Altered expectations

This Labor Day weekend has turned into Garage Sale weekend for me. And it has provided some truly unexpected highlights.

The somewhat expected was selling *some* items. I knew it wouldn’t all sell, but I figured some small things would attract folks and you just never know what will catch someone’s eye. My somewhat joking goal was to sell a gas tank’s worth of stuff – and I did that on Saturday.

The unexpected treasures? Well, first off it was the overall fact that I am home bound. No where to go. No timetable other than be ready to roll up the door at 8am each morning (7 on Sat). I’m out here with my laptop on it’s rolling table and catching up on online reading & bill paying & budgeting and most importantly doing more writing and research for the website projects I’m working on with Eve.

In another stroke of good luck timing, SportsBoy is with his dad AND didn’t have to work or do anything this weekend that required my attendance. Three whole days? Unreal! Eve came over to keep me company and so we could bounce ideas off each other with all this quiet time and she ended up staging the whole display you see in the pictures. That inspired me to try listing the albums on Ebay – the listing is here – and seeing that they have eased up on some of there previously road blocking fees for listings. That one was just $1 to post so even if it doesn’t sell I don’t feel terribly gypped.

We’ve run 3 out of 4 days. I’ve actually had a four day weekend since I took Friday off to prepare for the sale AND because SportsBoy did have his first JV football game that afternoon in flipping ass Colton a good 90 minutes away! WHY do they start off the season out where it is hotter and a PITA to drive? Thankfully there was a desert breeze blowing which made it much more bearable than last year’s opener. Plus, the team won 37-0 🙂 We hung around to wait for traffic to die down and to hang out and talk to SB since he had to stay for the Varsity game which followed his. We talked for so long that the pre-game festivities were starting complete with marching band and my mom perked up and decided she wanted to watch the kick off. I would easily have stayed to watch that game too if I didn’t have to get up so early the next day. At least now that my mom has a taste of Friday Night Lights and clearly enjoys it, I know she will hang in there just fine next year when it is SB participating!

Mostly I have just loved sitting out and watching the neighborhood come and go. I’ve chatted with two people who I’d never met before. I watched many a dog and it’s walker go by. I saw a dad prepare for a fishing trip with his young son. As usual I am tuning in to the bird songs and love hearing when a hawk starts to call out. I really have to agree with one lady who lamented the lack of front porches in today’s homes. She is so right. After I call Amvets and get the larger items that don’t sell removed from the garage, I think I will set up a little sitting area so that I can spend the occasional day out here again.

We need more weekends like this when we slow things down and sip beer on the front porch and say hi to our neighbors.