Garage Sale Season is officially OPEN

Each Friday, barring rain (or snow even) May through September, is Garage Sale Lunch Day. Vicki and I started the tradition and we've had lots of other great company over the Fridays last season.

Today's opening salvo included the Usual Suspects:

Vic: garage sale harda$$ who is my go-to person for getting back into the car and saying, "Did you see how much they wanted for that?!?

Jill: touchy-feely "good cop", who finds out the life story of the sellers, touches everything on the tables, and is the last one back to the car.

our newest convert: Marlene, who wasn't working at AWN last season but after just one outing, fits in perfectly with the crew. Marlene made out best today, especially in the gardening department.

and yours truly, aka Speedy Gonzales, who needs about 1/10 the time of everyone else to survey the wares and make a purchase or, more often, walk away. That gives me more time to cue up the navigation computer for the next address on our list.

Now that I'm working from home, my tactical abilities have to be ramped up, since we not only have to scout craigslist for the highest concentration of advertised sales but find an acceptable triangulation between the office and my house with a center parking spot for us to meet and pile in to my car.

We hit the addresses as well as anything that pops in between, putting up with my navigation woman's voice pitching a fit and telling us to make a U-Turn half the time.

It's all worth it to get away from the computer into the sunshine to find a few treasures each week.

And THIS week?

It was opening weekend, after all. One shouldn't get one's expectations up too high right off the bat, right?

I'd already found a Samsonite garment luggage piece in great condition for $3.

and THEN... at stop #3, there it was.

I bent down and reached out to see if it was real.

After all, you just don't see a beaded fish purse with turquoise turtle belt buckle fastener, well, EVER.

I know what you're thinking. I thought the same thing. Who on earth would ever need/want/dare to carry a blue beaded FISH purse?

But I couldn't put it down.

It was a BLUE BEADED FISH PURSE.

WITH TURQUOISE TURTLE BELT BUCKLE.

When I got back, Bob called and asked me, "what'd ya find?" and I paused and said, "it really defies description or logic."

The seller was watching me and I looked up at her after holding this insane treasure and turning it over and over with this silly smile on my face and said, "I have no idea why, but I absolutely have to have this."

So now the challenge lies in finding some place sufficiently bizarre enough to carry this thing.

So Happy Garage Sale Season!
May you all find little delights this season, regardless of logic or fashion sense.