Progress of a sort...

Late last night while doomscrolling, I found an ad for a couple of spring-loaded art drying racks, one of which was perfectly sized (according to the ad) for the spot I’d designated for print drying in the shop plan.

I woke this morning to texts from the advertiser, and by mid-day found myself headed down the hill, first to P&S’s to trade Ingrid for the truck. I then drove straight to the advertiser, who turned out to be an old print shop buried somewhere near Barrio Logan. After a little haggling and mostly, figuring out how to get the damn things loaded, I handed over the cash. Frank leaned in and said “I’ve got something else to show you.”

As it goes, a decade or so ago, he bought a car wrap printer — HAH! — and his then-thriving screen printing business basically got shoved into a corner. He used to do the occasional poster for old-school artists, “But they’re all dead now,” he said with a shrug, as he shoved aside a decade’s worth of cruft, to expose a cabinet full of big, beefy wooden screen printing frames, clearly full poster sized (26x40) and bigger. (Frankly, most of them looked swollen and rotten, but their existence inferred the existence of a printing table.) He said, “I can tell what you’re thinking, this way,” as he plunged deeper into the shop, pulling up in front of a truly impressive pile.

“Frank,” I said, “Is that a vacuum table?”

He beamed at me. “Good guess! And since you know what it is, you can have it! Let me get it cleared off, and we’ll figure out if any of the screens are any good.”

In all likelihood, rot and neglect will leave these things useless — but hopefully, they are of an era where they may respond well to a little bit of love and care.

But, so! Moving on, I set about tying the damn things down better than I could under the pressure of being in the alleyway. Adding more tethers and tie downs did little to improve my confidence in the setup, so I let Google set me a path on the surface streets (so I didn’t have to get up to highway speeds). Unfortunately, downtown SD is hilly as a bitch, and it was unnerving to say the least.

Nevertheless, I eventually got to Chris’ shop, and realized our problem.

These things, both of them, were BEASTS. Huge, heavy, industrial beasts. Both were also MUCH bigger than advertised.

After a bunch of dickering (and getting a little help from the dudes across the street), we got the damn things off Pete’s truck and then into the shop.

Originally, the plan was to leave the bigger one at Chris’ shop, and I would take the smaller one. However, there was no way the bigger one was getting through the opening to the printing area Chris has designated. Following EVEN MORE KIBBUTZING, we got the smaller one slotted into a good place at Chris’ hop, and rather than try and lever the damn thing back onto Pete’s truck, it can hang where it is until my shop is together —

OH! I skipped a bit — on the drive down the hill, Tuff Shed called and scheduled my build and delivery — the shed shows up

— next Tuesday!

That way, I can rent a U-Haul (with a ramp) and not kill anyone moving it.

Traffic hell prevented me from doing a bunch of other stuff whilst I was down the hill (sorry, Chet), and I was just a few blocks from P&S’ when I remembered that I needed to get paint for the shed — just as I was approaching the shop where we bought the paint for the house. Got the paint ordered, bugged out and swapped the truck for Ingrid, back to Dunn-Edwards, and then — YAY — a rush-hour bomb up the 125 to the Home Depot in Santuckee.

Dropped off the paint, picked up a shoe order for Sunshine, and was back at the house by 530.

Sigh. Lots got done, but the list remains almost completely unchanged.