Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Well, well. I seem to have missed a day completely; sorry for those of you whose days were inexorably destroyed by my lack of blogging. I understand how one misstep in the routine causes chaos, but I hope you were able to move along.

I have an excuse, though. Since the computer is in my mom-in-law's room, sometimes time lines don't quite turn out the way I want them to. Sometimes I don't want to blog at a reasonable hour, and that's all there is to it. Tonight the timing works. Tomorrow? No guarantees.

Quite a day today, no? We walked out the door at about 10:00 this morning and thought we had been transported to Hawaii. We are so lucky to live in a place where it doesn't randomly dump two feet of snow, just because it feels like being spiteful. And cruel.

I'm definitely not used to the heat, though. I'm happy to report that after much time out of doors in the last few days, my usual farmer's tan is back, and with a vengeance, I might add. I've likely been outside more than inside over the past few days. Let me tell you more....

Our complex is quite an uppity place sometimes, as you might expect living in the heart of WASP country as I do. The council keeps a tight leash on the goings-on (I won't get into it, but let's just say that my neighbour got a warning from the council because her back tires were two inches off her driveway pad), and one of the scourges of the neighbourhood they're trying to eliminate is the garage sale. The rules of the complex state that thou shalt not have any garage sales, save for once a year when the entire complex has a sale. Then it's like a tailgate party at the Daytona 500.

As you might guess from that intro, the sale was this past weekend. Having just moved back (and having just replaced the light fixture in my kitchen), we had several things to sell. Funny how things seem to collect; junk begets junk, which leads to yet more junk. But the great thing about garage sales is that someone somewhere wants your junk. You just have to find that someone.

Evidently our sale is a big deal around here, because man, it was busy. The rule is that everyone runs their own sale from their own garage; I didn't have much to sell--just a few items--and it was made all the more difficult to do by the fact that there were only two of us on this whole side of the complex who were selling anything. What a bunch of losers. Nice people, but come on, let's get into the spirit. Down on the other side of the complex (the east side, for future reference), it was a party; balloons, donuts, all the hoopla you could ask for and then some. Over here, it was pretty scarce. The good thing was that it was so busy down there that most had to park over near me, and so they saw me first.

I did pretty well; managed to sell the big items that I wanted to get rid of, which was nice. I even sold the old sunshine ceiling, which went to a guy I saw the next day at church. I hope it works okay, but it only cost him $15, so I'm not too sad if it doesn't. Also sold an old computer desk that I'd had since I lived with my parents and had made all the moves with us until now. End of the line, friend. I'm not exactly sure why we even had it still, except that perhaps we didn't know what else to do with it, and it seems a shame to throw away a perfectly functional piece of Swedish furniture (which, of course, is made in Burma or some such place; not many Swedes down there). Anyway, it's gone, so I'm happy.

One thing that didn't sell: my old bubble-jet printer. Too bad. It works perfectly well (provided you download the Windows XP compatibility driver--yes, it's an old printer. It probably doesn't work on Vista, but then, not much really seems to in the first place, so it's in the majority there), and I even recently bought a new ink cartridge for it because it accompanied us to Three Hills. But alas, evidently many other people have old bubble-jets they're also trying to rid themselves of. Perhaps I can bundle it with a dot matrix printer and really blow away some seniors home somewhere.

Along with all the selling and buying at garage sales, the one thing that I find a source of constant amusement is the professional garage saler, the one who is willing to pull out all the stops with some hardcore negotiation, simply to save, in one case from this past weekend, five cents. Yes, someone bargained me down on a ten cent hair clip. Seriously, there's a line somewhere, and I'm pretty sure he crossed it, but whatever. I'll always have the last laugh because really and truly, I was only going to take that stuff to the Salvation Army anyway, so even if you don't pay me full asking price, I'm still getting more than I would have if you hadn't bought it. So there.

Anyway. The rest of the weekend was fine. Sunday was Mother's Day, which I've already regaled with stories of. Monday was another day to be outside. On Sunday, the boy and I went to the local Wal-Mart (a reasonable 10 minute drive, as opposed to the hour drive it took us back in Three Hills) to buy some plants and get the hanging baskets and containers in order; Monday was planting day. Now that I have some time to enjoy it, I find I'm quite enjoying gardening. My baskets look quite lovely now, thank you, as do my containers. Had a couple of other garden chores as well--moved a hosta, relocated a mint plant that was slowly launching a military-style coup to take over the rest of the garden, cut down some dead tulips, etcetera. Three-and-a-half hours outside meant that my farmer's tan was near perfect when I came back in.

After all that gardening, we went over to my parents' place for a Mother's Day extravaganza. Good food, lots of laughs, and some classic moments from the boy. Fun times were had by all.

That takes us to today, which was one of those recuperate from the weekend days. The wife was busy on Monday tackling all the inside chores that needed to be accomplished after the move back, so we're both pretty beat. The upside is that the house and garden both look lovely. The downside is that we're both completely wasted. But it's a good kind of exhaustion that comes from a job well done. That's what I tell myself, at least.

And because I'm so wiped, it's time to hit the sack. Thanks for the one-day reprieve on blogging, and I'll see you when I'm back tomorrow. Hopefully. See you then.