Return of Monday Rambles!

And....I'm back! 

Thanks for waiting for me.  I had a lot of stuff to think about regarding this blog and some other issues, so I appreciate your patience.  I'll be explaining more in the next couple of days.

My body is starting to realize that I didn't get any chemo last week.  I'm a little perkier and a little more energetic.  I still tire suddenly and unexpectedly--those damn bricks are still sneaking up on me--but I can feel myself slowly returning to normal.

I actually took a short bike ride the other day!  It was wonderful!  I kept it very short and reasonable and stayed close to home.  I can't pull hills just yet, so I had to walk the bike in some places.  Windy needs some work done, so I actually took Keith's bike, which worked well, because it's easier to ride.  Of course, once I made it home, I immediately crashed--hard--but I got to take a bike ride!  I'm planning another one for this weekend.  If it goes well, I'm going to start semi-regular riding next week.

Booth sales have been uneven due to the fair.  The first week of the fair, they were pretty good for fairtime, but last week was more typical.  In other words, sucky.  I'm glad it's over.  Things pick up in the fall, so I am looking forward to it.  I have to start gathering the harvest and Halloween stuff.  My back to school stuff didn't do as well this year as last year.  Don't know what's up with that.

Yard sales have been spotty this summer, but last weekend was good:  old comics, wooden kids' chairs and other fun stuff.  I'm needing to do a post on my finds real bad.

I need to run, so I'll sign off.  Look for regular posts this week.  I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Let me leave you with this pic of a phone booth near my work:

I thought it looked kind of artistic with the bright colors and the broken receiver.

Memorial Monday Rambles

Sorry to have dropped out of blog-sight last week, but I spent a lot of the week too tired to do anything except go to work and then go to bed.  I thought last week was going to be my "good week," but I think I learned that there aren't really any "good" weeks any more.  There are tired weeks and then tireder weeks.  The goddam bricks are everywhere these days, it seems.

I have my next round of chemo tomorrow.  I can't wait to see what new fun it brings!  Okay, so really I can wait.  A very, very long time, in fact.  Unfortunately, I am not able to wait, so bring on the next round of toxic fill up!

I have been kind of pleased with my blog totals for the year.  I am on pace to meet my 200 posts for 2013, even with my forced vacations.  I really have tried to keep up with the blog as one of my ways of coping with everything.  Plus, having to finish a post before I leave for work gives me an extra incentive to get out of bed.  I need all the incentives I can get, since the bricks provide their own kind of incentive to stay in bed.

Sales have sucked all week.  I've not had a decent day at either site, which means my monthly totals are going to suck.  It's extra discouraging right now because it takes so much out of me to really work the booth the way it needs to be done.  I worked several hours on Friday with a foof and redo that hasn't yielded any results.  I could have phoned it in and been a lot less tired.

Worse yet, I had a text the other day about some AnnaLee dolls I have at one of the booths.  I've got 10 of them, very reasonably priced.  Someone wanted all of them and was inquiring about a discount.  I am more than happy to deal in a case like that and offered a very generous 20% off, which was turned down flat.  Pissed me off too.  That would have really turned my month around.

There's a customer entitlement mentality you run into selling secondhand stuff, particularly vintage items.  Some folks have the idea that you ought to be so glad they have deigned to take an interest in your shit that you should mark it down to next to nothing, then carry it out to the car for them.  I don't have any problem saying "no thanks" to that.  Many of them turn out to be dealers, too.  It's enough to make one cynical.

Until you turn around and have a pretty good day yard saling.  The day started off with a decent sale right down the street from me and kept going all day long.  Every stop ended up being worth it, and that almost never happens.  I'm kicking myself over a couple of chairs and some wicker that I didn't get, but I listened to what the bricks were saying instead of my instincts.  They would have required a run to both booths that day, and I didn't think I was up to it.  Damn bricks talk too loud sometimes.

I ended that day at a vendor mall that's closing at the end of the month.  Lots of the dealers were in their spaces marking things down, so they wouldn't have to take them out in a few days.  I found a few things there.

Yeah.  Just a few.

I think that I'm well set for this next round of chemo, just in case I end up not being able to make it to any sales or thrifts this go around.  I'll be taking some larger items into the booths this week, if I'm able, to give it the quick and easy approach to a new appearance.

The third anniversary of Mom's death is this week.  I'm trying to get a post for that finished, but I may be off by a few days, depending on how I feel.  I'm trying to take advantage of having today off in order to take care of some things that need to be done this week.

There's a terrible lot of whining in this post.  Sorry about that.  Being tired all the time makes me grumpy.  I hope everyone has a good holiday.  Travel safely.  And take it from the dude with melanoma:  Wear a hat when you're out in the sun and use lots of sunscreen!

Bricks 101

I guess you all have figured by now out that the ton of bricks is my (now overused) metaphor for my chemo fatigue.  Telling (bad) brick jokes here is helping me cope, but I thought I'd share some information that I've been noticing, with the thought that it might help someone in a similar situation some time.

Inconvenience

You see, I have noticed that there are different levels and amounts of bricks.  I call them "Brick Levels."  First comes the couple of bricks that I seem to be carrying with me all the time.  They're not enough to keep me out of the loop, but they mean that I move slower than I am used to in just about everything that I do.  I call this level, "Inconvenience," because it's inconvenient to have to always carry 2-3 bricks with you.  What wants that?

The second level is "Hold on There, Pardner!"  It's a few more bricks, maybe a couple dozen or so.  I can still keep moving, but I have to way slow it down at this point.  If I'm working on something and I'm standing, then I need to work out a way to sit and keep it going.  They'll fade away in a little bit, and I can pick up my pace a little bit.

Hold on There, Pardner!

"Time Out, Cowboy!" is the brick level that calls for a break--usually about 30 minutes--in the action.  They can hit hard and fast or pile up over a period of time until there's about a couple hundred pounds of bricks.  The rest break will usually clear them out, but I have to take it pretty quick.

The last level is "Down for the Count, Mister!"  This is the full one ton pallet and it hits out of the blue, any time, any where.  Sometimes, it accumulates slowly, until I can't go any further, but more often it just drops out of the sky like something out of an old Warner Brothers cartoon.  I can be doing anything, and all of the sudden the feeling comes over me

Time Out, Cowboy!

and I know I need to be laying down pretty soon for an extended period of time.  Usually, I'm able to cut whatever I am doing short, when this one comes around.  I kind of have to.  Lately, though, this one has been holding off until the end of the day when I'm at home.  It still hits hard, but it's not interfering as much with my day.

When I write my "surviving chemo" pamphlet, I'll be putting in a section about dealing with the bricks.  In the meantime, you can consider this my rough draft.

Down for the Count, Mister!