jamesq | Sale of the Century... Um... Err... Weekend?

The Montengarde Garage Sale was this weekend and it was a big success. We raised over $400 for the Barony (they tell me this is a record). Probably all of that will be going to the upcoming polling.

Technically, the selling started on Thursday at Tavern. This is the primary reason why we did so well. First, we had a lot of donations, second, there were a lot of people picking through the choicest bits and paying top dollar for the privilege. Jenny, for example, got the Jesus Action Figure that I was donating.

I was a little worried that only my stuff would be in the sale, but it turns out my fears were unfounded. Their was a lot of items for sale.

In the rush to get everything sorted away after Tavern, I managed to leave my hat, my backpack (containing my street clothes and wallet) and a memory stick for a digital camera in the Tavern hall. Luckily

murchad picked it up and, between him and

wendy_licious, managed to get it back to me Friday night. Once again, I am rescued from yogurt-headedness by the people around me. Incidentally, I have noticed others around me using the term "yogurt-head" to describe themselves when they do dumb things. I'm proud of that. I wish I could take credit for inventing the term, but I got it from Berke Breathed in a Bloom County comic.

I had Friday off (but still went in to work for the morning I had way too much to do). Returning home I stopped for a sushi lunch, then got home and started putting things together on the tables.

That evening the rest of the stuff trickled in.

wendy_licious and

wackynephews contributed some stuff as well as their time during the whole sale. Tygar and Dauphina brought in several van-loads of stuff (they transported the lion's share of the stuff from Tavern). Findabhair, Hero and

speed_ball_boy also helped monitor things and donated quite a bit of stuff as well. Althea and Myfanwy graciously loaned us the use of some greatly needed tables.

Eventually we had everything all set up and we settled in to the selling. I had advertised the sale at work and a few of my coworkers showed up, which was nice. Incidentally, my coworkers have the most adorable kids ever. Others came by and bought some stuff, but it was slow. Mostly the volunteers just socialized. We watched Little Shop of Horrors as a way to pass the time and test out some of the donated equipment.

The next day I got up a few hours before my planned opening time (which was 10 AM, I got up at 8 AM). The intent was to organize a few more things in the sale and to mow the lawn. The lawn desperately needed mowing, as it had not been done since July. Thank heavens it slows down in August.

I managed to get the garage door opened and the non-sale stuff (the yard work equipment and our three bikes) hidden behind the garage before people started showing up. So I started helping them buy things. After a small amount of time,

wendy_licious and

wackynephews showed up and I let them handle things while I mowed the lawn.

As I've mentioned before, I hate mowing the lawn. It's hot, tedious and largely pointless work that I do only so that my neighbors don't get annoyed at me. I'd turn the yard into a meadow if I could.

As things progressed the prices went down. We wanted this stuff gone! At around 3 PM we said "fill a box for $5". At 4 PM we said "fill a box for $3. At 5 PM, theoretically quitting time, we said "take whatever you want, it's all free".

One of the things we had donated was a clown doll. Now I don't know who thinks clowns are fun, but it's certainly not anyone in our generation or younger. Probably the Boomers don't think so either. That pretty much meant we were stuck with this abomination, staring at us with a wide, evil smile and its blank soul-less eyes, unless some grandparent decided to buy it for the grand-kids. Thankfully that's exactly what happened.

"So all this stuff is free?", asked the old guy who walked in after five.
"Yep, we just want it all gone - take whatever you want.", I replied.
"Hey, this clown doll looks to be in pretty good shape. I should get it for my granddaughter. Kids like clowns right?"
"I'm sure your grand-kids will love it", I lied.

The other notable thing to occur was the coming of the uninvited house guest. CT, Whom I've written about before, showed up to check out the sale around 1 PM. Then he didn't leave. Instead, he latched onto people, Lamprey-like, and sucked the life force out of them.

Now CT is impervious to social cues so I knew when he showed up that we were stuck with him until the bitter end - he would literally be the last person to leave. Unless someone took him aside and told him bluntly that he was overstaying his welcome and needed to leave now. Of course, no one wants to be the bad guy and there were enough people around that nobody had to take shoulder the whole burden of talking to him, so it didn't actually happen.

CT is not a bad guy, he's just irritating and gets under people's skin with his behavior. I think it would be great if he found a group that he could be a part of. I just don't want to be part of that group.

After we closed up the garage sale and fetched all the signage, we all settled into the house for a barbecue.

"I didn't realize there was going to be a barbecue. Had I known I'd have brought something to eat", said CT.
"We didn't advertise it - it's supposed to be an informal get together for the sale volunteers".
Turning to Findabhair he said, "Your husband is coming, could you get him to pick up some hot dogs for me?"

Sigh.

I'm harping on CT a bit much. He wasn't that annoying, mostly because people would trade him off to others (except for poor Findabhair, whom I think got her first full dose of CT that day and no one was willing to take a bullet to save her), and I think everyone had a good time at the barbecue despite his presence.

Over the rest of the week, I've been cleaning up the debris and having people over to pick through the stuff. This weekend, a lot of it gets sent to goodwill.