It was sporting of her to set me up a couple of tents on the front lawn while the guesthouse is booked. One, a clothes-closet of sorts, the other more immediate living. Or sleeping. Only at night, the days are far too hot, days you have to escape, find someplace cool, a hammock in the woods...
A week into this real-world-woofer living and a friend of hers comes by to do some garage saleing. She's heard about my prowess, I'm rolled out of bed at 6:30 AM, still ripped from the night before, can't stand, can't find my wallet (it's in the garden, where it fell out of my pocket...)
I find it. Miracle. And then we're off, I'm driving, friend is navigating, it's good she's there, keeps me sober, or on the right side of the road while I sober up...
The first few, in Nelson, nothing, really, of interest, a box of kids toys, I overpay for the job-lot, mostly instruments, rain stick, zills (finger cymbals), various slide and tin flutes, train whistles, gyroscopes, the total of the lot, by sticker price, can't exceed $5.00, but I buy the job lot for $10.00 because I can't be bothered to do the addition...
We move on, hit the 7:00 AM lot, then down south of Taghum to the Valley for the 8:00 lot. Nothing for me. Breakfast bite, then homeward, the lineup of 8:00 and 9:00 on the list. She's having a great day, purchases at every stop. Me, not so, nothing I'm so inspired to buy, mostly rubbish, curiously, most of the real treasures are in the free bins, a set of pasties, unused, with tassels, I need this. A very big Maglight, I need this. 2 Vintage 35 MM Nikon and Yashicamat cameras, with lenses and filters, I need this...Stapler and Staples, I need this, I could go on, I'm getting everything I need for free, but paying for every frivolous want ...
And so it goes, plucking the best of fruits for free and buying rubbish to alleviate my guilt...
Finally, garage sale, misc shit for sale, including - Bongos!!!!
This is how I know I'm still sketchy, hammered, 2 sets of bongos, both broken, one - separated, veneer torn, the other missing skins, I pick them both up for a mere $15.00, bargain, but, really, WTF?
I mean, what do I need Bongos for? But I have this vision, that I'll invite the Rainbow Tribe to live with me on the front lawn, that I'll be known as "Bongo the Woofer", that there will be a flash-mob uninvited festival and I'll sing "I...don't want to work...I just want to bang on the drum all day..." and I realize, again, that I'm still loaded from the night before and just buying shit to buy shit and that really, really, I need to find a place of my own...