SATURDAY SURPRISES

The woman minding her yard sale was reading a book when I walked up—a sight guaranteed to gladden a librarian’s heart. I said hello and asked if it were a good book. She showed me the cover and I read the title: Strength Finder. My first thought was that it was something devotional, but no. “I have to read this for my job, and then take a test. It's supposed to show what my strengths are.” She sounded a bit dubious, as I probably would myself. I told her that by our age we probably already knew what our strengths are, and she nodded. “Maybe I could have used this more when I was young,” she said. I suspect that when she takes the test it won’t hold many surprises.

Some people a few blocks from my house woke up to a surprise though—and have cause to be grateful for the strength of a fence. When I started out I passed a police car parked in the street with its toplights going. Beyond it, in front of an apartment complex, a large tree had toppled in the night. But a stout iron fence held the tree up and off of several parked cars. Wouldn’t that put a crimp in your day—to go out to your car and find it under a tree!

It was another low-key Saturday, and I don’t even have going to the airport as an excuse! The past week was quite hot though, which can be discouraging when you’re planning a sale. And because sales go on all year here, there’s no motivation to get it over with before winter sets in. I spent a total of $2 this week. You certainly can't say I have an expensive hobby. But I found two items I was about to buy in a store. Don’t you love it when that happens?

One was this hair clip.
Those of you who know me are probably wondering what anyone with hair as short as mine would want with a hair clip. Wish I could claim it was for some really clever use, but I actually want it for my hair. Which, while in a short cut, is longish on top, and when I’m playing Wii tennis I'd like to be able to clip it up. And now for twenty-five cents I can.

At the same sale I scored a pack of 2 dry erase markers. Admittedly not a thrilling find, but we use a wipe board in the kitchen to keep a running grocery list. As soon as an item runs out and the backup goes into use, it's added to the list to get a new backup. I'm lucky to have a pantry, and happy to say we rarely run out of anything. And one of the things on the wipe board was…dry erase markers!
I don’t know what these folks were thinking to put a price sticker on one of the notecards, thus ruining it, but there are enough left to make them worth fifty cents.
Looks like I can make a couple of pairs of earring from these beads.
I got them knowing I have a stash of earwires. What I didn’t remember was that my stash is gold-colored, and for these I need silver! Oh well, I'll just keep an eye out for some silver ones.

This is my frivolous, have-no-idea-what-I'll-do-with-it buy for the day—two cards of pink beaded edging.
I'm not much of a pink person, but these forced themselves into my hands. And when the price turned out to be a quarter each, I figured what the heck. There's 3 feet of edging on each card. So if you have any ideas on what to use this stuff for, I'm completely open to suggestions!

When I left this sale I saw a whole herd of ducks across the street—walking down the sidewalk. (There were several more that wouldn’t sign a photo release so got left out of the picture.)
So that was my big Saturday morning, but it came with a bagel and cream cheese and I had a good time. I have to admit that the thing that amused me most happened before I left the house. I was checking the ads on Craigslist and came across this gem:

“Big Garage Sale, Better Than a Swat Meet.”