WHY WE SHOP ON DRIVEWAYS

Oh, we claim it’s for the thrill of the hunt, but really, we shop on driveways so that we don’t have to mourn too much when an investment goes bad.

Sometimes it’s an item that looked okay on that driveway, but when you got home you had second thoughts. Perhaps a piece of clothing didn’t fit, or turned out to have a spot you didn’t notice. You sigh, put the thing in the donation box out in the garage, and move on.

And sometimes it’s an item that got rained on.

A lot.

Really a lot.

Like the gazebo we bought last year.

Which didn’t much care for that rain storm we had back in December (the one that lasted days and days).

  Which now looks like this.

Is that sad or what?

At least we didn’t pay a retail price tag. I’m really sorry it got ruined, but it sure does take some of the sting out to lose something that cost $35 instead of $300 or more. Of course it was the single most expensive thing I bought on a driveway in 2010.

Sigh.

Oh well. It’s only stuff, after all, not something truly valuable like a husband or a cat or a dog. Who were also not happy during that storm. My cat Noll kept insisting I let him go out, and when the door was opened and he saw the rain, he would go to another door, hoping it wouldn’t be raining over there. And my dog Lizzie does not care to get her enormous paws wet. She would go to the edge of the patio, swing her butt out over the grass and pee, then run back in.

Today must have been our reward for enduring all that rain. Sunny, in the low 80s. I know, all of you in cold places no longer feel sorry for the loss of my gazebo!

Met a couple of friendly dogs. I heard mournful whining from a back yard and asked the lady still setting up her sale what kind of dog she had. “He’s a chow, but he thinks he’s a Labrador,” she said. Usually chows are pretty standoffish, but she was right, this guy was definitely a retriever wannabe.

His name is Yogi, as in Yogi Bear. “He came with that name,” she told me. “I wanted to name him Thread Bear.” We both snickered. This is the least threadbare creature I’ve ever seen.

A little later I met Besos.

Yup, that is Spanish for kisses. You can guess why.

The pickings were slim this morning, spent a whole $2.75, and only one thing will stay with us—this decanter. The cute rabbit in a hat puppet will be a prize for a children’s librarian and my mother will get the vintage embroidery transfers. My brother in law Bob asked me to keep an eye out for leather items he can cut up for some projects he’s doing, and I found the first one today.At my last stop, a guy was looking for blankets and other linens to donate to dog rescue groups. His pickup was emblazoned with signage about wolfdog rescue. I heard him agree when someone at the sale asked him, “Don’t you live over on Labrador?” Struck me as funny. But hey, I’m easy.