It was a bad idea to name the server rack Werter…
What you name your yacht#
In perfect accordance with his cinematic namesake, my Werter met his end in a shower of sparks.
Instead of space pirates’ blasters, an angle grinder was used, and instead of the heroic goal of saving humanity — the goal was to free up some space.
The cabinet survived a move, then rode around at the new place between the storage room and the parking lot, and then had to be hastily cleared from the parking lot: I got a letter saying it wasn’t appropriate to store such a thing there, shame on you, remove it immediately.
I tried to sell it, but only one candidate turned up — all the way in Maine — who naively hoped that Werter would fit in the trunk of his Touareg, and then spent a couple more weeks feeding me promises of “I really want this rack, I’ll figure something out.” Oh, and one more detail: he asked if I’d be willing to deliver it to New Jersey for an extra hundred bucks — and when I said I’d do it for an extra couple thousand, he backed off.
The local junk removal services said they “need to understand the dimensions,” and when I told them it was a two-meter metal box they asked for a photo and informed me their minimum rate was $180. Two hundred bucks to have it hauled away, and that’s the starting price.
I had to roll up my sleeves, compact Werter down to fit in my trunk, and haul it to the scrap metal yard. At first I naively hoped I could non-destructively disassemble it into parts small enough to “fit in a Touareg,” but it turned out the main frame was welded together and couldn’t be unscrewed any further.
As painful as it was (and as much as I regretted the money spent on the purchase, delivery, and the subsequent effort of myself and friends on transport) — I had to borrow an angle grinder.
Photos#
The sad photos are posted in the project. There’s no video, but the sparks were practically like in the movies.
Rest in peace, Werter. I hope they’ll make something useful out of you — a bucket of nails — and you’ll travel the world yet.
And I also hope that I’ll have a server rack again someday, but I’ll need to take the naming a bit more seriously.