EVERYTHING'S ALL BLURRY...

...nothing's clear at all... And I'm counting the hours until this weekend is toast and it's time to start fresh with a new week!

Have you ever had a yard sale? There are at least two kinds of yard sale, I learned a few years ago, both kinds being equally painful in their own ways. We had a yard sale this weekend, not the kind when you wreck on your bike, the other kind. For those who are not, or never have been mountain bikers, or bikers or any kind... a yard sale happens when you endo (fly over the handlebars) or otherwise bite the dust, and all your gear goes flying every which way. No, we had the kind of yard sale where you set out all of you crap for other people to pay you for, and take away. In case you've never attempted a yard sale, I will let you in on this little tidbit: YARD SALES ARE A TON OF WORK!!! We've been kind of setting things aside and working on it for a few weeks. On Friday we spent the entire day and night dragging all the junk out to the garage (we have way too much junk) and marking it with price tags. The morning of a yard sale you have to get up before the sun to make sure you have everything set up early because sure as shootin', people will start to arrive 45 minutes before the event is scheduled to start. A couple of other things you can be sure of when holding a yard sale are; #1 There will always be the guy/gal who assumes you are a bigot like he/she is and let you know that you need to watch out for the (fill in ethnic choice here), and the (fill in social class here), because they'll steal from you when you're not looking. Steal from us? Seriously, this is our junk, half of it won't even sell, and when it doesn't we have to pack it up and take it to goodwill. But let's get back to the point... a thief is a thief, and he/she comes in all shapes, sizes, race, and social class (obviously a touchy topic with me, makes my blood boil). Ok, moving on to fact #2 you can count on at least one Chatty Cathy or Carl to show up. This person will probably spend more time than the rest of your patrons combined, looking at things and asking questions. He/She will then engage you in a long story about how they "once had a pellet gun just like this one here" and how they took that gun with them everywhere they went, even to church... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... (no disrespect to Cathy/Carl, I'm sure it was a fine story, I was just busy actually taking money from other patrons). Be patient with Cathy/Carl, because once the nostalgia kicks in, you've got that stupid pellet gun sold! Finally, fact #3, and this is more of a helpful tip than anything, put out everything! Each time we've had a yard sale, we've been amazed at what will actually sell. And also amazed that there is no way to predict what will be hot, and what will not. We have sold the weirdest and most unlikely items at our yard sales.

So, finally we have most of it cleaned up and things are well on their way to being back to normal. It's taken a toll on all of us, we are exhausted today to the point of seeing double. But we made bank, at over $1000 at this year's annual Bringhurst Blowout, so it's all worth it!