Auction

One of my EBay items

Les has been saving pennies for as long as I've known him.  He saves all pennies, but gets especially excited when he finds a wheat penny or an indian head penny.

In the last couple of months, he has gone through all of his pennies.  He sorted them out by decade and style.  And has saved everything prior to 1982.  He now has them in various jars around the house.  Everything after 1982 we brought back to the bank on Friday afternoon.  (They just loved to see us with all of those pennies on a Friday afternoon.)

Another EBay item.

We split them up into 7 different easier to carry -- but still very heavy -- boxes.  As the teller fed them into her machine for counting, I asked Les how many he thought we had.  I think he was joking when he said $15.  I guessed $157.

It took about 1/2 hour for the teller to count all of our pennies.  And she picked out probably $2 worth because they were all scummy and gummy and she said they might jam up her machine.  Final total -- $154.95.  I guess I won that bet.

So, being $150 richer, we went to an action in Raton yesterday morning.  I figured we would be there for a couple of hours or so.  They had everything there.  Dump trucks, horse trailers, kitchen gadgets, shop stuff, Bobcats, coins, cars, ranch gates, tractors, gloves, trailers, indian rugs, jewelry.... you name it... they had it.

I first bid on a package of really nice work gloves for Les.  I won that bid.  We watched as the auctioneer and the crowd went up and down the aisles auctioning off everything... and some things twice.  We were interested in the coins, and there were a few rustic tidbits that I was interested in.  I pointed out this parts bin cabinet to Les.  At first he didn't want it, but the more he looked at it, the more excited he was about it.  We tried all 15 of the drawers.  All worked.  The whole piece was about 3' x 18" x 24" deep.  It appeared to be 1930's vintage, but I could be way off on that.  I'm only guessing based upon the items that were still left in the drawers.  He found in one of the drawers a record player stylus that played 78's.  Haven't seen a 78 in ages.

Finally, after several hours, the crowd came slowly around to all of the tools and then the parts bin.  Les, for the first time ever, bid on the item and he won the bid at $25.  He was so happy.  Then after another 1/2 hour or so they got around to the rustic tidbit trailer.  By that time you could tell the auctioneer was really tired because he seemed to be rushing the bids.  I wanted to bid on the indian rug, but before I knew it, another woman won that bid for $25.  Couldn't believe it.  They had Navajo pottery (which I love) and I bid on two of those, but didn't win.  It's hard to justify spending $30 on a gorgeous piece of art when you're trying to save for a house.  Oh well.

Les's squashed parts bin.

I won minor bids on some things that I thought I would EBay.  I think I paid $5 for them.  But as we were watching, suddenly I looked to my right and saw a forklift drive over Les's parts bin.  There were probably 2,000 items in that auction.  There was stuff all over the place.  And the one thing that gets destroyed was Les's.  Les walked over to the driver with his arms outstretched and I can only imagine his mouth open.  Of all the luck!

We won some of the coins, and a really cute towel bar with bears that will go into the new house.  We won 2 rusty, old looking coat hooks and a ring of old jail keys -- also to go into the new house.   I paid about $100 for all of it. 

We came home hours later with sunburn and sore feet; some nick-nacks and no parts bin.  But still had a really good time.

July

Well.... it's been an eventful July.

First, there was the Pre-Op Shindig.  That went off without a hitch.  We had probably 30 guests.  I prepared burgers in advance and marinated some chicken breast in some lemon pepper.  Then I grilled the burgers, some bratwurst and the chicken.  It didn't take too long and it sure was good.  I pretty much left everything else to everyone else.  The people around here bring the best stuff!

We had plenty of beer and wine, lots of soda and water bottles; and so much food.  Once everyone was done eating we sat around the fire pit and talked.  We didn't build a fire because there has been a fire ban in the whole state -- it's been so dry.  We had many, many comments about our 3 sided outhouse and the marvelous view it affords.  Good thing folks aren't shy around here.

We took the telescope out and that was a big hit.  We turned on our little LED lights Les strung through the trees... that brought ooh's and ah's.  A good time was had by all.

Les had his back surgery 2 days later.  They took out 2 discs and replaced them with these wire cage things.  Then they used screws and clips and fused 3 of the vertebrae in his lower back.  He was in the hospital for 3 days.  But they got him up walking the day after surgery.

I stayed in the Springs at a hotel.  It was nice that DJ was right there in town.

Les had a few really rough days when he got home... almost thought he should have stayed in the hospital.  But he is recovering more each day.  Getting stronger.  He's looking forward to another 2-1/2 weeks when he can take the brace off.   He's feeling so much better he'd like to ditch that now... but it's best to wait.

July is always a busy month for me.  This July was no exception.  End of the quarter payroll and sales tax returns keep me busy.  I have a few clients whom I only tend to quarterly.  So it's been busy.  Then with Les out of commission, I've had to pick up some of that slack, but now that he's feeling better he's taking over those chores again, so I'm thankful.

I've had to leave Brutus home for our walks.  What a bummer.  But he's been getting so comfortable that he's causing chaos on our drive to and from our property.  He barks at people and dogs walking along the street.  Our neighbor, Terry, has 2 big dogs that like to chase the car.  When it's just us and the girls, I can stop at the end of their driveway and we scold them and they don't chase us.  But when Brutus is there, he goes nuts.  He's been tearing up the interior of our Subaru.  As much as I love him... he's not my dog.  I've been projecting my loss of Schultz onto Brutus and that's not fair to him or to me.

So we must be content with hanging out in the yard now and then.  I feel very badly when I see him watch us leave in the mornings.  Maybe I'll still take him now and then.  But I just can't take him every day as we were.

One good thing that has come out of all of my attention toward Brutus is that Ben is paying more attention to him, too.  He actually took him to the vet the other day when he developed a big, angry hot spot.  I didn't say a word to him.  And he's making a new place for him to hang out during the days that has lots of shade from the trees.  I still think he does a terrible job being a dog-dad, but it's just ignorance.  And I think he's taking a little more interest now.  I'm really happy about that.

So... newsy blog today.  I've been wanting to write, but sometimes it's yet one more thing to do.  But I always feel better after I've written.