Thankful And Happy

 

Today has been such a good day. Nothing special but still remarkable in and of itself. I had almost no leg and back pain which is miraculous. Some days it’s really bad and it pretty much varies every day. After the worst winter I’ve ever lived through, full of cold and snow and no Spring at all, today’s weather was sunny and in the 80’s. The dogs and I had the best walk we’ve had this year. We took our usual route but the dogs were so well behaved. Not perfect but the closest they’ve been in a long time. They didn’t pull on the leash like fiends which in turn makes my back and legs hurt worse. They walked nicely with slack in the leash most of the time. This put me in a fantastic mood. I was talking to them as we walked and praising them which probably helped them be better (except for Elvis who can’t hear). Nothing awful happened on the walk which is an anomoly. Yesterday, halfway through our walk, we were charged from across the street by a giant black lab. The owner didn’t have the dog on a leash and ran over saying, “He’s just a puppy. Only 2 years old.” I didn’t waste my breath trying to tell her 2 yrs. old is not a puppy. When we got home, I put some vintage tunes on the boom box in the kitchen and started making dinner. I whipped up a cold pasta salad with chicken and lots of assorted veggies. I love those and that’s my favorite way to eat when it’s hot outside. I was going to make a rhubarb cake but ran out of time. Hopefully, this weekend I’ll get to it since all our rhubarb is ready to pick.

I had another sale on Instagram last night. I’ve been trying different nights and different themes. Last night was just random items which doesn’t seem to go over as well as all one type. Last week I had another random sale and the week before that I had a religious sale. The first of the month I had an angel sale. I’m thinking of doing that once a month. So many factors come into play, the day and time you have the sale, who’s online then, the price you list it at, what others are looking for and how much money they’ve got available to spend. I’ll just keep plugging along. It really has me inspired though. I wake up every morning thinking about what I’m going to sell next, etc. I’ve been really flexible with letting people pay when it’s convenient and so far people are really pleased I’m willing to work with them. I want to keep it a good, positive experience, not just for me but for the customers as well.

I don’t want anyone to think everything is rosy for me though. Because we have to keep things interesting at all times… Last Friday morning (May 17th), before 9 am, hubby went to fill up the Jeep with gas before we left to go treasure hunting. He goes to a gas station in town, less than a mile away. Before he could even get there, some guy in a Mack Rolloff truck (like a garbage or recycling truck) hit him. Greg had just turned the corner (right) and was a block from the gas station. The truck was in the left lane (speeding) and started going into hubby’s lane. He touched him in front and the headlight on the driver’s side just flew off and the front got crushed including the grill. He called me to tell me so I wouldn’t worry. The guy was in his work truck and on the job so it was lucky he pulled over. Greg called the cops and it took them over half an hour to arrive. Then the police officer took statements and gave the other driver a citation because he was at fault. His truck didn’t have a mark on it from the incident. The Jeep was driveable so Greg finally got gas and came home. I told him to call our insurance co. immediately and he spent a large chunk of time on the phone with them. They told him which body shop to take it to. It’s in the next town over (Des Plaines) so I followed him there in my car so we could get an estimate and drop it off.

As I’m driving behind Greg, we’re half a block from turning into the body shop. We’re both in the right lane, going to turn right into the driveway for the place. All of a sudden, at the intersection on the left, a guy with a truck and a small trailer behind (like they go around with for grass cutting in the area–they keep their lawn mowers and leaf blowers inside the trailer) pulls out just as Greg is going by the intersection. He was going way too fast and just watching from behind, I was afraid the trailer would go flying into Greg’s vehicle or he’d try to cut him off. You could just tell how careless a driver the guy was. He was in the left lane, right next to Greg and all of a sudden decided to get in the right lane like he didn’t see Greg was there! Greg laid on the horn and the guy finally stayed in his lane. Back in my car, watching all this, I BURST OUT LAUGHING. I almost busted a gut laughing. Of course, it wasn’t funny at all but the IRONY of this almost happening again to Greg in the span of a few hours was too much! That pretty much confirms that our life is like a live version of Family Guy. 😉

The cop had estimated the damage between $500-1500. He said if it was over $1500, he’d have to fill out the back of the accident report and mail it in to the state. The body shop told us it would be more like $2500. Our insurance co. was going to pay, we have to pay our $250 deductible. Then our insurance co. is going to go after his insurance co. to get the money back. Besides it being an inconvenience, the expense and time lost to dealing with it, the worst part is that it’s going to take 2 weeks for them to get it done. We were planning to go for a short vacation from Memorial Day to the following Sunday. Possibly up to Green Bay, WI. Now we had to cancel that but hubby is still taking the 2 vacation days and we’re just staying home that week. We’ve got plenty to do but it’s still a disappointment. If this had happened a week earlier (OR NOT AT ALL), this wouldn’t have affected vacation plans.

The Sat. before this, I had finally taken my car to get a new battery. It had been dead for a couple of months and i knew I wouldn’t drive it until the weather got better so we just left it sit. We took it to Sam’s Club and it was still under warranty so we should’ve gotten a partial refund on a new one. Instead, the nice kid at the desk gave me the battery free. Greg & I were afraid to breathe when he said this. I couldn’t believe this! Things like this never happen to me! It put me on Cloud 9 for a few days straight. It turns out it was good that we didn’t wait another week or we wouldn’t have had a car that ran…

After we dropped the Jeep off, it was raining and dreary all day. That didn’t keep us from our usual treasure hunting. In fact, I drove us in my car all day long. I’m like the little old lady that only drives her car to church once a week. Instead, I might drive mine to the library or to get milk. It’s 21 years old and has 36, 700 miles!! It’s my baby and I love driivng and couldn’t love a new car as much as I love it. I only like to drive between 10-1 pm when the traffic isn’t bad and only when the weather is good and when I’m going somewhere I’ve been before. I wish I was kidding! So here I am out of my comfort zone, driving at all hours, in the worst weather and to strange places. It was so good for me and just what I needed. But I got my fill and on Sat. we only went to 1 place and I let Greg drive. Even though I’m a great driver, he dislikes being a passenger. I love being a passenger just because I don’t have to pay attention and can look at the clouds and everything else under the sun. So we were happy with that.

Sat. we went to the most interesting estate sale in memory. It was a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse type building in the Wicker Park area of Chicago. It was a single family residence of 2 artists. I can’t imagine having that much room or being that rich! It even had a courtyard that was once a sculpture garden. Talk about eclectic taste. We got there about 50 minutes late and when we went to get a number, we were 109 and 110. They were on 40! So we walked a couple blocks away to Division St. and went to the bathroom in Starbucks. By the time we got back, they were only on number 50! We expected to wait most of the day but it was only about 40 minutes total. Instead of the usual crowd, it was mostly neighborhood people who walked there and had never been to an estate sale! So like 20 people or more just left without waiting after getting a number. We went in and took our time (about 2 hours) walked through the place! We spent some money ($129) but didn’t go hog wild. I was looking for one unique art piece for us to keep to remember being there. I didn’t see it until a woman had it in her hand and was taking it to someone to get a price quote. A lot wasn’t marked. The guy told her $60 and she left with it. I was heartbroken. It was a cross made out of bottlecaps and had a doll face in the middle and said Lean on me. It’s hard to explain. I didn’t even get a picture of it. A lot of the art pieces were expensive and at first they weren’t giving any money off the price. As time went on and depending who you  dealt with (there was a different person running it in each room), you could do better. A few things were more than I wanted to pay but then we got a few things so cheap, I’d be embarrassed to say!! We left feeling really good about things. 🙂

In the next few weeks I’m going to branch out to selling vintage sheets and pillowcases and ephemera like postcards and old greeting cards with cool graphics. Prior to seeing all this on Instagram, I had no idea people were in the market for any of that stuff. They want the sheets from the ’70’s or older with the funky floral patterns but also any loud pattern. I’ve been hoarding them when I find decent ones at a sale. Not all estate sales have sheets, maybe only one a weekend, if that. Then they might not be any good. You really have to look through them. I’ve had a hard time finding any postcards or greeting cards that aren’t being sold singly for $1 or more at an estate sale. I try to get a handful or box for one price and usually can’t. I lucked out and got a bag of greeting cards from the 1960’s and a handful of postcards from the 1910’s this past weekend. Such fun to look through! 🙂

So just like the weather improving, parts of my life aren’t so bad. I’ve got reason to be thankful and happy despite the hard times. I hope everyone else sees it that way too.