Talkin'bout Crazy Cool Medallions

This makes me laugh: http://www.hulu.com/watch/274881 

Check out this crazy cool medallion.

Rehearsal for Death! A Mystery - Just in Time for Halloween!

Calling All Ye Theater Folk! Calling North High grads! Calling the class of 1954!

Help us solve the mystery of the “Rehearsal for Death” vintage poster from 1954.

See picture – who was “The Guild”? Who remembers seeing this play? How can we find the list of actors who performed in it? Are Raymond Merchant’s relatives still around?

Was it a good production? ;-) Ok, it's not necessary to answer that question, but it would be fun to hear about it! At any rate, people weren't paying ALL that much to go, 75 cents for adults! Not bad.

This poster is for sale for $28. unless the mystery uncovers a famous actor appeared in this performance! However, help us solve the mysteries and tell us a good story and get this for $20!

Gentle-Ride, My Ass

I’m notoriously cheap. I am one of those types who sits around and evaluates the 10 available scenarios of every purchase to determine the cheapest option. As a result, there are times I have stories that blow peoples’ minds with what I’ve been able to save. Other times, well, let me just tell you what happened yesterday as an example.

I needed to rent a UHaul vehicle to move a bunch of furniture I bought and then help my cousin move. So, I evaluated the options - a big van is $20 per day, a truck up to 18’ long is $30, a truck 20’ to 26’ is $40. The catch is mileage which is an additional 79 cents per mile. OUCH. The guy pointed to the trucks and there was the 26' truck with a lovely tortoise painted on it looking all peaceful and the side advertised "Gentle-Ride." I only had a 4 mile trip to take, but I was thinking between the time it would take to drive back and forth and the fact that each 8 mile trip would cost me nearly $7 plus gas, I should just get the biggest truck possible and load it once and take one trip with it. Right? 

God was I wrong.

First off, I’ve never driven a 26’ truck. I had NO idea the ass of the truck can wipe out house decks if you don’t take corners wide enough.

I didn’t really take the deck out entirely, honest. But, I did move it about 3’. Don’t worry, I put it back and also checked the structural integrity before leaving. I’m qualified, I swear!

Second of all, here’s something you might never think of (I know I didn’t), if you’re pulling off a road up a hill, the ass end of the truck (and that damned 8” extension of a trailer hitch) is getting lower and lower to the road you’re leaving.

So, at the end of the a grueling 7.5 hours of loading the 26’ truck full to the gills, I’m driving up upper Court Street at the blazing speed of 40 mph (the fastest the truck would go) and somehow I missed the turn into the storage facility. No problem, I’ll just turn left into this motel and loop through their parking lot then hang a right into the storage facility. They had a nice (so I thought) pull-through driveway – albeit upgrade, but it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do with any other vehicle I normally drive so I didn’t think anything of it.

 I hung a left and drove and upwards. Suddenly, I came to a stop. I was like, huh? Is this too steep for the truck to climb? Are you kidding me? So, I pushed on the gas a little harder then I heard this strange sound of tires spinning in mid air. Huh? I was so confused. I put it in reverse, same sound. I was struck with total confusion. I put the truck in park and got out.

Well, would you believe as I pulled off the road up the grade, the hitch of the truck (that damned hitch) got so low that it ground about ½” into the pavement and my rear tires were barely touching the ground? (!) The entire truck was hung up on the hitch!

I laughed. I cried (you know, not really, but kind of like, oh frick, what am I going to do now!?!).

I walked to the storage facility and found John the manager (and miracle maker) and his buddy, maybe his name was Anthony, I’m not sure (I’ll call him Great Smile Guy). Anyway, Great Smile Guy said, don’t worry, John is THE MAN and he’ll figure out how to help you. John went and fetched a forklift and risked his life picking the entire truck up while Great Smile Guy and I risked losing our hands by sliding 4x4 blocks of wood under the tires and we moved the truck 18” at a time by having John lift the truck up from behind while I backed the truck up the length of the 4x4s we had (24” long ha!). For each 18” maneuver, Great Smile Guy would stop all traffic both ways on Upper Court Street while John was BEHIND the truck holding it up in the air while I was backing up. Crazy. I kept thinking, please don’t let me kill him, please don’t let me kill him!

All of the workers from the business across the street came out to watch as did a couple drivers who pulled over just for the entertainment – or maybe to be there in case someone got run over. I was blazing red with embarrassment and anyone who knows me knows I am rarely embarrassed. At one point I thought, thank god no one would know it’s me in this Uhaul. ‘Bing’ goes my phone, “Alexis, is that you at the motel in the Uhaul? I was just driving by.”

No. God no, that is not me.

So, moral of the story is, if you’re not an experienced truck driver, you (ok, I) have NO business driving a 26’ truck. And unless you have miracle makers on-hand like John and Great Smile Guy, you are going to be royally screwed if you get yourself in a pickle which you’re very likely to do and it’ll end up costing you a fortune. Not to mention the deck. As it turns out, 3 trips with a 18’ truck would have been just peachy and well worth 79 cents per mile.