So what's going on?

For reasons that would take too long to go into, the key Galina had to a padlock she used to lock up the U-Haul she rented in Amarillo... wasn't the key to the padlock. And after fooling around with a hacksaw, and a new blade, it was pretty apparent the lock was made of "sterner" stuff, so I went off in search of bolt cutters.

Finding the bolt cutters was easy enough, but after the fellow at the local hardware store told me where to find them, he asked, "Do you want to buy them or just use them once?"

Which, besides reminding me that nobody really wants to own a tool (they want to own the result of what the tool can do), sounded pretty much as if the gent understood my situation. I left my license and drove home with an in-house bolt cutter, which took care of my problem in less time than it took to write this sentence. The cutters were returned, the license retrieved, and have the distinct impression that my next purchase of hardware will occur at this store.

It did not take long to empty the truck, after which I sat down and did some translations. At 6 pm, some help arrived and he and I took off for the other side of town, to where Natalie's storage units are located. Galina had hoped that we could consolidate both units into the truck, but as it turned out, we fell short of cramming one of the units into the vehicle. The round trip and time there took more than 4 hours, and when I got home I was thoroughly exhausted.

I'm thinking we're probably going to have to run this play a second time tonight to empty out the units. I am so not looking forward to it (especially since I've been translating pretty much all day.)

Cheers...