I got seriously sick about 10 yrs ago. Much to the dismay of my uptight neighbors, I decided my lawn can go to hell once I recovered. No one ever had “He had a fine lawn” inscribed on their tombstone. One of my neighbors started nagging—I told her I had more important things to worry about: not dying, spending time with my children, keeping my business going and that the lawn ranked about 263 on my list. She got furious. Her husband laughed. Biggest waste of water, chemicals, bad for the environment, etc. I keep it mowed and could care less what growing.

Also dramatically changed my collecting habit after I got sick. Kind of forced me to realize that I’m just renting the stuff and that some dealer would just pick my bones. I kind of regretted the 100s of days, perhaps even multiple years, of life spent at cons, antique malls, flea markets, etc. never mind eBay. I’ve found a happy medium since then.