“Oh, good! I'm glad you were able to go back and snag those two big sheets of ply…they were weighing heavily on my mind.”
I said this to Joel over coffee, as he told me about the whirlwind morning of productivity he had yesterday. Wednesday night, we'd gone dumpster-diving together as it is Bulky Item Pickup Week down in the Brookside district. Because it's a fairly ritzy neighborhood, the likelihood of good trash being put out was especially high. We each had our agendas. He's looking for free building materials for a shed he wants to build; I'm looking for a small cabinet or a couple of shelves to hang beside my front door, for the storage of mail, keys, hats, helmets, etc. We made out pretty well, finding two odd little platforms built of sheets of plywood and 1X6, three odd frame things made of 1X6, a big post which will become part of the new back fence, three full, uncut sheets of plywood, and a very nice metal door with a big window in it. Unfortunately, we came across those last sheets of plywood after we'd already got all that other stuff (plus the front wheel off an old jogging stroller) and could only wedge in one sheet of the plywood. I thought we might be able to score more of it if we re-arranged the stuff in the truck, but it was getting pretty late, so we just left it. But I guess it bugged him as much as it bugged me to pass up perfectly good, free building materials, as he went back after it early the next morning. He said he also scored a few choice pieces of busted furniture for the NYE bonfire.
I'd generously offered the carcass of my old rust-brown sofa to that effort, but it was decided that said sofa was too large, stinky, and over the top, and might annoy the neighbors unduly. Bulky Item Pickup has since disposed of my ex-sofa for me.
Plans continue apace for the New Years party. The homebrew I'm contributing to the festivities has been brought up from the basement and dusted off. The cookies I'm making will be put together either tonight or sometime tomorrow morning. I may do 'em this afternoon, since I did get off early and all. On Saturday, after Joel gets off work, we're going to construct the “chariots” for the chariot races, and take the pedals off the kiddie bikes for the downhill races. I plan to participate in these follies, and have devised a sort of padded armor for myself, since I probably won't be pre-anesthetized with booze, like most of the maniacs who'll be doing this stuff. In the grand spirit of New Years, there will be bicycle-chariot races (the chariots being constructed from the wreckage of several old, abandoned shopping carts, and towed behind bikes on ropes). The downhill races will be drag-races coasting on 16″ children's bikes with the pedals taken off. There will be a traditional Huffy-Toss, the bonfire (and all associated s'more and marshmallow burning opportunities) and a vaunted mystery punch. Like I said, this is shaping up to be a significant fiesta.
The next party I see on the horizon will take place at my house, around the time of the Vernal Equinox, a “Spring Fling” anti-prom. I'm thinking a sort of costume party, music to dance to, a hideous spiked punch, and some kind of twisted “Royal Court” ceremony. And probably extra kudos to any couple who shows up on a tandem. But that's a ways off…right now, I'm just stoked about the party shortly at hand!