10 cents? I give you nickel, mom’s moving, forever fencing, cat
So after the cat did her wall pissing stunt on Friday, both of the cats lived in the utility room until the following morning. Neither of them were happy about it as evidenced by the loud meowing and the sounds of them attempting to jam their heads through the blocked cat door. Ali dropped off Spook at the vet Saturday morning. Along the way, Spook made sure the trip was as miserable as possible for Ali by shitting, pissing and throwing up all within the first 15 minutes of the ride. We told the vet to keep her there over the weekend until some sort of diagnosis could be made. It was pleasant only having one cat under the roof the rest of the weekend. It would be pure bliss to have none. Although I have to admit there were brief periods when I thought of Spook sitting in a cage at the vet being all scared. It made me feel bad. I just mentally changed the subject whenever I thought about it. I mean yea, I can’t stand the cats at this point but they have been part of my life for 15 years so it’s hard to to totally insulate myself from any feelings about them. We should have more news on the cat today I assume.
So Saturday was the yard sale. Actually the neighbor was having a yard sale and we just tagged on. I sort of felt like a schlub as I brought our stuff over. The neighbor had spent the previous day organizing and pricing EVERYTHING he had and he had a lot of stuff. I just had crap stuffed in boxes and bins and figured I would quickly price stuff as I set things up. The yard sale was supposed to start at 8 but of course early birds started showing up about 7:20, way before I had anything set up for display.
So I hurried up the best I could and got my stuff set up the best I could. Ali came over before leaving for the vet and helped me get organized as well. One of the first people there was “yard sale man”. We have seen this guy at every yard sale we have had since moving to Florida. He is an older guy probably well into his 50’s. He has oily, graying, kind of curly hair with glasses and a beard. He ALWAYS is wearing a short sleeve, button shirt with no buttons buttoned with nothing else underneath, leaving his leathery belly for all to see. This guy is a grade A pack rat. He loves yard sales. He walks around and round looking at stuff, picking up all sorts of things, negotiating the price down a bit and throwing them in his truck. He has no need for 90% of what he buys but the thrill of getting something dirt cheap must do it for him. Over the years he has taken a ton of crap off our hands and Saturday was no exception. After buying a few things on his early visit he showed up later and bought MORE stuff. Along the way I talked to him a bit. He said he has 3 big outdoor sheds, used primarily for storing his junk. He lives on 5 acres. I can only imagine what that property looks like. He seems like a nice enough guy but what a hoarder, unreal.
Early on is when most of the action takes place. I got rid of a bunch of stuff. I wasn’t that interested in making money, I just wanted to be rid of stuff that in some cases has been sitting around our house for years. As part of this strategy I was putting ridiculous prices on things. Almost everything was a dollar or less. I even had a decent size bin of FREE items.
I had to take a break from selling stuff to help a guy get his pick up truck unstuck. He pulled off on the far shoulder that had just been filled with sand a few weeks back. His truck sunk in deep. So I grabbed my steel cable and attached it to the Tacoma. Along the way I gave myself a couple of wounds from the sharp cable ends. The old Chevy S-10 I was pulling out was not in great shape. When I was under it looking for a place to attach to I saw the frame was rotting out. The driver side door didn’t open either. The guy had to get in and out of the truck Dukes of Hazard style. I managed to get him loose. He thanked me for the help.
We had a long lull in shoppers mid-morning. Then SHE pulled up. She was an older Haitian woman with some guy that may have been her son. He spoke decent English, she did not. Of all people to visit your yard sale, Haitians are the most annoying. It doesn’t matter if you have price listed on an item with big HUGE numbers. They will ask you how much the item is, expecting you to offer them a price lower than what it is marked. Once you tell them a price, they will offer you 30-50% less than that. It is extremely annoying. Now for me, since I was basically blowing things out I didn’t care that much. My neighbor was looking to make some money from the sale of his items so he was not quite so open to her shenanigans.
She did laps around the items, then she would pick up several items and put them together and ask for a price on the group. Then she would group up another pile asking for another price. She would continue this routine and then when it came to figuring out a final price she would try to get the total price down below the price of the individual groups that the price was already negotiated on. My neighbor got into a loud argument with her when she tried to dispute a grand total of all of the stuff she had. As soon as they saw I had a box of free stuff they took it all without even looking what was in it. Then she started mulling over my items. She used the same divide and conquer techniques asking for prices of various groups of items which were already dirt cheap and trying to get them cheaper. She asked for prices on tons of things. Towards the end she asked for a price on the box of 35 to 40 cd’s I had. Before I could give her an answer she was on to asking for a price on something else. I think in total she spent a whopping 6 or 7 dollars with me, getting a bunch of items with that along with the box of free stuff. I was glad to see her finally leave. What a pain in the ass.
Late in the morning an older Hispanic couple stopped by and bought a few items. As they were paying us the screw fell out of the guys glasses. We looked in vain for it on the driveway. I even went over to our house and grabbed a magnet in the hopes to snag the screw with it, but we had no luck. The man appreciated my efforts. He told us how they lived down the street in the Waterways development. He said they have tennis courts and lakes to boat or fish in. He told us how he plays tennis almost every day between 8 and 10am. He asked if I played tennis to which I told him I did occasionally. Then out of the blue he says I am welcome to come use the courts whenever I want. He gives me his name, his phone number and his code to get in the front gate. I thought this was all very bizarre but I took the information down and thanked him for it although I knew I would never take him up on his offer. After he was left I was dumbfounded that an old Hispanic couple just offered to allow us to sneak into their development to use the facilities, funny.
During our interaction with the Hispanic couple the damn Haitian woman showed up while I was getting the magnet. She was screaming at Ali that she paid for the box of cd’s and we didn’t give them to her. I had no patience for any further bullshit from this woman. She starts ranting to me that I told her $3 for the box of cd’s. I told he in no uncertain terms that I did not say that. I told her there was $300 worth of cd’s in the box I would not offer to sell them for $3. She protested more but I stonewalled her. Then she asks me what I would sell them for. I said $15. She offers $5. I said no thank you. Seeing I wasn’t going to fall for her little game she gave up on the cd’s and instead bought another 50 cent item, for 25 cents. What a royal pain in the ass.
Yard sale man showed up later in the morning for round 2. He grabbed a bunch more stuff, including the old wicker bathroom set that I wanted to unload quite badly. He said he didn’t know if the girlfriend would want it but if not he will just throw it in the shed. Sounds good to me.
During the day the neighbor and I took turns raiding each other’s stash. We gave him some stools and other small things he could use. I grabbed a shower head, some tomato towers, shelving and a few other things. No money was exchanged as we were both happy to help the other out if they could use something we had. As the one o’clock end of the sale was approaching we had a few late stragglers but nothing much. I gave away a bunch more stuff, especially anything little kids wanted. I didn’t care about the money.
The neighbor had made arrangements to have a guy come out with a truck to take anything we had left to some thrift store that benefited an AIDS charity. This was great because it meant we would unload EVERYTHING, freeing our house of unnecessary clutter. The only downside was the guy charged 65 bucks an hour. The bill was $130. By the time I gave our neighbor half of the truck charge and half of the cost of the newspaper ad he ran, it left us with a tiny profit of $12 for the 5 hour sale. 🙂 I truly could care less. I was happy to be junk free. The sale was a big success in my book.
The rest of Saturday we spent stringing fencing along the two completed sections of the property line. It was tedious work but not horribly difficult. The biggest issue I had was getting an even pull. It seemed like no matter how I tried to compensate, either the top or bottom section was a little ahead of the other as you got closer to the section I attached the come-along to. It wasn’t a huge deal but enough for Ali to ask if I could minimize it which I tried my best to do. It isn’t perfect but no one but us would even spot it. Hammering in all of the staples to secure the fencing did a number on my hand, opening up a nasty blister. I just adjusted my grip on the hammer and kept plugging away. We were happy with the end result.
Sunday we got good news from my mom. A couple days prior she had called and said she was going to look at a condo for rent at a development where one of her co-workers lived. Evidently my griping about her place was enough to get mom to at least take a look. Well she signed a lease! I talked to her on Sunday and she told me all about it. It sounds great. She is going to be moving at the end of April. I can’t wait to see the place and help mom get settled in. I told her to let me know if there is ANYTHING she needs leading up to the move to let me know. Since I was the one to bug her about moving I certainly need to follow up and make the process go as smoothly as possible. The new place has a pool, is much larger than what she is living in now and yes, even has a dishwasher! I think once she adjusts to the new surroundings she will enjoy it.
On Sunday most of the day was consumed with more fence building. We got quite a lot done. The last rear corner was finished and we hung the 12 foot gate from Nicki’s old dog run out there. Sunday afternoon we dropped in line posts down the one side. I had Ali helping me with digging the holes which really made things go faster. We got that entire side done. If things go smoothly, there is a chance that we could have the area totally enclosed by the end of next weekend. That would be awesome. I updated the online fencing progress page. You can see the pics here.
I rewarded Ali for all of her hard work by taking her to Cold Stone Sunday evening. Ali was shocked that she was getting to go to Cold Stone twice in the same year. I figured we burned enough calories during the day to compensate. We don’t go crazy when we go there, we get the smallest size. I had chocolate with almonds and pecans in it, at least the nuts are good for ya. Fence building is leaning me out even further than I already was. When I weighed myself Saturday night before taking a shower I clicked in at 170 pounds, holy crap. I must have been severely dehydrated.