Monday Tuesday Rambles

I'm back!

Please accept my apologies for the lack of content for the last couple of weeks.  Honestly, I just did not have it in me to blog (or do much of anything) for that time.  Losing Kosh triggered the worst depressive episode I've had for quite some time.  I'm coming out of it, slowly, but for a while it just seemed like a heavy weight of sadness had taken everything over for me.

Thanks so much to all of you for the sweet notes about Kosh.  I still owe some of you personal thank you's, which I will be getting to in the next day or so.  I appreciate your concern and sympathies so much.

Due to my funk, I almost skipped out on doing the Highway 60 yard sale on Saturday, but I'm glad I didn't.  It was windy and cold, but I think it did me a lot of good to be out and about.  The sale started in Meade County (near where my dad used to live) and proceeded west through Breckinridge County (near where my mother used to live), so it was kind of like a homecoming of sorts.

Typical roadside view in Meade County. 

 We had planned to make it to Owensboro and then camp on Saturday, but we cut the trip short just shy of Hardinsburg.  The van was full and it would have taken a major repacking effort to make more room for anything else.  We had gotten a later than planned start, because we had both slept through the alarm.  Plus, Meade County had been rich with large group sales and flea markets and treasures.  I was very happy with the load.  It's not about the number of sales you hit.  It's about the treasures you find there.

At the time we turned back, we realized that we still had enough time to stash everything in storage at the Peddlers Mall and get home to Chiquito and our own bed.  And that's what we did.

Here's a little preview of the haul:

The leaf on this desk folds down and collapses the desk to the size of a file cabinet!

Those are the pieces that went to the new Peddlers Mall yesterday.  Here is what I took to the other store:

I love me some school desks!

Shelf and wood podium

That shelf is kind of cool.  There's a note on top that it was made for a social studies project, which I am guessing was something about colonial or pioneer living.  The boards all have these adorable, primitive dovetail notches, and the whole thing is held together with wood pegs instead of nails.  I can totally see someone getting this and staining or painting it up nice and purty.  It needs a little gluing around the pegs, but it's pretty sturdy.

I still need to get pics of the smalls, which were pretty awesome this time around.  I had several good scores.

Booth sales have really bottomed out lately.  I ended September well at my original Peddlers.  Not as high as previous months, but still four digits in the gross.  That construction mess is sure hurting though.  I only did about a third of my normal take during the indoor sale.  We are still waiting on the signage to appear.

At the other space, I did okay for a first month, but not near what I was expecting.  I'm struggling to get off the ground there, and it is fueling my fears that I'm only capable of selling in one location. (Which also really added to my latest depressive bout.) They've offered me a double booth starting in November, and I'm going to take it.  At least I'll have all my stuff together in one spot.

The weekend was really pretty good at both locations, however.  It looks like furniture is starting to move again, which is nice.  I've picked up several pieces cheap from vendors who were moving out, so I have a pretty good inventory of big items right now and I would like to move them on!

The home front is kind of odd right now.  Everyone feels Kosh's absence.  I'm still seeing him out of the corner of my eye.  We're keeping an eye on Chiquito, but in some ways it looks like he's not figured out that he's the only cat now.  For the first couple of days, he kept waiting for Kosh to eat when I put the food down.  He very definitely feels the pressure of being home alone all day.  He's become really super clingy when we get home.  I'm giving him all the extra loving I can to help him through.

Kosh is gone.

Some posts are very hard to write.  This is going to be one of those.  We had to put Kosh to sleep yesterday.  My dear, sweet old man is gone. And my heart is broken.  I miss him so, so much.  He was 12 years old, which is old for a cat, but I had been hoping for a few more years with my buddy cat.

We got Kosh when he was a baby.  Keith found him while he was working,  abandoned and alone in an empty apartment.  Later that day, Keith showed up at my office with a cardboard cat carrier and this little head popped out when he opened it.  It was love at first sight.

Keith swears he was trying to find another home for the boy, and was just stopping by to say hello.  I know the truth.  He knew I would be unable to resist this little fellow. He was right.

We named him "Kosh" after one of the aliens in Babylon 5.  I was holding him in my lap, and one of the phrases from the show popped into my head:  "We are all Kosh."  So, Kosh he was.  For the longest time, though, we called him "Boy" since he was our only boy kitty at the time.

He had some of the most interesting habits as a baby.  He was all black, except for two white spots on his chest and belly and one little chocolate brown spot that was kind of on his belly and side.  He used to nurse himself on that spot before he went to sleep.  When he got older that place went away, so we always said that he licked the brown right off.

He used to like to crawl up on Keith's chest and take these long kneading walks, with this intent stare.  When he was done with that, he would stop and literally just plop over, trusting that Keith would catch him.  He'd fall asleep like that, and Keith would hold him while he napped.

His appearance did cause some chaos in our social order.  At the time we had two older females, Bennie and Basil.  We had lost sweet, fluffy Brianna several months earlier.  It took some time for the girls to get adjusted to this interloper, but eventually we all gelled into a family unit.

Basil on my lap, baby Kosh beside me and Bennie on a blanket

He was only about four when Basil passed.  She had been the head cat, which was a job that he wanted.  He still had a lot of kitten in him at that point, climbing all over things, getting into stuff, tormenting Bennie from time to time.  About a year later, Chiquito came along and Kosh matured over night.  Having a new kitten in the house really pushed him to grow up.

The night that Basil was put down, he crawled up into bed beside me, just like she used to do.  He pretty much stayed there the rest of his life.  When I was sick last year, he was always right by my side.  We called him my "Doctor Kosh."  He would walk me to the bathroom and lay as close to me as possible and purr to comfort me.

After I came home from surgery

He loved that Sailor Moon blanket

He started acting sluggish over the weekend and stopped eating at all Monday night.  We took him to the vet yesterday and the diagnosis was advanced kidney disease.  Ironically, I was supposed to call this week for an appointment for him to have a six month follow up check up.  The vet said that his levels were so off that there really wasn't any option for treatment.  Even sweet little buddy cats can't get a kidney transplant.  The misery he was already feeling was only going to get worse as the toxins continued to take over his little body.

We held him and loved on him and kissed him and cried over him and made the call that no one wants to make.  I was holding him in my arms as he slipped away.  Now, he's somewhere playing with Basil and Bennie again.

While we're stuck here wondering what to do.

Sweet, sweet Buddy Kosh (2002-2014)

Happy Labor Day!

I'm on  blog break due to the holiday.  Monday Rambles will appear on Tuesday this week.  No yard sales to speak of this weekend, so instead of a Mazda shot, here's my granny cart shot from the big flea today.  More on the contents tomorrow.

Keith saw this when he came to pick me up and said, "What?  No rocking chair on top?"

In other news, Kosh started helping with the laundry.

Monday Rambles

Welcome Home!  Welcome Home!

That's what the boys said when we got back.  Or, at least, what they would have said if they could talk.  Instead it was more like "Myah!"  (Kosh, who has just one word for everything) and "Myaroo!"
(Chiquito, who has dozens of words).

Seriously, we were bombarded for petting and loving for a long time after we got in.  And followed everywhere.  And sat on every time we sat down or slowed down.  I think we were missed.

Just in case there was any doubt, this is what happened when I got into bed:

He slept either on me or right beside me all night long, purring the whole time.  (Please ignore that stack of books and messy bookshelves.  I live my life surrounded by them.  I'm kind of like the guy in this classic Twilight Zone episode.  But I guess that's better than being the guy from this classic Batman episode.

 We're still unpacking and settling in, and trying to tackle everything else.  Even the return home had several detours, starting in Jackson, TN, where I snuck in a small bit of thrifting, adding to the already overstuffed car!  When we hit Louisville, we went right to the Peddlers Mall, to put the boxes from Keith's mother and my thrift purchases in my storage room.  (I'll sort them all out tomorrow.)  Since we had to get milk, I also perused some Christmas clearance items, but the markdowns aren't enough yet.  (I did get some markdown stuff at an awesome grocery store in Arkansas, though.)

Yesterday, we had our holiday get-together with some friends.  Every year we go to brunch at their house.  Keith volunteered us to make a breakfast casserole, so I whipped one up and it was a hit!  I had looked at some recipes online, but I didn't want one made with bread, because they require too much advance work and need to sit overnight.  I also didn't want one with potatoes, since our friend makes an awesome potato dish every year.  In the end, I just threw some veggie sausage, bell peppers, onion and mushrooms in a casserole dish, then beat some eggs with a little milk and sour cream and black pepper and poured it over the whole thing.  It went into the 350 degree oven for about an hour and voila!  Keith had me worried that the eggs weren't going to set up and cook and it would be all soupy, but it came out nice.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the booth to take down the Christmas and restock and re-do everything.  I've got some ideas for a couple of displays I want to do, plus an old metal cabinet sold, so I need to do some rearranging.  It's so convenient having almost everything in storage there.  I can just whip it out and throw it one the shelves.  I think I'm going to do a markdown table of some things that need to leave for a couple of weeks, then take the leftovers to the thrift downstairs from us.  I want to start the new year with as much new stuff as possible in the booth.

I usually leave the Christmas stuff up until after New Years, but I haven't sold a bit of it since Christmas and I have all this time off.  Why not put it to good use?  This has turned into my top sales month for the year, so I want to push it a bit more in the time that's left.  I also want to set the stage for a good new year.  I'll probably end up working there from open to close.

Tuesday is the New Year's big flea market with the antique wing.  It's the last day, so the antique dealers will have their dollar tables set up.  I'm also looking for more comic books.  They're selling pretty quickly.  In large batches.  I have some in storage to bring out, but I'll need to bag them first.  If I can buy some that are already bagged, that will save me some time on Monday.  Plus, I'll need more backstock regardless.

Wednesday is the kick-off for the secret project I've talked about here and there.  I'll try to remember to take pictures.  I'm still trying to get everything arranged for that.

I'll probably spend the rest of the week doing things around the house.  I've got a lot of catching up to do.  I also need to work on some blog posts for the new year.  And that pesky stack of comics is just crying out to be read!

Well, Kosh just jumped up between me and the keyboard, so I guess that's my cue to get out of here!

Monday Rambles

Okay....let's see:

Cat care arranged for?  CHECK!

Can't go away without making sure the boys will be okay.   My buddy Kosh is one clingy little kitty.

Brother gifts wrapped and in the mail?  CHECK!

I'm actually running early on this one.  Usually, I'm in line at the PO on December 22.

Shopping done?  CHECK!

I might pick another few small things for Keith, but basically, I am done.

Pet-sitting in progress?  CHECK!

Complicating things is the fact that I am not really at home this week.  Just running back and forth between home and the pet-sitting house trying to get things wrapped up.










Lovely Japanese dinner eaten on Friday?  CHECK!

Okay, this wasn't really on the list, but I had to share it, since the meal was so good.  This place makes the greatest tofu salad!

Booth stocked and ready for me to be away for a week?  ON THE WAY TO BEING CHECKED OFF

I need to make a couple of visits this week to get things really locked down, but it'll be ready when we leave.

Winning Christmas Booth Decorating Contest?  CHECK! 

This wasn't on the list either.  In fact, it came as a total surprise!  I hadn't even really been trying to win.  I was at first, but it seemed like it took me so long to get it together that I didn't think I really had a chance.  My trees sat bare forever.  Then all the big stuff sold and I was at a loss.  It's hard to decorate when your stuff sells, but I didn't want to have anything in my display that was not for sale.  To top it all off, I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to decorating. Or staging my booth.  Or making displays.  Or any of that stuff.  I lucked into this one!  But I'll take it!  A hundred bucks in free rent is nothing to sneeze at!

Choose reading for trip and pet-sitting?  CHECK!

I always pick out more than I can make it through, but I've got some mysteries, comics, and manga ready to go.

House cleaned and ready?  WELL, NOT SO MUCH!

I still have a bunch of stuff to get out of the house and into my storage space.  It kills me that I'm not done, but I finally had to concede that I wasn't going to get everything done.  I'll be off for a couple of weeks after we get back, so there will be more time for taking stuff over.  It's a real bummer not to get everything done.  I never seem to, so you'd think I'd be used to it, but

Secret Project initiated?  CHECK!

Can't talk about this one yet, but something unexpected happened over the weekend.  More details to come!

Christmas cards all scanned?  CHECK!

I'm done with setting up the vintage Xmas card posts, but I still have a few more to write.  I may only get one or two other posts up between now and Saturday when we leave.  

So how are your week before Christmas and/or your travel plans shaping up?

Monday Rambles

How did it get to be Monday again?  No one consulted me about this.  Honestly.

I spent yesterday Halloweening the booth.  (I know that's not a real verb, but it totally should be.)  I'm about a week or so off my preferred schedule, but I kept putting it off because I didn't want to deal with the clutter in the shed.

I finally forced myself out there yesterday morning, expecting to spend hours out there dealing with it.  There's a ton of stuff in the shed, and some of it had fallen over, creating a mess I just didn't think I could face.  Turns out, I was done in less than two hours!

The mess was nowhere near as bad as it looked.  I was able to get to exactly what I needed without much trouble, plus rearrange things so that the Christmas stuff is easier to reach to boot!  To top it off, I found a box with several Halloween items merch that I feared was lost after I could not find it last year.   I didn't remember that I had put it into a large cardboard box, instead of the tubs I usually use for storage.  It looked so much like the boxes of my mother's stuff that is still out there that I just assumed it was part of her junk.  I'm really happy to have found these items, because there are some really cute plush ghosts in there that I think will sell fast.

After spending all damn day at the booth rearranging and Halloweening, I'm still not all the way done.  I chose to make getting the Halloween stuff done my priority, so  I didn't do any of the usual tidying and straightening that needed to be done.  I'll be headed out there after work today to get it finished.  In fact, I still have a little of the Halloween stuff to do.  I just dumped a tub of costumes in a chair and I can't leave it like that.

Of course, spending all day at the booth does have its hazards.  I watched two different people knock something in the floor and leave it there!  I beat them to death with a broom and threw the bodies down the freight elevator.  What else was I supposed to do?  (Okay, not really.  But I really wanted to.)  At least one of them bought something.

Send Shara some good sale vibes this week!  Her big, much-anticipated barn sale starts in a couple of days.  Also, reader and commenter Lynn is off on some adventures of her own--Happy Trails, Lynn!

Kosh had a good vet visit.  She said he was looking well and seemed to be happy, other than the fact that he was at the vet, which makes him cranky.  He was pretty well-behaved the whole time.  We made an appointment for Chiquito for November.  God help us all!  It'll take a tactical SWAT strike just to get that boy in the carrier!  He's got an unerring sixth sense when it comes to knowing when to run and hide.  He's faster than either one of us!

Because of Kosh's vet visit, we only had time for a few yard sales, but there weren't too many that looked good anyway.  I did get some vintage folding chairs and a bunch of autumn decor and a tote of Halloween bears.  Pretty light overall.

Thanks for all of the comments on my Albatro$$ series.  I probably should have mentioned that all that stuff has been Craigslisted forever.  (I did write the guide on using CL to promote your booth, you know.)  I did not put the chairs in the kids' section, so I'll try that again.  As for painting anything any color (much less turquoise--yuck!), it ain't gonna happen.  All three items are on the markdown trail, so they will be gone one way or another.

Busy week ahead.  I'm looking at two visits to one booth and one to another, plus some more shed time.  While the weather is nice, I want to deal with some boxes of books I have out there, plus the last of Mom's stuff.  October is going to be a very busy month for me, resale-wise, and I'll need some of that stuff from the shed to do it, so I might as well get started.  I'll tell you all more about my plans later.

Monday Rambles

Omigosh!  It is soooooooooo wonderful here right now.  Cool. Sunny.  Lovely.  It's supposed to rain some this week, but overall be this nice the whole week.  I love this time of year, on the cusp of the changing of the seasons.  It's the first real sign that my November birthday is approaching!  (Don't worry!  You all still have plenty of time to shop...)

I am debating having a yard sale in October, but can't really decide.  We live in a shotgun house, and the front yard is the size of a postage stamp.  Parking is also the pits.  There's no way to get from the front of the house to the back of the house without going through the house, so that's not a good option either.  The parking is better in back, however.  If we did advertise is as being in the back, it would not make sense to use our address, since the back of the house faces another street.  Would people come if I advertised it as "near the corner of Flux and Glibbly streets, across from the Convenient Store?"

Complicating this is the frustrating inability of one of the stores that I am in to decide whether or not it wants to repeat its very successful parking lot sale, and if so, when it would be.  If they had one, I might not be thinking about having one of my own, but the back and forth on this one is driving me a little insane.

In the meantime, I am having a sale right now.  I may continue it through October with a bigger discount.  Sure doesn't seem to be helping things.

Still, if you're in the area this month, hit me up.  I'll give you directions.

I'm just kind of desperate to get rid of some things right now, for a lot of reasons.  I'm starting to put out the Halloween stuff, so I need more room for it, and the Christmas stuff that's going to follow.  And I just need more sales.  I'm really starting to feel like I don't know what I'm doing here.  I have another furlough week coming up, and maybe more to follow.  It's looking like we might actually have to close for a few weeks in a row to deal with the budget shortfall.  (My real fear is that we may have to start looking to layoffs.  The human face of sequester is me.)  One of my income sources needs to become reliable.  Hell, I may have to start putting shit on eBay.

I have a few more tweaks and rearranges to make to my booth this week, so maybe that will help.  It will sure give me a lot more room.

Thank goodness for comic books!  Sometimes they're all I seem to sell.  I need to take another load to one of the booths this week.  After that, I'll have to bag some more because I'll be out of the pre-bagged ones.

Kosh has a vet appointment on Saturday, which will be fun.  (Not really.)  He doesn't like the vet at all.  Not at all.  But he needs some tests.  He's a grumpy old man now, and grumpy old men need tests.  (Right?)  He's claimed so many new sleeping spots for himself this week, that I can't keep up with him.  This is also flea pill week, which is also lots of fun.  (Not really.)

Honestly, I am in a better mood overall than this post would seem to indicate. 

Rashy Monday Rambles

Friday, I started developing a rash all over my arms and torso.  I guess the side effects have started.  I've dug out a little notebook and started a chemo journal of all the effects and happenings.  I figure it might help at my appointments.

Sorry for the pic of my fat, fat leg here.  I promise you that I am indeed wearing shorts.  I hope no one is having breakfast at this moment.  Anyway, you can see some of the rash.  It's worse on my arms and belly.  The arm pics didn't come out so well and I refuse to inflict the sight of my fat, white belly on you all.  No need to lose readers over this cancer thing.

When I went to get my IL2 shot on Friday, I told the nurse about it and she told me to take Pepcid.  I know the look that I gave her was incredibly rude, but by that point I had been scratching all damn day.  Really?  She laughed at me and said most people do that same thing every time she says that.  She says that Pepcid is a histamine blocker and good for rashes and the like.  Okay, but I've been taking Benadryl all week long, and I still have this damn rash.  I think we're talking more than just a little excess histamine here.

Then she finally takes a look at my back and stomach and decides to call the doc.  Doc says that it's probably a reaction to the IL2, so no shot for me on Friday.  Instead, I get a prescription for steroids.  Yipee.  I'm actually taking the same pills that Kosh takes for his flea allergies and excess scratching.  Only my doses are bigger.  Every day cancer bonds me with my cat in new and interesting ways.

I spent the weekend working on a lot of stuff.  I have tried to get a few posts ready, so that you all have something to read about besides chemo this and chemo that.  Cancer or no cancer, life still goes on.  There are videos to watch, comics to read, blog posts to write and soap operas to stew over, after all.  Not to mention junk to buy and sell.

Speaking of which, restocking at YesterNook fired up my sales there, which was nice to see.  Peddler's Mall sales have started to hit the level that I need them to be at, just not every day.  I'm realizing that the need to keep that large space restocked is going to be critical, and that I need to have more items in the 10-20 dollar range.  I'm going to be shopping for the higher end of things this summer, I guess.

Another one of my favorite church sales happened over the weekend.  I've always loved this sale.  Tons of stuff--a whole auditorium full, in fact.  Not much furniture, but lots of other stuff.  I bought a set of cross-stitch Precious Moments framed pics for a couple bucks each.  PM peaked a long time ago as a collectible, but it's perfect flea market fodder.  I actually sell a lot of PM stuff.  Go figure.

I also got a kids' puppet stage for a dollar!  Woo hoo!  We ended up making two trips through the place.  As we were leaving the last time, the ladies  at the check out table asked us if we were coming back again!  Love little old church ladies!  (And their pricing!  Most of the stuff in my big, big box was a quarter or less.)

Ever since the chemo, I've been feeling a little off.  It's kind of hard to define, actually.  The best I could do for Keith was say "I don't feel like I'm supposed to feel."   It's like some little reminder that something is happening in my body, but so far it's just a little unease.  I'm wondering if it's going to increase as time goes on or not.

Monday Rambles

All things considered, I don't think I've done too badly on the blog front this month.  Pre-scheduling helped, for sure.  I still have a handful of "almost there" posts that did not make it to completion stage this month due to recuperation issues, so I have "ammo" for next month, too.  Looking back at last year, I seem to be on pace to make my posting goal for 2013, and post 900 is right around the corner!  It could happen this week!  We'll see.  If not, next week for sure.

I got targeted today, which was such a weird experience.  First, I have to put on a gown, but with the opening in the front, so that they can see the scar on my chest.  Then, I have to lay down on this board that looks honestly narrower than I am while twisting around so that I am on my back and my shoulder st the same time.  In other words, it's yoga for fat people with cancer time!

Now, the doc comes in and starts marking up my face, neck and head with a Sharpie to the point where I start to feel like Charlie Brown in the Great Pumpkin special.

Being a big ole pop culture nerd means you come up with interesting analogies.

After this, they cover my face with this pliable mesh stuff to make a mask-thing that will help get my head in the same position every time.  They trace most of the docs markings onto the mask, so I don't have to walk around with a purple marker line on my jaw.  I was all prepared to tell people it was a religious observance.  I'm a Melanomian, you know.  After this, I get scanned and they take some pics, because everyone wants pics of a fat guy doing yoga in an open hospital gown while wearing a Sharpie-covered mesh mask.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that if you Google that, you'll find it's some kind of fetish category.  If my pics are on the website, I seriously do not want to know.

I'm not the only one doing the doctor rounds right now.  Kosh had his annual check-up and shots at the vet on Saturday.  He's never happy about going to the vet, but he did okay.  He's ten now, which makes him the oldest one in the house.  In people years, he's four years older than Keith and a whopping eight years older than me!  His blood work came back fine, so we're going to have him with us for a while.  Good thing.  I may need the medical attention from Dr Kosh again.

Something that you probably don't want to do during your surgery recuperation is expand your business, but you also have to strike while the iron is hot.  Dealing with my extra corner has been a challenge, but it's about 80% where I want it to be and soon will be brimming with new stock.  The new arrangement is helping to move some older pieces that have needed to go on.  I'll have some pics up as soon as I get everything done.  In other words, as soon as everything is back on shelves and not sitting in carts.  If it weren't for Keith, there's no way  I could have handled this.

Sales have been okay for January, but not near where I wanted them to be.  Part of it is due to the extended mess at the booth caused by the expansion and part of it is due to my stock running low due to my recuperation.  The extra rent bump is going to hurt a bit, too.  February is usually the strongest month of tax season, so I'm confident I'll bounce back.

One of the nice things about the beginning of the year in this business is that it usually brings in a lot of new vendors.  Seems a bunch of people want to jump on the bandwagon and get rid of stuff and make some extra money at that start of the year.  Most of them won't last, of course.  Some of them have no clue how much work is actually involved to be successful with a booth.  But while they last, it makes for a nice, full mall, with "new" stuff to attract customers, and that helps everyone!

We've also got an influx of established vendors from a vendor mall that's closing.  These are folks that will be around for a while, because they know what they are doing.  It realy does perk the place up!

Days of Our Lives continues to draw me in every day, which is something it hasn't done for five or six years. Seriously, it is about as good right now as a soap can get. In the past, I was a daily watcher out of habit, which is what they want.  Now, I'm a daily watcher because I want to see what's coming next.  That is what I want.  I've got some posts planned about the show:  what's working, what still needs to be improved, and where it all went wrong in the mid-2000's.  They're just in the draft stages, but should come out in a week or two.  Non-soap folks can feel free to skip them over.

Monday Rambles

Last Tuesday, I stayed up a little later than usual to work on some stuff for the booths and such.  This caused no end of consternation for Kosh and Chiquito.  Every half an hour or so, they had to come bounding over the top of me, and everything I was doing, to remind me that I was supposed to be in bed.  They alternated this with a couple of rounds of fighting to remind me that I still wasn't in bed.  We finally managed to come to an agreement, with Kosh lying at my feet while I worked and Chiquito off doing, well,  whatever it is that he does.  This lasted long enough for me to take care of things and finally get to bed.  I think it'll be a while before I try that again.  It's not worth the feline hassle.

Cats:  The True Harbingers of the Status Quo.

Junking Rule #637:  Try to Limit the Number of "Project" Pieces You Have Piled Up Waiting for Your Attention.  I've been violating this one of late, which is not a good thing.  The more something sits and waits for your attention, the less money it makes for you.  I've got to admit that I am pretty pathetic about this, because the scope of my "projects" are so pathetic.

It's not like I have furniture waiting around to get painted or fixed.  That would require a level of industry (and mechanical aptitude) that I simply do not and will never possess.  No, I work on a much smaller scale.  Stacks of comics that need to be bagged, that's more my speed.  Bags of buttons and sewing stuff to be sorted and bagged (or jarred).  A few pieces of dollhouse furniture from an old buy that needed some minor touch ups and repair.  (Hey!  I do really do furniture.  It's just tiny!)  A couple of things that have needed a good cleaning before they can be sold.  Linens and fabric that needs to be priced.  A tin dollhouse that needs to be reassembled.  (Screw furniture!  I'm building houses now!)  Jesuses (Jeses?  Jesi?) that need to be put back on crucifixes.

Despite my best intentions, I've got a pile of this stuff.  I started working through a lot of it last week, because I'm going to need to move it from the place where it currently sits soon.  I'd rather take care of it and move it out to a booth than move it across the room.  I made a pretty good dent in a short amount of time, which surprised me.  A couple more afternoons and I should be able to wipe it out.

Actually, I guess you could say that my "project pile" is more of a "procratination pile."  Or, you could just call it "pathetic."

I had an interesting experience on Wednesday.  I went to cash in some change at the grocery and filled up the Coinstar machine!  Seriously.  It not only stopped taking my coins, but it started spitting some of them back out at me.  I hadn't even put in half of what I've got saved up either! I still got over a hundred bucks out of it.  I guess I'll have to try again.  Maybe I need to go to a couple of different groceries to do this?  I wish I had thought to get a picture of the "this machine is full" message on the machine while I was there, but I was so surprised by what happened that it slipped my mind.

My dad got me in the habit of tossing my loose change into a jar or can years ago.  We've paid for all of our meals on vacation trips this way in the past.  Nowadays, I keep one of the big coffee cans around for this purpose, and that sucker is full to the brim!  I forgot to turn in a timesheet a couple of weeks ago, so I didn't get paid last Friday, so the can is now my survival money until next Friday.  I have so many short term gigs starting up and ending with the same agency that I have to keep a carefully annotated schedule of when things are due to keep up with the paperwork.  Despite all this, one managed to fall through the cracks.  Oh well, the next one will be a nice check, at least.

Lord, but last week turned into a booth week!  I was at each one practically every day by the time the week was over.  That's turned out to be a good thing, since I'm going to be hard-pressed to find a time to drop in this week.  I've had some extra work tossed my way that's going to keep me hopping from one end of this town to the other over the course of the week.  I just hope that I've got everything well set at the booths.

I really do think they should be okay.  I spent two days redoing the YesterNook booth--shifting things, marking a couple down, taking a couple of things out.  I did roughly the same for the Peddlers Mall booth, plus I added some furniture.  I also finally created my Halloween shelf and start-up Xmas display at the Peddlers Mall.  Both of them will grow over the coming weeks.  All in all, I think everything is in pretty good shape, unless I have a massive run on stuff.  While that would not be unwelcome, I'm not sure when I'll have time to restock before the weekend.

All of which brings me to the blog.  It's probably going to be a lighter week again, out of necessity.  I've got a couple of posts very near completion, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time to put the polish on them or not.  I'll certainly try, but don't be surprised if you don't hear from me until Friday.

Ah, but Friday!  On Friday, be sure to come back for a very special announcement!

Finally, I need to make an addendum to my Tips for Yard Sale Holders post, based on my experience this past weekend.  Make sure you have bags!  Honestly, there's no excuse for not having an adequate supply of bags for your shoppers and their purchases.  You can't go the store without acquiring three or four more (unless you use the reusable bags)!  If you're saving those bags for re-use or recycle (which you know you should be), then there's a plethora of them in your home, ready for your yard sale.

I was at a church sale where several vendors were set up and not one of them had any bags!  Not one.  I bought five or six small items and pretty much reached my limit on what I could carry without dropping something.  That's a point to remember:  People may buy more, if they can easily carry more.

Before I left, I decided to hit the bathroom.  One of the reasons church sales are great is that they allow you to combine a potty stop with one of your shopping stops.  The sink counter top was covered with water.  There's no place to put my stuff so I can pee!  If you didn't know, aim is kind of an important factor for guys and requires the use of at least one hand. Arrgh!  This all could have been avoided with a simple grocery bag!  Bags people!  They're more important than you think!

These were actually supposed to be a part of yesterday's post...

Between my dying camera battery and my dying memory (not the camera, computer, or phone's memory--mine), a couple of pics and items didn't make it into the Pictorial Monday Rambles.  G However, they are too wonderful not to include, so I'm going to make Monday Rambles history by turning the first ever Pictorial Monday Rambles into the first ever two part Monday Rambles!  If this weren't a blog, I'd be advising you to double bag this one and save it for twenty years to sell on eBay for big bucks because it is sure to be a collector's item!

So, without further delay, I give you:

Monday Rambles Pictorial Edition, Part Two!

Guess what I found over the weekend while I was out curb-diving during junk set out?

I kid you not.  I never realized there was irony in junking.  I'm going to have to keep this one in my junk sorting and pricing room as a reference manual.  No way I could sell that one.

Also, while I was out wading through people's cast-offs, I stopped for a Diet Dr Pepper, because I was really hot.   I texted Keith, who was home in bed with Kosh about the heat.  He replied back that hot, sticky, muggy curbside picking was what entrepreneurs were supposed to do.  As opposed to him and Kosh, of course.  They're not entrepreneurs and don't have to do sweaty picks.

A few seconds later, he texted me this pic:

Gotta love it.

I'll have more about the whole curb dive experience this go around tomorrow.

Monday Rambles

Well, it got hot enough last week to qualify to be called "Summer in March."  I'm talking 80's and 90's.  And it killed sales!  When it starts to get that nice, people blow off inside shopping for the parks and the lake.  To be able to do that this early in the year is unusual, so the shoppers have been pulled away.  Couple that with the fact the landlords and building managers got cought off guard and weren't yet ready to test and prep AC systems, and you end up with lower than normal sales.

I did however sell a china cabinet last week.  Happy dance!

I also set a personal bike riding record to one of my job sites across town.  I made it in 20 minutes on Wednesday!  Tour de France here I come!!!!!

I made the decision last week to move to another booth space in YesterNook.  My sales there have been somewhat less than spectacular all month and I am just tired of trying to fight the long, skinny layout to create something customers want to come into and shop from.  I'm going to be in an upstairs booth starting next month.  While I am dreading the hike up the stairs with merch, the new space is a little bigger and, more importantly square-shaped!  There is also overhead lighting in the room I'm going into, so I won't need my own lamps any more.  All the way around more pluses than minuses.  Hopefully, it will get my sales to the level I want them to be at and keep them there!

In the meantime, in prep for the move, I'm trying a 20% off sale in the booth for this week.  Maybe it will give me less to schlep upstairs on Saturday.


Just a little over 20 more posts to beat 2005!  Woo hoo!

We had to take Kosh to the vet for a recheck on Saturday, so there wasn't a lot time for yard sales.  We managed to make the end of a church sale, though.  More about that one tomorrow.  I did do some thrifting through the week, but nothing special.  Went to Goodwill and didn't even get called a fucker.  We did make it Half-Price Books again yesterday with our 50%-off coupons.  I picked up some more clearance comics and manga there too.  I didn't find anything I wanted for me, even at 50% off, so I used my coupon to get one of the books Keith was interested in, so he got two half-price books! 

It's nice to share!

Sometimes I wonder what Kosh and Chiquito are thinking

And, other times, I realize that I am better off not knowing!

Monday Rambles

Trying to get completely back on track here.  Or, at least, as back on track as I am capable of getting.  I've pretty much realized that getting back on track is a lifelong endeavor for me, so I might as well get used to it.  And that's today's philosophical, nature of life musing.  Tune in next week when we ponder the innate state of being of fava beans.

Okay, so Keith and I are driving along one of the most beautiful tree-lined streets in town yesterday, when--all of a suddden--this huge tree branch falls right in front of us on the street.  We had absolutely no time at all to avoid it, so we barrelled right over it.  Thankfully, it was large, but not thick and it pretty much shattered.  The car was only scratched--no other damage.  But it freaked us the hell out, for sure.

This is a snippet of our dialogue immediately after the incident:

"Aaaaaah!"
"Damn!
"Fuck!"
Jesus Christ!"
"Goddammit!"
"Mother Fuck!"
And so on...

It was a good five or ten minutes before either of us could do more than just exclaim profanity.  Then we decided that we were so traumatized that the only recourse we had was to get strawberry shakes at McDonalds. If we had hit a deer, we probably would have had to go to Waffle House. 

By the way, McD's shakes have gotten a lot better since they started the McCafe thing.  Which is kind of ironic, because most of their specialty coffees suck.  But the strawberry shakes actually have little bits of strawberry in them now.

Well, tax season has finally hit the resale market in Louisville, and not a moment too soon!  My January sales were lagging everywhere!  A really nice weekend helped too.  I've been hauling tons of stuff into the Peddlers Mall to get ready for the sales to come, and they finally hit on Saturday!  I had my highest sales in months--almost 100 dollars!  Yay!

(Of course, this means I'm going to have to haul more tons of stuff out there to replace the stuff that sold.  It's a never-ending cycle!)

Whenever I have a really strong day like that, I like to look at what's sold and see if there are any themes or trends.  Saturday had several:

Books
CD's
Comics
Warner Brothers Characters
Coffee Cups

What fun!

As for YesterNook, I had my best day there ever on Saturday. Went there Sunday with the intent to do a major rearrange, which kind of hinged on one particular shelf--which sold about five minutes before I got there!  So the rearrange turned into a kind of a punt.  I reshuffled some stuff but didn't make any major changes.  Did get some restocking done, though.  I've got to bring a little more stuff over at some point this week.

Sunday was good at both venues, too--not as good as Saturday, but good.  I knew YesterNook would be lower because I was working the space.  There's not really enough room for folks to check things out when I'm working, so they pass it by.

Sunday themes at Peddlers Mall included lots of books, scarves, and religious items and Charlie Brown figures.  The scarves means my small basket of linens is a mess and the religious items means that my religious display is getting sparse.  I'm running short on Jesus and Mary!  And the book run means that space is getting sparse too.  Good thing I have a huge tub of books ready to go this week.

Overall, I'm ending the month pretty well at both spots.  This has turned into my highest YesterNook month ever.  The Peddlers Mall is still off a bit, but has bounced back nicely.  One crappy week is keeping my total about 100 bucks off.  But, we are definitely hip deep in the resale busy season.

We took Kosh to the vet Saturday.  He doesn't at all like going to the vet, but he was well-behaved--although he did express his anal glands at one point.  Pee-yew!  My little boy is an old man of nine now.  Where does the time go?

There weren't any yard sales at all over the weekend, despite the nice weather, so we hit the thrifts.  I was mainly looking for large items, since I had a spot at YesterNook to fill.  I found what I was looking for:

It's gorgeous, solid, and hand-made.  The windows are missing a lot of the frames, but otherwise, it's in great shape.  Someone is going to love this baby.

It's supposed to be a beautiful week here, so I'm looking forward to riding my bike to class ever day.  My schedule gives me most of the afternoon free this time around, so I usually grab a cup of coffee somewhere and read a bit before heading home. It's kind of relaxing and then I get home in time to work on booth stuff.  I'm trying to get the backstock that has taken over one room of the house together and organized.  Wish me luck!

Return of the Ramble!

In which your Eddie-tor explains where he's been for the past month and a half.

I started a cat-sitting gig at the end of April and it ended up lasting most of May.  One of the people I sit for has had some family medical emergencies to deal with, so she's been gone for extended periods of time, often with little to no notice.  I spent most of the month at her house with her kitties, where my connectivity is pretty limited.  After a couple of days, I stopped trying to fight with it and entertained myself in other ways.

And, of course, once I got out of the habit, it's been hard to get back in.  Things have been pretty busy on other fronts as well, so I just haven't had the kind of time I normally do for stuff like blogging and planning and writing posts and such.  Hopefully, that's easing up a little.  We'll see.

I managed to make it through my first Mother's Day without a mother and the first anniversary of Mom's death okay.  My brother's birthday fell on Mother's Day this year, so I had something happier to concentrate on and that helped some.  I'm starting to get into my shed and deal with some of Mom's things, so my emotions are pretty wobbly sometimes.  So many memories.

I went to the big flea market alone over Memorial Day weekend and realized how much I miss her at times like that.  We used to do the flea market together at least once a year.  It was kind of weird not to stop at vendors she would shop from.  It was even weirder not being able to snark on stuff like we used to do.  She and I were forever finding something to carry on about or make fun of.  I had to do it all in my head this time.

Yard saling has been really lame for weeks now.  Lots of traveling and sweating for little hauls.  I made an awesome score this past weekend when I got a metric ton of Peanuts memorabilia for about twenty bucks, but it was the first rave-worthy score in ages and ages.  Even many of the annual sales I love to hit have been mediocre at best.  Not nearly as many opportunities to score a box of swag for five bucks.

Booth sales have been off too.  I owe you all reports for April and May, which I will get on soon.  I'll elaborate things in more detail at that time.  I also owe a couple of book reports too.  They'll also be forthcoming.

I even tried setting up at a community sale at a local church to pick up some extra bucks and clear out some booth duds.  Turn out was lousy for some unknown reason, so I only made about fifty bucks.  Did get rid of some stuff, though.  The organizers were making plans to have leftovers donated, so I left several items there, rather than drag them all home again.  I'd like to try the whole experience again, only with more buyers and better sales.

We've been having August in June for most of the month.  Hotter than normal.  More humid than normal.  I so miss regular seasons.

I got a smart phone the other day, so I may start tweeting again.  The "p" on my old phone only worked intermittently, which is why I stopped before.  Apparently, most of the words I like to use have "p's" in them.

My latte tastes funny.

Chiquito had a little growth spurt a while back.  Sometimes cats will have one last little burst of growth at around three, which he is.  It's made him very hungry all the time.  He's taken to trying to wake us in the middle of the night for a feeding.  I've started to put out a little extra food for my growing baby.

Kosh on the other hand is pretty much the same.  He wasn't well for my extended stay away from the house in May, but seems to have gotten over it.  Little does he know I have three nights of cat-sitting this week.  He's pretty clever in that he's learned the signs for when I'm prepping to leave for a few days.  So he starts getting freaky and extra lovey whenever I start packing up or carrying things out.  The problem is, he can't distinguish between my packing to leave and getting a booth run ready.  I'm messing with booth stuff all the time and it frequently involves packing a box or taking one out, which starts him to worrying needlessly.  Haven't figured out a way to explain things to him.

I also haven't figured out a way to end my Rambles posts, other than just stopping.  Posts on particular topics can wind themselves to a good conclusion, but just sitting down and rambling on and on is harder to wrap up.  The only way I really know to do it for sure is to shut up.

So I will.

Monday Rambles

Well, we went from near 80's to wintry mix in the course of a week.  Welcome to Spring in Kentucky!  Forecast looks more typical for this time of year this week, which means showers at some point.  Still, better showers than more wintry mix.

Next week, I promise I'll lead with something other than a weather report.

Cold, windy weather didn't stop the yard sales from happening over the weekend, thankfully.  I'm still on limited buying mode right now, but I picked up a few things, including a basket of vintage flower frogs, some vintage Christmas stuff, and a stack of ValueTales books.  Not too shabby.

Sales were pretty awesome over the weekend, after a so-so week.  The analysis is going to be interesting this time around.  I've got lots of holes to fill when I go in to re-stock, which means that some of this overstock will be going away.  That's also a good thing.

As a part of the good weekend, by the way, the most expensive item I've ever had in the booth sold!

The trees all around town, including the one in front of our house, are blooming.  Thankfully, the colder weather doesn't seem to have affected them.

I do apologize for the lack of posts last week.  It might continue for the next couple of weeks.  I'm not sure.  I'm having a hard time getting a handle on the Part Time Gig this time around.  It's a good deal more challenging, which I'm enjoying because I'm getting to do some different things, but it's cutting into other time.  Maybe I can carve out a little time to get some posts scheduled.  If nothing else, I'll have a bit of a break next week, so I can get something done then.

I'll also have another round of cat-sitting that week (for the whole week), so poor Kosh will have a rough time of it.  Keith says that when I'm gone, Kosh seems to think that, if he's just sweet and loving enough, Keith will go get me and bring me home.  Poor guy.

One thing I need to do this week is get the bike out, check it out, and get it ready for riding.  It's been too long.

Oh dear.  I have no way to end this one, so I guess I'll just stop typing.  Rambles, indeed.

Bits and Pieces

Just another bunch of randomness...

So I go to my booth last week for my regular stock and clean, just like I usually do.  I always start out walking through all the spaces and collecting items that don't belong to me.  When I go to my wall of religious items, I found that someone had turned all of my crucifixes upside down.  All of them.  Now we know.  Satanists like to look for bargains at flea markets too.

(Sorry no pic. I have got to start taking my camera with me.)

I took a hammer and nails with me, so I hung most of the crucifixes and religious plaques up on the wall around the shelves.  It makes that space stand out a little more and will probably keep the Satanists and vampires at bay for now.

I'm planning on having an actual written (non-video entry) written for every day this week.  I'm working on the booth report right now.  Did expanding make me rich or cost me my shirt?  Find out tomorrow!  I'm also going to start doing a monthly recap of the books I read the previous month.  You can find out what a well-educated, well-read kind of guy I am!  Or not, as the case maybe.  Mostly not.  I've got a couple of three things atarted for each of the other days, but haven't decided which way I'm going to lean yet, so you'll just have to wait and see.

Speaking of video entries, there was some kind of snag on a couple of my entries from last week and the videos didn't show.  I think it's fixed now.  So, if you really wanted to see Jenny Lewis and Jonathan Rice doing "Love Hurts" or Guy Clark and Emmylou Harris doing "Dublin Blues" now is your chance!

I went cat-sitting for a couple of days last week, which put my dear buddy Kosh over the edge while I was gone.  Since we lost Bennie, he doesn't deal well with changes in the household at all, particularly when it involves me.  If I just start getting stuff ready to take to the booth, he starts wandering the house with his worried look.  Poor guy!  When I got home, he was GLUED to my lap!

The weather is warming and staying warm, during the day at least.  It's still cold enough in the morning for a coat, but it all means Spring is one the way.  Yay!  It also means lots of rain around here too.  It rained a lot on Saturday, but fortunately, there were a lot of indoor sales to go to.

I guess that's enough on the babble front.  Before I go, I do want to send out good flea market vibes to Mari-Jo, who just opened her own booth.  Good luck with it and I hope you have fun!

Oh, yeah, and a great big Happy Birthday to my buddy Roger Green!