What's your profession? Age?

Nobody has posted here for a long time, so I thought I would just sneak on in and maybe no one would notice. I turn 73 this year and am a retired Family physician (reading through the years of posts I noticed there were a few of us). I started collecting music when I was 12 and have never stopped. In 1972/73 while we were still undergraduates, my live with girlfriend (still my wife) decided that I needed something better to play my records on, did a little research and bought me a Sonographe TT for my birthday. She loves music but has never cared about equipment and these days is a little uncomfortable with how complicated and expensive it all is so she sticks to the Sonos system in the kitchen. We still hear a lot of live music, except for pandemic pause and this year have seen X, Dar Williams, Peter Rowan, Lord Huron, Oregon Symphony 4 times and see Beach House tomorrow and Fontaines DC in May.

I guess at this point the living room system is somewhere between $45k-55K, but I continue to want physical discrete objects containing recorded music and I have around 14,000 pieces of vinyl maybe a little more and about 9500 CDs plus a handful of SACD. Now my wife, who is better at numbers limits me to 250 new CDs a year and my friend who is a contractor specializing in old homes when he isn't retired worries about the weight over our heads on the third floor. Kids 2 both in their 30s doing well in their own lives, the horses have all gone to heaven and we love our dogs, cat a little less so. I made over $100,000 one year of my working life and less than $75,000 most years but got to do something I loved in many different situations, Community Clinics (Zen Center of Los Angeles), free clinics, immigrant clinics at churches, self-owned private practice, Teaching in a Family Medicine Residency, and working for a large Catholic Health system. Encountered many characters, wonderful humans an a few but only a few I could have done without. I would have done it longer except for a head injury that put an end to it after 30years as a doc. Took over two years to recover as much as I was able which is good enough for me.                                                    Old Bear, Craig

P.S.

I should add that health care in this country was and is broken and hard both for many people living in this country and for most of the people who work in health care as dedicated as most of them are and it takes a toll, I had some bad habits at times and struggled often with my own historical demons, leaving me with Type II diabetes, some heart issues, high blood pressure and long term dysthymia with intermittent major depression, My wife who was also a Family physician and has always been steadier and healthier(mostly) kept at it until last year and one of my kids is a Family physician.

                               Best Regards, Old Bear, Craig

@oldbear, it sounds like a fascinating life,indeed.  

I have been working as a programmer in a huge database for many years. I am currently developing how to start an app like uber , for example

Lots of great back stories. Me, I'm an attorney, 57, and just started up in this hobby about 2 years ago (though I did have an Adcom system in the early 90's purchased at Stereo Exchange on Broadway in NYC). Covid prompted me to find a stationary activity.  Main system is now about 40k retail, office and patio systems about 5k each.  However, I bought most of these pieces pre-owned after much research here and around the web.  Couldn't have put together anything close to as nice as what I have without the knowledge and enthusiasm offered here.  My family is only just beginning to suspect that this hobby may at some point require an intervention -- so far, all is good.