I've experienced this twice.
For the past six or seven years, I've been a sound engineer... and I grow very attached to the equipment I work with on a regular basis. It becomes a part of me, my mate even. This only happens with very few systems, the ones I work with almost everyday. So far, that has only been two that got to that level of platonic love.
The first was in elementary school. I ran sound for my elementary school for about a year and a half, and after I left the school, they continued to allow me to come visit, and run the system for various after school events. Then one night, when I was a freshman, I rode the city bus all the way down to the school (a five bus, four hour ride) only to be told that I could no longer do it again. That I could never see that system again. That crushed me. I broke down, and to this day, still break down crying as I write or speak about it.
Two years later, it happened again. I started working for a church. I fell in love with their sound system. I worked there volunteer for over 40 hours per week for a year and a half. Then one day, they told me that they were "reorganizing" and that I would never be allowed in that sound booth again. That crushed me. I went out to the lobby, and started crying so hard, I couldn't stay on my own two feet, and I fell to the floor, weeping. Those wounds... they have yet to heal entirely.
I don't think anybody ever really heals from things like this. We just learn to cope. We learn to live with it, and deal with it in ways that make it seem like the pain is gone... but it's still there, and occasionally likes to show its ugly face.
-BC
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"Harvesting a wet crop is gross. It doesn't work. It's like trying to suck up a wet blanket."