So, I’m sure at this point many of you are wondering how the garage sale went. Well, it went fairly well, for a while, then it went not-so-well at all. Here’s the sequence of events:
Friday Afternoon: I call my mom to verify that she and C (my sister) are coming up for the night to help me finish tagging everything that’s piled high in the living room. Mom says that they’ll come up that night, but she has other stuff to wrap up, so it will be a little later in the evening. I conclude that I will be finishing the tagging myself.
I then go out and hang up about 30 bright pink ‘garage sale’ signs I have made around town.
Friday Evening: I tag a bunch of items, bring up a few more things from the basement. Mom and C show up around 8:00 pm, when I’m ready to sit down and veg for a while. I order pizza, we all eat and watch TV. Mom falls asleep on the sofa, C starts drifting off to sleep in the chair – I send everyone to bed and clean up the kitchen.
Saturday Morning: Up at 5:30, shower and dress, wake C and mom up at 6 – we have coffee and begin to take everything outside. 6:45am first customer shows up.
Saturday Morning: 7:00 C leaves. She has paperwork to fill out back at my parents’ house and can’t stay. Fine with me, mom and I wave goodbye, refill our coffee and prepare to have a nice chatty morning on the driveway. Customers are scouting out the place and I’ve already made around $20.
Saturday Morning 7:30: Phone call from C, her car has overheated on the freeway and apparently exploded. Smoke billowing from engine compartment, oil covering everything. She is not happy. Mom calls a tow truck.
Saturday Morning 7:45: Call C to find out exit number so tow truck can come get her. Get head bitten off as she yells hysterically that she’s handling the situation. Promptly get call from Greg who is boarding a plane in California asking why the hell C is calling him for help with the car and can I please take care of this? Garage sale customers are coming and going, I’m up to around $30.
Saturday Morning 8:00: Mom leaves to go pick up C off the freeway and take her back to their house (1 ½ hours away) so she can fill out the paperwork, and then, much like MacArthur swearing to his troops he’ll return….my mother says much the same thing. I go and get a book.
Saturday Morning 8:15-10: Meet many lovely people all-too-willing to purchase my stuff. Having a pretty good haul, even met a nice lady who does housekeeping – may hire her to do my house. Get scattered phone calls from Mom and C….tow truck will be coming in a while, C at home safe and sound, paperwork filled out.
Saturday Morning 10:00: A Frederick Community Services truck pulls up to my front yard and a lady in uniform steps out holding one of my signs like a dead fish. She announces that she has pulled down all but one of my garage sale signs from around town, as it is apparently unlawful to hang signs on public property. . . BUT I can go back around and ask property owners if I can re-establish my signs on their lawns. I decline, she takes my signs and drive off.
Saturday Morning 10:15: Business slumps dramatically. The sun has warmed things up a bit, I continue to sit out with the stuff, fall asleep in my chair.
Saturday 12:00: Get a phone call from Greg, he’s wondering why he just saw my mother on the side of the freeway on his way home from the airport. I call mom – she’s waiting for the tow truck.
Saturday 12:30: Greg gets home, sees the stuff in the driveway, promptly reclaims 5 items and I am given a long speech about how big stereo speakers never depreciate in value. Mom calls, tow truck is there, she will meet us for lunch.
Saturday 1:00: Greg and I break down the garage sale and head off to a Chinese restaurant where mom meets us a half hour later. We celebrate the success of selling off junk and the fact that Greg is home. My total takings for the day is about $117….for 3 hours of work and a nap I guess I can’t complain.
Conclusion: All in all, it was something of a success. I feel really good about it anyways, and I’m still getting craigslist users asking me if I still have this or that item for sale. Regardless of the rather sad sign situation…I have a cleaner basement and a less-cluttered home. I can live with that. C’s car is in the shop having been safely towed….looks like she blew a timing belt and aside from an elevation in blood pressure, she’s fine too. Next weekend I’m sitting back and drinking some beer.
Friday Afternoon: I call my mom to verify that she and C (my sister) are coming up for the night to help me finish tagging everything that’s piled high in the living room. Mom says that they’ll come up that night, but she has other stuff to wrap up, so it will be a little later in the evening. I conclude that I will be finishing the tagging myself.
I then go out and hang up about 30 bright pink ‘garage sale’ signs I have made around town.
Friday Evening: I tag a bunch of items, bring up a few more things from the basement. Mom and C show up around 8:00 pm, when I’m ready to sit down and veg for a while. I order pizza, we all eat and watch TV. Mom falls asleep on the sofa, C starts drifting off to sleep in the chair – I send everyone to bed and clean up the kitchen.
Saturday Morning: Up at 5:30, shower and dress, wake C and mom up at 6 – we have coffee and begin to take everything outside. 6:45am first customer shows up.
Saturday Morning: 7:00 C leaves. She has paperwork to fill out back at my parents’ house and can’t stay. Fine with me, mom and I wave goodbye, refill our coffee and prepare to have a nice chatty morning on the driveway. Customers are scouting out the place and I’ve already made around $20.
Saturday Morning 7:30: Phone call from C, her car has overheated on the freeway and apparently exploded. Smoke billowing from engine compartment, oil covering everything. She is not happy. Mom calls a tow truck.
Saturday Morning 7:45: Call C to find out exit number so tow truck can come get her. Get head bitten off as she yells hysterically that she’s handling the situation. Promptly get call from Greg who is boarding a plane in California asking why the hell C is calling him for help with the car and can I please take care of this? Garage sale customers are coming and going, I’m up to around $30.
Saturday Morning 8:00: Mom leaves to go pick up C off the freeway and take her back to their house (1 ½ hours away) so she can fill out the paperwork, and then, much like MacArthur swearing to his troops he’ll return….my mother says much the same thing. I go and get a book.
Saturday Morning 8:15-10: Meet many lovely people all-too-willing to purchase my stuff. Having a pretty good haul, even met a nice lady who does housekeeping – may hire her to do my house. Get scattered phone calls from Mom and C….tow truck will be coming in a while, C at home safe and sound, paperwork filled out.
Saturday Morning 10:00: A Frederick Community Services truck pulls up to my front yard and a lady in uniform steps out holding one of my signs like a dead fish. She announces that she has pulled down all but one of my garage sale signs from around town, as it is apparently unlawful to hang signs on public property. . . BUT I can go back around and ask property owners if I can re-establish my signs on their lawns. I decline, she takes my signs and drive off.
Saturday Morning 10:15: Business slumps dramatically. The sun has warmed things up a bit, I continue to sit out with the stuff, fall asleep in my chair.
Saturday 12:00: Get a phone call from Greg, he’s wondering why he just saw my mother on the side of the freeway on his way home from the airport. I call mom – she’s waiting for the tow truck.
Saturday 12:30: Greg gets home, sees the stuff in the driveway, promptly reclaims 5 items and I am given a long speech about how big stereo speakers never depreciate in value. Mom calls, tow truck is there, she will meet us for lunch.
Saturday 1:00: Greg and I break down the garage sale and head off to a Chinese restaurant where mom meets us a half hour later. We celebrate the success of selling off junk and the fact that Greg is home. My total takings for the day is about $117….for 3 hours of work and a nap I guess I can’t complain.
Conclusion: All in all, it was something of a success. I feel really good about it anyways, and I’m still getting craigslist users asking me if I still have this or that item for sale. Regardless of the rather sad sign situation…I have a cleaner basement and a less-cluttered home. I can live with that. C’s car is in the shop having been safely towed….looks like she blew a timing belt and aside from an elevation in blood pressure, she’s fine too. Next weekend I’m sitting back and drinking some beer.
Is this where I say "Sorry I asked?"
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