Ripper Weekend, 3 March 13

So yesterday I finally took my bike down the street to the shop to get pedals. Then I walked back to pick it up, and took along my bike shoes so I could ride home. I had the bike guy put a rack on the back, so I velcro-ed the boot to the rack and biked home. (Biking is allowed sans boot, as long as I don't stand up to pedal.) It felt so great that I decided to go for a spin around the park and figure out how to commute to work... and had my first wipeout of the summer because some fool car at a roundabout couldn't decide whether to go or not and some fool biker forgot to unclip from her pedals. I tipped over with both my feet still clipped in. Classy. On the bright side, no damage to my right foot, which is the broken one. I got a little scrape and a goose egg on my left knee. A bit stiff. So I'm hobbling a bit on both sides. I like to keep things balanced. ha.

The evening plan was to meet my friend Lucienne for dinner. We were going to do a bike ride, but my bike  spent most of the day in the shop, so she went on her own. Since she was a little later than me getting ready, I agreed to walk over to her house, which is about 700m (1/2 mile) from my house. I figured it would help me get the stiff out after the wipeout. I arrived, she grabbed her keys and we set off for Sydney Road, by mutual agreement that we wouldn't eat again at the Union Hotel, our usual haunt, which is halfway between my house and hers. We turned the corner out of her lot and there on the sidewalk was an entertainment center cabinet. Solid wood. Not quite six feet long, maybe three feet high.

Ever since I moved in, I've been thinking I needed to get out to IKEA and get something to put under the giant TV my landlady left for my use, because the one she left me didn't really seem up to the task. And replacing someone else's giant TV isn't on my to do list.

Now, here, pushed up against the side of a building (code for "free" in Melbourne), was just the solution to my problem. A month ago, Lucienne and I had a similar experience when we encountered a perfectly good desk by the side of the road on a walk. After careful consideration, we left it there because I wasn't sure I needed it. (Those of you familiar with my family will understand how Herculean it was to leave that desk on the street.) This entertainment center, however, was perfect. Except that it was huge, solid wood, we were 700m on city streets from my house, I was wearing a moon boot, and neither of us has a car.

"What do you think?" she said.
"Mmmmmm," I said, and tried to lift it. "Ok, nope, too heavy. Forget it."

 And then as I let go, it slid away from the building and began rolling toward the street.
"It has wheels!" we both exclaimed.
"Now?" Lucienne said.
"We can do it!" I said.

So we checked the cupboard ends and took out an old computer monitor, an old printer, and two dog leashes. At that point I was wondering if it was really free for the taking... but we were on a roll, so to speak. All we had to do was push it all the way down to the end of this street (just before the white speck at the very end in the picture) turn the corner, and go another 100 meters to my driveway...

We pushed it toward the driveway of Lucienne's apartment complex and had a bit of a struggle getting off the sidewalk; the cupboard was so long it got hung up a bit. We persevered, and then turned it so we could head across the street. It was going to be tricky because there was quite a bit of traffic and also a hump to get up onto the road. We diddled this way and that, and just as we were getting ready for a big push a voice yells, "You gals need some help?!" Shamelessly abandoning my independent Norwegian roots, I shouted "YES!" And this Australian fellow neither of us had ever seen before came running across the street. As he was crossing the street, I said, "Thanks for the help. I'll buy you a beer."
"I gave up beer for Lent."
"OK, when Easter comes I'll buy you a beer."
"Deal...You're not from around here, are you?"

He proceeded to pick up one end of the giant heavy thing, Lucienne and I on the other, and together we carried it across the busy street, and kept going, meanwhile, chatting about where I'm from, how Lucienne and I met each other, where she's from, where we live, etc.
After about a block I said, puffing a bit, "Are you sure you want to help us with this?"
"How far are you taking it?"
"Pretty far...all the way down past Union Road" (turns out he'd only been in the neighborhood 3 weeks and had no idea what I was talking about.)
"That's all right, no worries."
...Carry and chat a bit. More puffing...
"You're sure this is ok? Weren't you heading somewhere when you saw us?"
"Just going to drop in at my parents'. No worries."

We made it about two blocks, carrying it down the middle the street, me in the boot & boot cut jeans, Lucienne in her cute summer dress, and our hero in shorts and a t-shirt, chatting the whole way, before we girls begged for a rest. (We kept mentioning that it had wheels, but it was like he didn't believe us.)
"You're sure this is ok?"
"Yep."
"You're parents aren't going to worry if you're late because you were hijacked by two girls and a cabinet?"
"I was just dropping in, they didn't know I was coming."

After a rest in the street, we did another lift and carry and got almost to Union Hotel - the halfway point. Lucienne was bearing the brunt of the load because she was the shortest of the three of us. Good thing she's so fit from dragonboat racing. Again, we begged for a rest. This time we made it onto the sidewalk instead of the middle of the street. Lucienne and I were sitting on the entertainment center laughing and chatting it up with our new found friend when he said, "It just occurred to me that I left my car unlocked and running when I saw you needed help." That was 15 minutes and 350 meters ago. "Wait here, I'll be right back." So he took off running back the way we had come.

I wondered aloud, "So, if he's helping me move a free cupboard and his car gets stolen, do I have to buy him a new car?"
"If that's true, this could be the most expensive free cupboard ever," Lucienne said.
"I sure hope his car isn't that nice..."

A minute later he rolled up in a quite nice car, got out and said, "Wow, and I left my phone and laptop just sitting on the seat!" More laughing because a) I didn't have to buy him a car, b) we were a little punchy from carrying the giant cupboard, c) nothing got stolen, and d) we were only halfway to my house.

All three of us eyed the backseat of the car, and came to the conclusion, first independently and then as a group, that the cabinet wouldn't fit. We had some discussion about rocking up to the pub with it and sitting on it to have a beverage before making the rest of the journey. Instead, we persuaded our new friend that we could, in fact, roll it. "Oh, it has wheels!" he said. You can imagine the look Lucienne and I shared.

And so we rolled it the rest of the way, with a bit of lifting to get over intersections, and a brief encounter with an elderly neighborhood resident who stopped to chat us up. We agreed after the fact that she had cupboard envy. "That's really a nice cupboard. Where'd you say you got it?" We made it all the way back to my house with a big lift over the last bit of the gravel garden in front of my house. They helped me move the TV onto it and get the other electronic stuff out of the way.

Once it was all set, our new friend looked at it and said, "That's a rippa!"
"A ripper?"
"Yeah, that cupboard's a rippa!"
"And that's a good thing?"
"Yes! It's great - fits the TV perfectly!"
"I agree!"

I stuck my hand out and said, "Well hi. I'm Amy." He laughed and said, "Joel." Lucienne introduced herself, and then we laughed some more because the dang huge thing was, indeed, a rippa. And we just moved it, by hand, 700 meters through the city, 3/4 of the way actually rolling or carrying it in the street, to my house. All with the help of a stranger who left his car running and jumped out to help the two crazy girls moving a giant cabinet without any idea it was going to take a half an hour.

We headed back towards Joel's car and Lucienne's house and agreed that there would be food, and it would be at the Union Hotel pub because we'd had enough walking. Despite their protests, I bought them both dinner (because, yeah, new cabinet in my house!) and we chatted until almost midnight. Then I took their photo, which I plan to print and display next to the TV on the cabinet.
 

Turns out Joel is studying to be a priest and is doing the Catholic version of internship at a parish just up the road from our houses. So we know where to find him when Easter comes and he can have a drink.

I went up to his parish today for worship and sat next to a guy, who, before the service was over, was joined by a small person dressed in a full-on Spiderman costume, and visited by another small person dressed in a full-on dinosaur costume, who left his backpack on the pew - I noticed when the dinosaur tail on the backpack bumped my leg. There's something so right about getting to say, "God's Peace, Spidey."

Bike ride and wipeout, followed by two girls, a giant cabinet, a priest, Spiderman, and a dinosaur - this weekend was a ripper. Although I'm not sure that's appropriate use of the idiom...