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Garage Sales - Week 1 - 2011
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2010
Now there have been a few, very few, you'd see them driving around the city, signs posted 4 or 5 miles apart, but really, garage sale season began this weekend.
Friday there was a teaser - a senior's sale at the 50+ center in Killarney. Nothing really, a few passes around the work before I settled on a couple of blood pressure test kits for one of the customers at work who seems a little preoccupied with his health lately. When I get to work they prove to be the highlight, as all the staff line up to check their blood pressure.
Saturday, though, Saturday is where it's at.
It's the Good Samaritan Rummage Sale at the Hillhurst community center.
And I'm there, faithful as an old dog, about 7:30. There are the usual suspects, perhaps 30 people in line ahead of me, dealers, the usual suspects, I know them all. I've picked myself up a coffee and a spare, just in case, and I offer up a random act of kindness and give it to the book fairy. I could use the connection and stand beside him, pretend I was joining him in line, but that's just tacky.
I feel I should have dressed up for this, and the line slowly builds up behind me. I've brought a book and a plastic chair to sit in and while away the time, chat to my neighbors, the atmosphere is convivial, jovial, but I don't kid myself, it will be competitive as hell once I get through the doors.
I do my stretches.
The lady in front of me, she comments on how the line fills, when we arrived there were perhaps 30 people ahead of us, now there are almost a hundred, and she's spoken too soon. She's joined by her grand daughter, her husband, her friends, ..... I'd be annoyed, but I'm focused on the sale.
At 9:00 we finally enter. And it's a mad dash to the collectables cabinet, nothing of interest today, then the jewelry in the main gym, again nothing of interest. I expand my search, in the end pick up some neckties, baubles for people at work, nothing, really, of merit. Nothing to justify the wait.
From here I'm off to the Knights of Columbus, which started at 8:00 but I couldn't, still can't be in 2 places at the same time. And this looks OK, a Crucifix that opens to reveal candles & holy water, for giving the last rites (perfect, again, for one of the older Italian ladies at work), a vintage alarm clock that some moron over wound and then decided he didn't want (and so they marked it down for me...), other trifles that I have to talk myself out of buying.
I look for the St. Lukes garage sale on Northmount drive, miss my turn, turn back but can't seem to find it, a couple of passes and that's it, time is passing and I'll have to search further.
I go to St. Michael's - a school in the South West, meet a dealer I know carting out an antique pine chest, otherwise there's nothing.
We chat. I've played it wrong, this Saturday, there were 22 church sales on this morning but I put all my eggs in the Samaritan basket, and while it's been good in the past, was good this year, there was nothing exceptional. I should have traded my first on the scene there for first on the scene at any number of other sales, the finds would have, could only have been better.
***
When I get home there's a call from someone replying to a Kijiji ad I had posted, originally contacted me in October, now in town to pick up his piece, while here he picks up a few other bits and bobs and overall, by the end I've covered the morning's excesses.
Out with the old, in with the new.
***
Sunday, coffee with a friend, on the way home a garage sale sign, pop in, some used electronics, a better mini stereo for a song, some questionable electronics and computer stuff that needs to be tested, all in all not a bad weekend, not exceptional, but it's only week one...
March Hares
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1856
Sunday morning, the only day off this week, in the morning sipping coffee outside, a large, well fed coyote with bush tail and a glossy pelt walks across the ridge behind the condo. Working his way east, towards the golf course, indifferent to any spectators. The cats will stay in today.
And all throughout the day there are rabbits in fields, on the sides of the road, lawns, it looks to be their year. Hawks sit on fenceposts looking for the smaller game or just hanging in the air.
The sky's an unblemished blue, perfect, gem like, it's as if it's never snowed, certainly not just a few days before, now, almost indisputably, it's spring.
Almost.
Later there are the crowds walking along the river, a cool evening, and in the night there are shimmering curtains of phosphorescence in northern sky, iridescent and changing colors, they play for an hour or two before fading to a dull glow.
IFN - AMERICAN: The Bill Hicks Story & The Coup
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Restaurants & Cafes
- Hits: 2255
IFN, some time to kill and so the boy and I head over to Cafe Beano on 17th Avenue. We're going to The Coup for dinner, but it doesn't open until 5:00, and so we'll kill some time with a cup of coffee.
Now it's been forever since I've had a coffee there, despite having lived in the area for almost 20 years, somehow or another it just dropped off the map. A shame, it's great, the layout, the crowd, it's a proper coffee house, what coffee houses used to be before they became the dull Starbucks clones. An excellent place to while away the time, read a book, people watch...
From here to The Coup on 17th Avenue, a vegetarian restaurant I've heard good things about. And despite us arriving at 5:05 it's already half full, and by 5:30 there's a wait for tables. A busy place.
The food is good, vegetarian, I let the waitress surprise me and it's a pleasant surprise. The ambiance is nice, food is good, reasonably priced.
And from here to The Uptown for the movie - American - The Bill Hicks Story. I found it OK, the boy liked it, if you know who Bill Hicks is or was you'll probably love it. I didn't, such is life without TV, and the boy didn't either, but he's at the age where the rebellion against the establishment is a great theme warmly received and so I suspect upon dropping him off he was searching Google for more of his comedy.
Blizzard
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2083
Morning, on what may be, what could be a day off. Finally.
And the weather the past week has been beautiful, getting ever better, the moss grows green on the paving stones outside the restaurant, tulips can be seen to bud, the sky is a clear blue, occasionally dotted with cumulus clouds, temperature reaches highs of +10, +15, and I'm looking forward to garage sales, planning my costume, lists of things to do and I sit about planning my first step.
It could be a day off.
Outside, unusually, it's getting bitterly cold - the sky a slate grey, and I rearrange my priorities - I was going to go to the garden center but maybe not today...and the Restore, to pick up some hardwood (long overdue), but ...
And as I debate these countless trivial things it begins to snow. I thought that it was done for the year, but before I have even finished the thought it's turned into a full scale blizzard. Blizzard. The Good Samaritan Rummage sale is looking a lot less appealing, 2 hours standing in bitterly cold weather, lined up in the snow and the ice....but, persevere and you may be richly rewarded...
So the restore is out today - will not be making trips to and fro with a car packed with Lumber. Nix that. But I could still hit a few thrift shops, line up some curtains and call it a day. Which might have to be it.
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