Seriously! Was It Worth It?

The Battle of the Garage Sale Wars was held this past weekend and by all accounts it looked to be a huge success – well, at least by the traffic driving by our place! Yes, that’s right. Almost all of the traffic slowly came to a rolling stop, as the woman in the passenger seat cranked her head left and right as her eyeballs scanned up and down our driveway to see if it was worth stopping. I would hazard a guess that 90% of those women didn’t think it was worth it and told hubby to just keep driving. They would continue down the road to another larger and more active sale down our street. Believe me, it was a LOT of traffic and that’s why I’m guessing the rest of the contributing vendors must have had a really good day. Nat and I have never seen Dominion Road so busy that early in the morning.

Me, myself and I made all of $30.00. Not really worth the effort, but I had to give it a shot. After all I still had the kidney-shaped coffee table and end table I wanted to try and sell. I honestly felt that if people actually saw the set in person that they would be interested. Silly me! Garage Sale buyers only carry small coinage and bills and really aren’t looking for a lot of big ticket items. Nat did manage to sell his two water hoses and I was successful in getting rid of a lot of office doodads – paper trays, memo holder, pencil/pen holder, etc. – plus a couple of small household items that really only added up to a few bucks. If it wasn’t for Nat’s hoses, my sales would have been even more dismal.

I closed my sale up by 10:00 – after only two hours of watching vans, cars and pick-up trucks drive by our little house in droves. I felt like they were taunting me – “Why did you bother?”, “You’ve not got much”, “Nope, nothing there I want”. Those customers that did stop were very polite about things. I even handed out the little maps that were supplied touting to each one that there were over 70 Vendors, with a group of them at Ridgeway-By-The-Lake. I would have made more money getting a commission for sending everyone over there!! The ladies having the sale down the road walked up at one point, bought a small token item, and as we chatted they offered me to bring whatever I didn’t sell down to their tables and join them on Sunday. Cute!! It was really nice to know that they had that much stuff to set up for the Saturday and Sunday!!!! I said thanks, as it was really nice of them to offer, but what little I had left Nat and I took to Goodwill immediately after I closed up shop. So, all of my early prep work, with Nat’s help, setting up and then dismantling was worth a measly $30.00 in the end. I’ve had more profitable days looking down on the pavement and picking up stray pennies!!!!

I had another dressing change that afternoon at 2:00 pm, so after Nat and I arrived home, we sat back and relaxed. Even Nat was a tad disappointed for me, as he absolutely despises selling used things to other people or asking anyone for money. Stems from his childhood in Scotland and I totally understand. I, on the other hand, have no problem with the whole matter and told him dinner was on me. We would go down to Green Acres Restaurant for a rare night out!! Let’s just blow the whole shebang on fish ‘n chips!!! We’re so exciting at times it even scares me.

Sunday morning I finally had a chance to sleep in. Being up every other day by 7:00 or 7:30 am is exhausting and takes a toll on me. I enjoy being able to sleep in by 8:30, which isn’t a big deal to most people, but it is to me, as I’ve never been able to do so until after my transplant. All of my bandage/dressing changes have been scheduled for between 8:00 and 8:40 am and driving into Niagara Falls to the Red Cross Care Plan Clinic takes about 25 minutes, so it was rise and shine early on those days. At least now, after about 7 changes, the wound is finally healing nicely and the Clinic has advised I can come by every third day!! Hopefully this next week will be my last, but time and healing will only tell.

The walkway is finally taking shape. It’s looking gorgeous even if it is only a quarter done. If we were willing to sell the patio pavers sitting in the driveway during the garage sale, we would have made a killing!! The two lads working on it took the weekend off after working very diligently. The one lad was headed to Christie’s Antique Show in Dundas with his wife and then on Sunday they planned to get their house in order. He sounded like he was going to have more fun than I was on Saturday and as it happens – HE DID.

Now that Monday is upon us, Nat and I are back to our routine. I’m back on the treadmill, after missing a few days, getting some baking done and Nat’s trying to get a little lawn work finished, as his golf games will be sporadic this week. His golfing partner is busy with a part-time job and not able to get out as many times this week. Poor Nat, I know he’s disappointed as he’s gone to the driving range to at least get limbered up. Since we’ve become so exciting this week, I’ll join him on the patio with a crunchy, chocolatey Ice Cream Bar!!