Short Stories about Long Stuff

Yes, our theme this week is ‘long stuff’. Starting with the road on Friday! There were several sales up in the NW corner of town, so I headed out. And out and out. Two of the sales turned out to be in the country. I’m talking barns and farm ponds. And muddy driveways. Long, hilly muddy driveways one lane wide that I had to either back out of to return to the road (SO not going to happen) or turn around, holding my breath that I wouldn’t hit any trees or slide down a muddy hill. One of those times when your three corner turnaround becomes a seventeen corner turn.

I just wish there had been anything at any of these sales worth the drive. But it was a combination of total junk and ridiculous prices. My fave may have been the pair of used French doors for $200, and the buyer had to detach them from the house! That’s not a whole lot less than you can buy them new at Home Depot, where they’ll most likely carry them out to your car for you. But that was actually reasonable compared to some of the furniture prices, like the nondescript office chair for ninety bucks. As my friend Marcia says, they were way too proud of their stuff!

It was a relief to get back into town, where a couple of sales were across the street from each other. Still nothing I wanted to buy, but I was happy to park by a nice civilized curb. (I can see it’s probably a good thing I bought a house in town and not the farm I always fantasized about.) When I walked up to the second one the couple having the sale seemed to be fussing at each other, not sure about what. Maybe they were just tired and hungry. I did get amused at listening to the lady’s grumpy voice while she stood about a foot away from something labeled a Karma Flag. Kind of wanted to take a picture of it but didn’t dare!

However, they did have some interesting stuff in their yard which it turned out they made. They bought scrap metal pieces at a local metal yard. Some they just partially buried, others they twisted onto rebar. When we get started on our relandscaping project, I’m thinking of seeing what we could find for our own creations.

I had about an hour and a half on Saturday to try again. They were still putting stuff out at my first stop, assisted by their nice kitty.

She was helping by rolling in the mud and standing in the way wherever they wanted to walk. Good kitty! Here I found the first of my elongated purchases.

I’m rather taken with the smile and the single eyebrow!

Our friends Diana and Dave have two lively and adorable miniature dachshunds, Sophie and Tootsie. They haven’t met Zoe yet but will soon. So whaddaya think…will playing with this prepare the Z for playing with the real thing?

The next sale didn’t exist. Had some of those Friday too. (Does someone thinks it’s funny to put ads in Craigslist for nonexistent sales?) Kept going to the one that promised clothing I wanted to check on, but she wasn’t very accurate about the sizes. They were way too big – not an experience I have all that often! Like Mikey-the-insurance-guy from last summer, she and her husband are moving to Hawai’i. Turns out her husband is originally from there, so they are going home. On one of her tables I found a piece of midcentury (or maybe a bit earlier) pottery, and succumbed to its elongated charms.

And that was it for this weekend’s purchases! I had to head home to get Zoe to her puppy playtime. Her only companion this time on the ‘rowdy puppy side’ was Sparta, but they expended as much energy as half a dozen dogs.

Just a heads up…I may not get any garaging in next weekend. I’m planning to head down to Roseburg for their annual quilt festival, just to soak up some beauty and marvel at other people’s creativity. And not incidentally, I’ll get to play with those dachshunds while I’m there!