Today is one of those odd days that I never planned on.

Today I’m in California inspecting a rope shipment before taking possession of it. Funny, I feel a bit like the bad guy of the week on a Miami Vice re-run, all I need is a pastel suit and pinky ring.

a big limo pulls into a darkened warehouse. Cut to a low shot of the car door opening. A leg clad in a lime green suit and loafers (with no socks) steps our. Wide shot to shows several nervous looking men with automatic weapons milling about as Mr. Lime Green Suit walks to the center of the space to meet Generic Gangster Type #1 who is standing next to several large wooden crates with the words “Leg Warmers” painted on the side.
MrLGS: “So lemme see what you got.”
GGT#1 opens a large wooden crate to reveal spools of hemp rope packed in straw
MrLGS: “This stuff uncut?”
GGT#1 “Best crop out of Europe we can get”
MrLGS takes a pinky and scrapes a bit of hemp dust off a roll and sniffs it.

Cut to Crocket and Tubbs (both dressed in non clashing pastel suits and t-shirts) jetting across the water in their cigarette boat as Phil Collins' latest single plays

Why am I doing this? Well besides the fact that I trust my importer about as far as I can toss him, this is a very large shipment. Like 2000 pounds of rope. How much rope is that? Like 13 miles of the stuff or, 14,782 curiosity kits or 6 months of working stock. That big of an investment needs to be inspected first. Besides we are all out of raw stock at the Abbey and this stuff will need to be trucked up to us. So with any luck I’ll be dragging a couple of huge duffle bags full of raw rope home with me on Thursday.

So in addition to all this work I will also be in the delightful company of these nice people. I’m thinking someone will be getting tied up tonight, no?