Wake up, my watch - vintage Smith's Astral, shows the correct date. The 27th. I've not noticed this before, the date function on my watches, given I mix them up, has largely been irrelevant, but it seems a curious coincidence, and I think that I've been wearing this for months now on end, and this is the first time I've noticed the date is correct?
Saturday, I've spent the night in town, the first order of business (really, the only after coffee) is to go garage saleing.
There's a big one in the basement of the Jam Factory, starting at 8:00 AM, after coffee I head down. The basement is the big puzzle, there's a few confused bystanders on Vernon St. looking for access to the basement, eventually they give up and wander down to the alley.
The Jam Factory, a big, 120+ year old building on Vernon, currently being used as an office/studio space for freelancers; shared space, interesting concept.
But the basement...well, this is a different story.
The basement, 3 stories down at ground level with the alley, filled - not upward, not mostly, but filled nonetheless, with rubbish. This is a garage sale of necessity, they've been told by the fire department to clean out the basement or else...
The basement, 6, 7000 square feet, unfinished, dirt floor, various rooms, no lighting, box after box, room after room, heaps of moldering rubbish. Bags of clothes, rat droppings & piss, old electronics, answering machines, stereo receivers, boxes of assorted garbage, old plastic toys, broken gew-dads and what-nots.
20 minutes, 30 minutes of searching with my flashlight, there's nothing here of any value whatsoever. Nothing. Burn it all. This garage sale, it's a last-ditch attempt to sell off or give away and stave off dump fees. It's a failure.
But it makes me think, all this empty space, what with a bit of flooring, lights, plumbing, it would be an amazing underground nightclub. And why is it being used for rubbish when real estate and rentals are so impossible to find?
***
Head up lake, a garage sale at 6 Mile. $10, 000 worth of art supplies, brushes, oil pastels, copal resin, linseed oil, varnishes, sprays, dry pigments, unglazed ceramics, there's everything for artists in any discipline. A couple of older ladies, competent but not inspired. Prices are good and it makes you wonder how someone suddenly decides after a lifetime they're no longer an artist. Anyways, great deals, but I summon a great deal of mental fortitude and buy nothing. Nothing. I have all this in lockers both here and there...
***
Further up lake, someone selling new bike equipment, clothes, ball caps, exercise wear. A storeowner from town cleaning out new old stock. Nada
***
From here on to Kaslo, stop at another rubbish sale in Woodbury, more landfill stalling on it's destiny, then Kaslo, coffee, the thrift shop there. Nothing. Then back, find another Garage Sale at Sentinel, more hope, some interesting tools but in the end nothing. Then to work.
Garage Sales, May 27th, a complete shutout.
***
Work, slow, but a few of my more generous regulars elevate "dead" to "OK", but - this year, it's not like other years, the money-machine is not churning out cash...
***
After work to town with JR - he wants to show me a new speakeasy with fabulously overpriced hipster cocktails and inept servers. But town, it's busy, the speakeasy is full and he's overrated his clout with the doorman. We end up around the corner at the Hume hotel, which just played host to "Grapes and Grains", some craft beer/wine tasting, a dress up event, the theme - "The roaring twenties" and every man is dressed like someone out of "Peaky Blinders", the peaked cap and suspenders, and all the women are looking beautiful in shimmery sequined dresses, flappers all, it's like out of "the Great Gatsby", this event, it attracted the town, 2, 300 people at least, and it's great, we're both a bit out of place. For a small town this place packs well above it's weight in terms of culture and participation.
This wraps up Saturday, May 27th 2023.