Recycling Old Technology

About 15 years ago I purchased an NEC 15 inch CRT monitor which was pretty close to top-of-the-line and cost me a small fortune. It served me well through my graduate school years and through the first couple of years of marriage to Norm. Probably about six years ago I upgraded to a flat panel 17 inch monitor when I upgraded to a new computer. So Norm got my monitor hand-me-down and he’s been happily using it up until a month ago. We had 2 17 inch flat panel monitors we were using on a different computer that is no longer serving its original purpose so Norm took one and no longer needs the 15 inch CRT. Now we need to decide what to do with the still-in-good-working-condition 15 inch CRT monitor.

Norm put an ad on Craig’s list but we’ve received no bites even though he was only asking I think $25 for it. I’ll admit, not too many people want a 15 inch CRT monitor these days. We could take it to Goodwill or some other charity with a thrift shop, but I have a feeling that it’s probably going to stick around there for a long time as well. Certainly we won’t throw it out with the garbage, but I hate to see it just go to waste sitting around collecting dust as things are apt to do here in the desert Southwest.

And then it came to me! Make it into an aquarium! Fish would make an excellent addition to our home even though we have two cats. My brother has a small aquarium in his home with a cat, a dog, three young girls, a mother-in-law and a fantastic wife. Their cat enjoys watching the fish but she never bothers them. I think GG and Miss Ellie would cooperate and just observe the fish in the aquarium tank.

Instructions for such a project are available on the Internet. Of course we would need to visit the aquarium store so we could get all of the appropriate supplies and equipment needed to build and maintain a healthy aquarium. Norm told me he had a freshwater aquarium when he lived the bachelor life before he ever met me.

The closest I ever came to owning an aquarium was a goldfish bowl I had during my elementary school days. I named my lovely goldfish Marmalade. That fish enjoyed talking to me. I would hear it open and close its mouth on the surface of the water during the night. It was a strange sound and I figured it was just talking to me. The imagination of a child!

Not certain if or when we’ll, Norm will ever get around to converting that CRT monitor into an aquarium, but you, my peeps will be the second to know.