Lost Investments

We have to clean out the storage facility down the road from us. It's been with us for around eight years and now, it's time we emptied it out and used it for something else; before getting rid of it completely. It's just cost Mum and Dad too much money.
So, today, Mum and I went there this morning and pulled out a whole lot of stuff from it and found two boxes of magazines and books about the British Royal family had been devoured by what looked like termites. However, after we dragged the boxes out, we found they were seething and it was a nest of larvae moths have a great meal. We had to throw out the whole lot of magazines and books - all except three! - as none of it was salvageable. I'm not into the Royal Family personally, but it broke my heart when I found some things were from 1954 onwards, and other books were on the Queen Mother. It was dreadful. I tossed the whole lot into a large plastic bag while Mum told the manager of the facility and he came and helped us clean up and he offered to set off an ant/cockroach bomb in the place once we were finished. And he even called the pest control people. They were going to come out and have a look at the place. I said that it was most probably set off from the wet weather and the manager said that was exactly what the pest control people said; as well as the paper being really old.

But really, it's horrible when you go and collect something over a series of years only to lose it to little grubs or cockroaches while your back is turned. Being a book collector, I have a silent fear that my books are going to be attacked by silverfish or cockroaches at some point in their lives. However, I take such good care of them that it never happens. I move them around and keep the sun off their spines. They are well-cared-for books that I'm certain that they will be the type of collection my niece would love to read one day... they are a type of investment I'm sure will pay off at some point. And when it does, I'll be so pleased!

With technology moving so fast, I'm sure there will always be a place for books and old-style music. All we have to do is keep those things alive long enough for each generation to appreciate it; seeing their attention span is getting smaller by the day.

Also in the facility is my piano that I inherited from my late-Grandmother. This is something I loved to try to play when I was young during school holidays while Grandpa was constantly shouting from downstairs at their house for me to 'stop thumping the piano!' and bumping the floor with a pool cue. Now, it'll be my turn to try and learn to play through getting lessons from a local place. I'll have the piano to practice on and all of Grandma's music; not to mention, the time.

Learning to play an instrument, speak another language or even cook something new from a recipe book is an investment. To not do this at some point in your life is to lose something about yourself; to not want to understand or know more about yourself.
Life is about wanting to learn and finding out if you can do something - even if some people laugh at you at first. When you learn to do something for yourself, you advance your mind, your social circle and you increase your intellect a little more.