It’s amazing what brings people out on the town. There’s an apartment complex next door to our house and one of the tenants came over to see what we had for sale. “Whoa, it’s like a little store!” she exclaimed upon entering, holding a glass of questionable contents. “Oh, I love your lamp! I want this lamp. I’ll be back for it. You guys have exactly what I need, I swear. You really do. You have everything I need. I’ll be back. Oh, I love this lamp! I want your lamp.”

After several painful minutes of rambling, she left, only to return about a half hour later with her dog in tow. She wasn’t quite as high when she came back, thankfully, but still, when she went digging through the box of miscellaneous knives, my mother-in-law and I got a little nervous. Seymour’s mom looked at me and said, “No offense, but if she goes nuts and starts attacking, you’re on your own.”

I couldn’t help laughing at that.

Finally, the neighbor lady picked up one pot out of a two-pot set, a handful of knives, and a can opener; set them down near the check out; and went to let her dog relieve itself. “But I’ll be right back,” she said. “And I really want that lamp, but if you sell it to someone else, you go right ahead, it’s okay. But if you don’t, I’ll take it.”

I wasn’t overly disappointed when she forgot to come back.

***

7:32 – I would much rather be going around town checking out garage sales than sitting out here in the blistering cold running my own garage sale.

7:34 – And by blistering cold, I am, of course, referring to the parts of me not right in front of the heater.

8:06 – I should have brought my computer out with me. Then I would be entertained and my lap would be warm. Yay warm!

8:35 – It’s always nice to get repeat customers!

*:56 – Have officially given up all hope of keeping track of items sold. Managed to get two items on the list before giving up.

8:57 – Am now channeling Bridget Jones. Must lose weight. Must also try to forget about yummy Daniel Cleaver.

10:01 – There be donuts in the house. Why is it that everything yummy is so bad for you?

10:45 – Okay, so it’s not winter-coat-and-coveralls cold anymore, but it’s still darn chilly. And the lovely heater is making me sleepy.

12:25 – Our heaters died. 😦 Apparently we blew a fuse. But then it was Seymour to the rescue and now the heat has been restored! YAY!! 🙂

12:26 – My jaw hurts.

12:29 – With my trusty heater by my side, I’ll never be cold again! I sorta feel like I’m camping, but without the s’mores.

12:33 – You know, s’mores sound good. I need s’mores. Where are all the s’mores when you really need them?

1:01 – Have you ever been high as a kite and then gone garage saling? Well, my neighbor sure seems to enjoy it!

1:27 – Please, dear high-as-a-kite neighbor lady, don’t come back till you’ve sobered up. You digging through my knives makes me nervous!

1:39 – Tick, tock, tick, tock…Come on, two o’clock, hurry up and get here so I can close up and do something fun!

***

Several years ago, we were down at Seymour’s parents’ house helping set up for a garage sale. Bubbles and Miss Tadpole were in the house watching The Lion King while I fixed dinner. As I was serving the kids, they asked me if I’d seen the movie before.

“Yep,” I said. “This movie came out when I was a kid.”

“Wow,” Miss Tadpole said. “That’s an old movie.”

“Yeah – really old,” Bubbles chimed in.

Miss Tadpole cocked her head. “So…why is it in color?”

“What?” I wrinkled my brow.

“Well,” Miss Tadpole continued, “I thought old movies were in black and white.”

***

Today started off as such a glorious morning: I slept in, then woke up to find that Seymour bought the kids an antique school desk to keep their coloring books and things in. When I realized that it was garage sale day and that he was out looking at things instead of working, I decided to get the boys up and do the same. I haven’t gone garage saling in years and it was a beautiful morning for a walk.

And that’s where things went downhill.

Seymour found a train table that he wanted me to look at, so I tried to get the boys ready in a hurry. Bubbles packed some milk and cereal to go for the boys and we were off…till Thumper dropped his all over the bottom of the stroller. The back seat of the stroller has a crossbar instead of a tray, so when he tried to set his cereal container down on it, it tipped over. Instead of just holding onto it, he screamed all the way to the sale and half the time we were there.

I finally managed to calm him down, but then Miss Tadpole tried to give him back his cereal, and the whole thing started over again. By then I wanted to scream, so we ended up going home. But as I was standing under a lovely shade tree on Park Street, trying to study the map of sales and struggling not to lose my temper in the rising heat, I was reminded of another garage sale day. It was my first taste of running a garage sale, and I was woefully unprepared for all the work that goes into it. Nothing went according to plan, it seemed, but we still had a lot of fun.

I figure life is a lot like a garage sale – scattered amid the junk is a whole lot of treasure, if only you take the time to look.

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