Garage Sale

Since it's been several days since I've been on here and I have a few extra minutes before I head to bed (ok, not really - the house is a wreck, I should at least be folding laundry or something else productive), I thought I would post something to reward those of you who visit my blog and get tired of me not putting anything new up. =) Unfortunately, I can't post any adorable pictures of Abby because my computer is out of commission until Kevin gets home (probably Wednesday night). Yesterday morning some type of virus or spyware took over my computer and I'm praying that Kevin can fix it easily and I won't lose anything. This is really stupid, but my computer is the one that we have all our pictures on and I haven't taken the time to back up any pictures since before Abby was born. I hope it's not as bad as it looked and Kevin can figure it out. So for now, I will use Kevin's computer and will keep worrying about my computer until he gets home.

This past Friday and Saturday, my mom, sister Rebecca and I did a garage sale at my house. Whew! What a lot of work! My mom and I are practically professionals by now - we always get complimented on our great signs and very organized tables. This year was no exception and we heard many comments including, "This is THE MOST organized garage sale I have ever been to!" And even with the construction detour our customers had to follow (the road is closed in front of the park next to our house), we still received compliments about our easy to read and follow signs; although, for the first time, we had several customers ask for directions back out to the main road because the detour turned them around so much!

Also unique this year was a very strange customer whom we will forever wonder about. Friday around noon, a middle-aged, overweight man in a tattered t-shirt (it actually had several rips) and shorts arrived in a brand-new (no license plate yet), gold PT Cruiser. Within a few minutes, he had his arms full and asked to set it aside by our table. He then preceded to go get another armful, and another, and another, and another....It was crazy. I'd never seen anything like it. He grabbed several cookbooks, a large wall mirror, kitchen items, a fake floral arrangement, an exercise ball, etc. He barely looked at the items, but would just grab them and bring them over to us. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what he grabbed and he did it very quickly (in fact, he was breathing hard from the exertion). My mom, sister and I kept giving each other looks and soon a few other customers also started looking our way, wondering what was up. My sister tried to strike up a conversation with the man, but he answered her very shortly and to the point, giving no extra information. One time she remarked, "Wow, you're sure getting a lot of stuff!" He replied, "I've got that whole PT Cruiser out there and my goal is to have it full by the end of the morning." It was weird. I thought to myself that maybe the guy was going to try to get a deal for all the items, but when he finished, he came to our table and simply said that he was ready. So, I began punching the numbers in on my adding machine (thank goodness I had that!) and we rang up his bill to over $160! My mom and sister busily packed everything up in boxes and brought them to his car. At this point, I had to go inside and nurse Abby. My mom later told me that he none too carefully packed his purchases into the car with no apparent regard for fragile or breakable items, even putting a box on top of the mirror. Then he came back and started picking out a bunch of the toys and spent another $50!

After he left, we couldn't get over the strangeness of the whole event. We speculated about his purposes. Did the man own a second-hand store where he was going to resell the items? But if so, why didn't he ask us to come down on any prices? Was he planning to resell his purchases on eBay? But if so, why did he buy some larger items that would be virtually impossible to mail? Did he buy these things as gifts for other people or to fill up his own home? But if so, why did he not seem to care if anything got smashed or broken? Had he just won the lottery or received an inheritance and was anxious to spend his money? But if so, why would he come to our garage sale? But above all, why in the world did he get so much stuff and do it all so quickly? We will never know. I so regret that one of us did not just flat-out ask him what he was up to. Unfortunately, we did not, and so he will forever remain our garage sale mystery man.

All in all the sale was a success: we made a fair amount of money, we got rid of a bunch of stuff (my husband is especially excited about this since I tend to be a bit of a pack rat), and the garage is now cleaned and organized. I'm glad we did it, even if I always do stress out about it, stay up late before the sale, and am exhausted afterward. I was sad to see some of the things go (as I mentioned, I'm a pack rat!), but it feels so good to purge and clean things out. I also love that I can get a little money for my effort, as opposed to simply taking my stuff to Goodwill, for example. So, although I'm still cleaning up from the sale (the downside to being the host of a garage sale - your house inevitably gets pretty messy), I'm so happy that once again everything in the garage is in its place and organized (the upside to being the host - you are forced to clean up your garage) and I can again park my car inside! Yay!

Well, I hadn't intended this entire post to be devoted to my garage sale adventures, but I guess that is how it ended up! It is now past my bedtime and I am too tired to do that laundry that is still lying on Kevin's side of the bed. Oh well, there's always tomorrow. I guess that is one advantage of having a husband that doesn't come home every night! =)