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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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Gaps in child care, my day off, I borrow a car and the daughter decides she wants to go to Drumheller to look for dinosaur bones. This is fine, I try somewhat to talk her out of it, suggest maybe quartz crystals or trilobites up at Lake Louise, but she's decided.
It's going to be a hot day. First stop Drumheller, we check out the Salvation Army (I have this persistent vision of great treasures lying unrecognized in rural thrift shops), nothing, then a quick sandwich and we're off.
Horseshoe Canyon, we've a route we take through the badlands, the flat tops and hoodoos, and when we get far enough back we begin looking.
No great finds, a few pieces of bone, some sticking out and weathered into a thousand pieces, if we were professionals we might dig and look further, but it's not legal in Alberta. We find a number of small amber beads, brilliant gemmy yellow with the weathered white crust, a (relatively) large piece at almost a full centimeter in length, the amber here, like the bone, is poorly fossilized, crumbles easily, it's pretty and curious but you couldn't make jewelry from it.
Then home, we vary the route to bypass construction, through small towns where kids play in the bleak, hot afternoon prairie sun, it reminds me of my childhood, the dead hours between noon and 6 or 7 PM when nothing could be done for the heat, the trees cast no shadows, the children would pace bored upon the street, looking for something, anything to do, in the evening, that's a different story, it's cool, there might be thundershowers or great buildups of dark cumulus clouds, an aerial landscape to compensate for the boredom of the prairie landscape, there would be gangs of neighborhood kids gathered for great games of "Kick the Can" or "hide and Seek", but the afternoon, the tortuous long afternoons of summer, they were death.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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Up far, far too early this morning, attempted to go back to sleep with no success, up then for the day. It's 7:15 AM.
First stop the Hillhurst Flea Market - an OK day, found a antique/vintage desk lamp, just needs a plug, but I seem to need lighting as the only time I'm ever home is very late in the evening.
And leaving the flea market, walking east along 5th Ave I come across somebody hammering in an "Estate Sale" sign, and so I pop in to check it out. Main floor, nothing, upstairs, nothing, then downstairs and what should I find but....
A vintage oak bookshelf, complete with original glass, deeper than some other ones I possess and in far, far better condition. $30.00. A steal. There's a dealer downstairs, he's seen it but can't seem to tear himself away from the "free" bin and so I quickly spring upstairs and close the deal.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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5 Miles walking today (missed the bus) and turned up a total of 4 garage sales. All I bought was some "rare" (lol) beanie babies for my daughter. This year is Soooooo done.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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And there have been some responses on the Oil Lamp for sale. Kind, encouraging responses that aren't particularly interested in a genii infested oil lamp, but recommend I keep trying. My favorite is this:
"You are the greatest person on earth!
THANK YOU!! so much"
No, thank you.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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More finds on Ebay. Although as you've probably already suspected (I didn't, I'm gullible), I've noticed a similarity in style between some of them and suspect there's a market there for merchandise mass made for suckers just like me.
But I'll post them anyways.
Translated: "My husband brought a mermaid to our home and I was very jealous because he no longer paid me attention . One day that my husband went to work and the mermaid was slept in her pond, I grabbed her with a fishing net and I took her to throw to the sea. I thank to the Virgin de San Juan because now my husband already pays me more attention."