Fare thee well, L-1011 seats

The recent basement flood has left us wondering what to do with the space as we have had AMPLE time to contemplate. The flood was weeks ago and today was the first day where we had some one show up to start work. The painter/drywaller started work late this afternoon. Yeah! I didn't even argue that it was fouling up our evening plans. I'm just grateful that the repair work is starting.

So paint and carpet are chosen. With the painting and drywall repair starting, we began moving stuff out of the basement that hadn't already been moved. That included my beloved Delta Air Lines coach seats from one of their last L-1011's. Those two seats have been a part of my office decor since 2001 or thereabouts. These were awesome red seats, except one of the seat cushions ("which, in the event of a water landing, can be used as a floatation device") was gray. A perfect symbol of what those L-1011's were like in the end. Click here to get an idea of what my seats looked like. They were a wonderful piece of memorabilia in my collection of airline stuff. Stuff that includes a couple of life jackets (legally obtained!), more than 800 safety/emergency instruction cards, and a lot of other stuff. But as I looked at these seats, it was obvious that they'd been hammered. The move to IL was particularly rough on them. It dawned on me that it was time...time to bid the seats farewell.

I could have put them on eBay, but they are so hammered I don't think I could have gotten anything for them. So I took them to the curb. Just let them go. I know that the stunningly patient SML is beyond relieved to see them go. She just couldn't get passed the fact that hundreds of thousands of people had parked themselves in those seats. The thought of it was just too much for her to take. We did agree that new seats would be more acceptable. I did promise not to go the extreme that Anthony Toth has gone. He's my hero - we've talked a couple of times. Check out what he's done in his garage:

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Completely cool. I could not be more jealous.