"I Got No Turntables And No Microphone..."

So, we made a pretty big leap forward in our moving in progress this weekend.We put together the storage shelves we bought for the garage, and were able to get a bunch of stuff out of the house so we could start dealing with the stuff that is IN the house.

    I decided that it was time to get my records out of the closet that they had been shoved into when we moved in, and back onto the shelves of the weird metal baking rack thing that i had found a few years ago to house them. I got them all alphabetized and shelved, and then I decided that maybe it was time to unpack the stereo equipment as well(mostly so I could put on my copy of the "Big Chill" soundtrack, and do a spot on impersonation of Kevin Kline's little "dance" when he puts on "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" in the movie), so i set about doing just that.

  I took out all the components(Receiver,CD Player,Tape Deck & Turntable) and dusted them off, and stacked them how I wanted them stacked. I attached the wires to the receiver and plugged them all in. I grabbed the speakers and wired them to the receiver as well(it will probably be a little while before the speakers end up in their final spot, as it requires me putting up a couple of shelves), and we were all set. I popped a cassette into the  tape deck and pressed play...Thankfully the tape was at the very beginning, because whilst I was cleaning the receiver, I had turned up the volume AS LOUD AS IT COULD GO, but luckily, all I heard was a loud hiss, and then quickly turned down the volume as the sound kicked on. Put a cee dee into the cee dee player and pressed play, it rotated around until it found the cee dee(it's a five disc-er) and the music started. I had actually left a record on the turntable, so I turned that bad boy on...Nothing. I grabbed the needle arm and brought it over to the record...No movement.

  Then I remembered that sometimes in transit, the belt comes loose, so I lifted up the platter to adjust the belt....But the belt was in place...At least some of the belt was....What the what? I reached in to touch the belt, and it rubbed off on my fingers...The god-damned thing had MELTED!!! Melted!! I couldn't believe it...I mean, I knew that my scratchin' skills was HOT, but this is ridiculous!! And whack, and so forth.

  So, I guess I'm looking for some new wheels of steel.