Merry humbug day to all, and to all a good truckload of concrete!

The best thing about this Christmas?  Having a place to live, and furniture in it, and friends to get it there.  Yesterday's expedition was a great success, though my knees are telling me rather emphatically today that I overdid it.

First stop after picking up a truck from U-Haul was Hoche's, where we loaded the truck with three rather large chunks of concrete (several cubic feet each), the seats from the GTI rallycar he's building, and a large wooden tabletop.  Then we wrenched an oxygen sensor out of the old exhaust system for the GTI (sadly, though the sensor is still good, the threads were rust-welded to uselessness.... no wonder the damn thing was so tight), and threw the exhaust system in the truck too.  Off we all convoyed then to midiamin's, where we loaded up more concrete, a bunch of steel pipes that used to be a swing set, and a dead washing machine.  (Speaking of washing machines, did I mention concrete?)  Onward, then, to casa de fruitylips and ishtart, where we extricated a very dead futon mattress from the garage, then headed for the Sunnyvale dump and the 2004 Stench-O-Lympics.  (Well, OK, actually, I'm exaggerating a bit there.  It actually didn't smell that bad, though the truck continued to smell of dump for several stops thereafter until it got a complete air change.)  Great ... well, moderate entertainment was had hurling large chunks of concrete from the truck onto the Pile O'Crud.

With all the BitTrash dumped, we headed off to thoanthbel's, where we picked up a chair, a floor lamp tree, and geoffk, then headed over for lunch at G's, Official Restaurant of Cygnus Solutions.  Geoff walked back home after lunch, while the rest of us trouped back to Midi's, where a papa-san chair, a folding table, a torchiere light and a no-name home-theater audio system went into the truck.  Then back to Fruityville, for a futon couch, two more torchieres and another floor lamp, before heading over to chez echristo et darkstormangel.... who, having not been forewarned of our make-it-up-as-we-go schedule, were not home.  (Oops.  I'd meant to let them know we were on the way, but it slipped my mind.)  So we stood in the park and debated about correct identification of their window, wambold tried to call them, and I tried to call them, and we got nothing but voicemail, so we all turned around and left ... we got about three lights away, and my phone rang.  It was echristo, who said, "We were in Whole Foods, gee, I guess there's no cell phone signal in there.  We're on our way home now."  So I relayed to wambold, and we all turned around and headed back to 's.  He appeared a few minutes later at the street door, wherein we all trooped inside, shot the breeze, played volleyball with the cat, and departed sometime later equipped with a very spiffy glass-and-aluminum Ikea desk, a corner stand, and a stick blender and rice cooker on loan.  Then 'twas off back to Sunnyvale to unload everything, haul it upstairs, sweep out and return the truck, and go over to wambold's to retrieve the rest of my stuff.  Martin helped me tote it all over, and wambold gave me a wok, a baby chef's knife and an elliptical pan that I'll probably use as an omelet pan.  Thanks to everyone's efforts, I was able to spend last night in my own space for the first time since getting back into California.  I say again, Bitminers rock.

So right now, I'm mostly furnished.  My knees are telling me in no uncertain terms that I overdid it yeaterday, but there is a hot tub in the complex, so I may go for a soak later.  And here may be the birth of a new Bitmines tradition... I think it was Hoche who said, "We should do this every year, rent a truck for a day and go around and haul away all the Bitmines crap."

"Diligent study has shown us that the Bitminers gather up all their junk over the course of a year, and upon the day following the winter solstice, they congregate in their masses and make a pilgrimage with their collected junk into the wilds of Alviso, where they offer up all that which they have collected unto the cryptic and ancient Lahn D'Phill.  The meaning and purpose of this annual rite remain indecipherable mysteries...."

The short story is, thanks to friends, I'm in a whole lot better shape than I was a couple of days ago, and at much less expense.  I still need to come up with a comfortable chair or two and a dresser or chest of drawers; Goodwill or craigslist may prove productive on that score.  A real bed would be a good thing, too; I tend not to sleep well on futons, but a lot better than I sleep on floors.  ;)  But that can be taken care of later.  I need to get rid of my rental and get a car, too, and a little later on get my motorcycle shipped out here; but those can be addressed later.  (My parents have already offered me a loan for a car, so I don't have to pay autoloan interest.)  I also need to set up 'net access (I'm thinking Speakeasy OneLink), and I suppose I'll have to acquire a wireless AP too.

Thanks go out to all those mentioned here for furnishings and the loan of appliances, and particularly to wambold and Martin for providing me with crash space for the past two and a half weeks.

Seasonal observations

OK, I'll keep this short:  Illiad just nailed it.