Linda Lou Saves the Day. Again.

I'm definitely moving at half-speed, as far as this relocation goes. I thought I had enough Rubbermaid totes to hold all of my shiat--lots of CDs, DVDs, and books. Good lord I gotta lotta books. At least I had enough totes when I moved here a year ago... But all those boxes from Amazon add up, and so I needed to go buy more stuff to hold books. A trip to Walmart was in order.

Besides, I had to buy stuff like a new shower curtain, paper towels, cleaning supplies, etc., so I couldn't delay the shopping trip any longer. At least I was gonna wait until watching tonight's episode of Deadliest Catch though. Can't miss that.

Anyhow, before I left to do my shopping, Linda Lou called with an offer I couldn't refuse. Here I was willing to spend $15 a day to rent a hand-truck from U-Haul, and she tells me that she has a big industrial-strength dolly in her closet. WTF? This is the same Linda Lou who has no food in her fridge, no oil in her engine, has never tasted guacamole, and thinks that What About Bob and Pee Wee's Big Adventure are the heighth of cinematic achievement. And she lives in an apartment. I know lots of people who live in apartments, and not a single one of them keep a dolly in the hall closet. Honestly, at first, I didn't really believe her. I figured she'd have no idea what a 'dolly' was. It was an offer so far out of left field that I would've been less shocked had Barney Frank called me up and asked me if I had any use for a closet full of old Playboys.

Still not believing her, I made her describe it to me, just to be sure we were on the same page.

It's a tall thing with two wheels and it folds out so you can move big furniture and stuff...

Hmmm... The folding-out thing threw me for a loop--I figured it was a low-duty stainless steel one people use in their offices to carry the inter-office mail bins. But I thanked her for her offer and told her I'd be over in about an hour to come and get it. I figured at the very least, I could carry one box at a time with it, being careful not to destroy it with heavy boxes full of books, camping gear, booze, and kitchen supplies.

But when I got over to her house, lo and behold, sitting there in the entry hall was the Mother of All Hand Trucks, a heavy duty monster with huge tires that could easily be used to move big-ticket appliances. And the fold-out thing was a two-foot extension making it useful for moving bookcases or even a couch if need be. All I could say was "Wow". It was a thing of beauty, and will be very useful indeed. It'll make short work of all the junk in my garage.

I couldn't just pick it up and run, so I stuck around when Linda offered me a beer. She's made quite a big deal out of the (lack of) contents in her fridge, so I had to see for myself. This here is a snapshot of Linda Lou's fridge:



As sparse as it looks, that's actually pretty full for her. But she had company this past weekend, so that explains the diet Pepsi, eggs, and vegetables. Of course she keeps that same can of Spotted Dick front and center just for shock value. (Clickie for full-sized goodness) Anyhow, next to the eggs and Spotted Dick, you see those purple and orange cans? That's some sort of Chocolate Stout she picked up at Whole Foods, and damn, is it ever tasty.

I'm not much of a stout drinker at all, in fact, I've been known to stir the pot by saying Nobody drinks Guinness because they like the taste, they only drink it when other people are watching. But a chocolate stout sounded intriguing, so I gave it a try. It's damn good. All I kept thinking about was how potent it would be if you added a shot of Stoli Vanilla to a pint--It would be like drinking the Devil's chocolate milk. So tasty, but two pints would knock you on your ass.

Anyhow, about the time we settled down with our pints of stout, her boyfriend Mike showed up to join us. Actually, he showed up to join her--I was just there picking up a dolly and raiding her fridge. But we had a nice visit for a few minutes and then I hit the road, leaving the two of them to do whatever it is that adults do whenever they're alone together...

My first stop was over at the Walmart where the Evel Knievel wannabe with the small wang gave me a ticket last week. I loaded up on some cleaning supplies, paper products, another camp chair for my patio, and my first 'grocery' purchase for my new place:


Yep, had to get some coconut-creme flavored coffee creamer. I also had to leave a scorching message on the answering machine at the leasing office, as all the work they promised would be done by Tuesday hadn't been touched. I'm still missing a drawer and cabinet door in the kitchen, a set of blinds in the living room, and my laundry-closet doors are nowhere to be found.

But the power was on, I had light and running water, and the A/C worked perfectly. I didn't hang around long, just unloaded and left. Now I'm back here at the house, wishing I'd stopped and got some dinner while I was out. I haven't eaten anything all day, and I'm pretty hungry. I don't even have any bottled water or Gatorade in my mini-fridge, either.

Anyhow, I've got to tackle this mess that is my desk before I take the next load, so that's my project for tonight.

Y'all have a good one.

Mikey