Finally managed to slosh enough junk around to clear the table in the foreground and then clean off the old workbench. The last time it was out from under a quarter inch of dust you needed a t-square to produce PCB layouts (see it there). The old scope smoked out as soon as I turned it on. It smelled up the whole basement.
All the bread-boarding sockets had been left completely uncovered under all the dust and in the dampness for the entire time. Nonetheless, I decided to assemble
a small, experimental, logic circuit on the old breadboards and surprisingly, the circuit worked!
So, what does it mean if, while other guys are spending time and money building man-caves, you start building a maker cave? Well, you might just be a geek my friend.