to spend money on.

Have a good evening
Rick