Pachinko Whirlwind

We've been hit by a Pachinko Storm!

 

Several months back, the man we refer to as "the other Bill" or "Bill in SA" told Bill (my Bill) that he was going to get out of the pachinko restoration business and that he would be selling his stock.  Last weekend, he apparently decided that the time had indeed come.  The two Bills started negotiating and they came to an agreement on the price, as well as what exactly was included in the deal.  Yesterday, Wednesday morning, we got up at 3:30 (we were aiming for 4:00 but woke up earlier and just got up then) and I took (my) Bill to the airport for his 6:05 a.m. flight.  The Tulsa airport wants people to check in by 1 hour prior to the flight, so we had to get him there by 5:00.  Which meant that I had to get up with him, hence the early start to the day!  Bill's mom picked him up at the San Antonio airport, and took him to the UHaul place for the truck he reserved.  It wasn't the biggest one, the moving van size.  It was the next sized one down - the same size we moved the contents of a three-bedroom house to Tulsa 21 years ago.  In other words, it was a big truck!

 

Since the Otter and I were on our own yesterday, we went out for pizza for dinner.  We had planned on going to the grocery store after that, but the fact that I'd been up since 3:30 a.m. kind of took the wind out of my sails.  To say the least!  I was in bed by 9:30, and it would have been earlier except that I wanted to give the dogsters enough time to get all their last-minutes outside trips over with.  I got up at 5:00, which is the normal time.  I turned on my cell phone and had a text from Bill which he left for me at 2:57 this morning.  As he was about to leave his mom's house and head home!

 

He got home at 12:30 this afternoon, after a multi-hour drive with road construction most of the way and traffic when their wasn't road construction!  The truck was full.  To the gills.  He got somewhere around 75 vintage pachinko machines, a bunch of Aripachi machines (a type of pachinko), a few unusual machines and somewhere over 50 (closer to 100, I think) paper boxes full of parts.  Also, all the molds that Bill in SA casted parts with.  His dad came over this afternoon and helped, they got about 3/4 of the truck unloaded and in the shed.  They'll get back on it in the morning.

 

Then, I think that Bill has probably reached the Lifetime Allowance of pachinko machines!  Including all the variety of machines he got this week, the total of what he brought back is over 100 machines.

 

Bill hand delivered the shawl to Nana.  When I said it was on the way to her, it was actually in the process of being packed into Bill's carry-on bag so he could take it with him to give to her.  It turned out very well and she was happy with it.  I didn't have time to get pictures of it, though.  Now, I have to come up with another project.  Otter bought me the prettiest yarn at Wallyworld yesterday!  I guess she forgave me for the fact that I accidentally took her set of car keys with me yesterday!  Somehow, they wound up in my purse.  She was going to go somewhere when she realized that she couldn't find the key.  After I realized it, I remembered that Bill hadn't taken his keys with him and told her to use his.  Which is when she realized that the key she was trying to open the door of his car was actually the key to my car - she was a little miffed!  She figured it out eventually, and got the right key.  While she was out, she went to Wallyworld and that's where she found the yarn.  She also realized that the blinkers in Bill's car might not be working right.  And I realized that the key she usually uses as well as my spare key to Bill's car were getting thin from use and might break off in the ignition (had that happen once with another car) so I got two re-cut today.