I couldn't be sure I'd heard it right, because who advertises a concert the same night, especially when its Weird Al? I mean, he ain't exactly gonna sell out the Rose Bowl, if you know what I mean. My cellphone was, unfortunately, running out of batteries, but I used it to place a few exploratory calls. I was unable to determine concert time, but I got through to Dawn, mentioned that a Weird Al concert sounded like a wicked way to spend a spontaneous evening, and that she should get in touch with the climbing people and see if we could switch plans, plus obtain when/where/how much type information.
Finally, at about 6:15, I arrived at jeremy's work. We parked my car, hopped in his Honda, and headed south to The Tech. While en-route, I wielded his Nokia 6160 (best battery life in the business) to great effect, obtaining the time of the concert as 8PM, and determining that there was a box office on site. Not that I had any idea where the San Jose center for the performing arts was, but in the modern age of cellular telephones and ubiquitous internet access, I didn't expect locating that information to be a problem.
During my mad telephone chase, Jeremy was expertly threading the Honda through rush hour and downtown city traffic, until we arrived at the dilapidated warehouse that contained not only the Tech's trash, but also lots of their other exhibits, that were being reconditioned, or worked on, or rotated, or were brand new, or whatever. Sonya let us and and showed us around, and we were quickly awash in a sea of obsolescent technology. Two large areas, surrounded by caution tape, contained the material we were free to take. Cables, palettes, monitors, computers, huge exhibits, smashed printers, and assorted unidentifiable junk lay strewn around us.
It was one of those strange situations in life with rules are so strict as to seem game-like and artifical. Like a supermarket shopping spree, we had an odd combination of total freedom and complete limitation. We could take whatever we wanted. It was completely free. But it had to be within the next hour, and we could only take what we could fit into the back seat and trunk of a honda. Jeremy began taking apart things that might have parts useful for lasers, as I scrounged for things bearing Apple's multicolored logo. After a triage stage, I set up a testing area, and began to sort out which of the junk worked. Anything that didn't work perfectly was discarded, as there was much more material than transportation space.
During this period, we kept in touch with Dawn and John via cellphone, as they made their way to the venue and began waiting in line for tickets. None of us had eaten, so that was an issue as well.
As our appointed hour drew to a close, I had 3 working macintoshes that formed a slice of history, a Mac II, IIsi, and IIci, 3 working 15" monitors, and a 19" monitor (larger than the one I have now) that used an odd cable and I couldn't test, but decided to give a try [it appears to be working, but black&white]. Jeremy had a laserdisc player of the kind so old that it contains an actual working Helium laser, instead of just a little diode, and we both had some miscellaneous cables and equipment. The things we did not manage to take were many: two working oscilloscopes, a Sun Sparcstation, a huge neon sign with 4 seperate sections and transformers, dozens of monitors and old computers, an HP laserjet, large quantities of shelving, particle board, wire mesh, and other useful construction material, and much much more.
Clearly, Patri needs a pickup truck.
<< Introduction, Great Day Begins << || >> Wierd Al >>