Garage Sale

Yikes! We’re doing a garage sale this weekend, part of a “town-wide garage sale” event. They’ll be sixty other sales going on. On my block it’ll just be us and my immediate neighbor. Judging by last year, there should be a lot of people in my town this weekend – a lot – all looking to score some bargain deals. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, right?

Last year was a little warmer and sunnier, if I remember correctly, than this weekend is forecasted to be. But that’s not stopping my oldest daughter. She’s bent on getting a lemonade / ice tea stand going, and making a profit with it, even at 25 cents a cup. Tonight she’ll be on the phone to half-a-dozen friends, letting them know about the sale, to stop by with the parents, and to make sure they come by thirsty.

Other than the lemonade stand, we’re going to have about a hundred pre-toddler outfits of all shapes, sizes, colors, and whatnot. A pickup truck-load of toys still in decent condition. We have 35 DVDs (some still in their original packing!) and about 75 “popular” books (i.e., not the weird outta print stuff I read). Miscellaneous stuff, a big fan we never use, some furniture. Truth be told, we still need to go through the basement and the actual garage itself to see what we have to sell.

My neighbor made $750 last year. That sounds optimistic to me; if we make half that I guess I’ll consider it a success. But who knows? My wife’s got the sales gene, so I’m kinda interested in seeing her at work.

It’ll be a busy, action-packed, longgggggg weekend. The sale is from 9-4 both Saturday and Sunday, so all the errands and chores and duties and responsibilities we normally have will have to be shoved outside that time frame. The bills still need to be paid, the laundry still needs to be done, the dry cleaning still needs to be picked up, the groceries still need to be bought. I’m also an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion this Sunday, so my services will be demanded elsewhere from the garage sale for an hour that day.

On another note, I finished Jeff Shaara’s The Last Full Measure last night. Goose bumps, chills, etc. Don’t have a grip just yet on a review; I don’t believe I even reviewed Gods and Generals here, so maybe a twofer is in the near future. Anyway, bibliophiles can look forward to that soon. And now begins my perennial conundrum, What to read next? Not that I’ll be reading anything this weekend …

Well, if you know me, stop on by. If none of my junk is treasure to you, than perhaps you might like a cup of lemonade?