Long (Good) Day at the Auction!

As soon as I walked in, I saw it. Even with this older gentleman parked in it the whole day, I still really wanted to take it home. If I had to take the older gentleman in the deal, then so be it. It's not like I haven't cared for an elder gentlemen before. When Hubby gave me the okay to bid up to a certain amount, I was ready. Even if we had to wait FIVE hours whilst the auctioneer had to auction off an INORDINATE amount of knives of ALL kinds! I kept checking with hubby, making sure he still wanted to stay and he affirmed that he was just dandy. We were both bereft that we did not own a large truck and a large storage unit. The wonderful furniture at this sale, went for sinfully low, low prices. If I thought I'd see the day, Child of Oak Furniture Regime, that a 48 inch solid oak table from the 30's would sell for 25.00, I would have called you crazy. That's what it was like all day...Hubby and I staring at each other in disbelief at the quality of furniture going, literally, out the door.
But this little sweetie came home with me...(sans the nice gentleman!)




One drawback to the trade off of our Cash for Clunkers...
Sharky, the Hyundai was a little put out having to go to auction. We finally convinced her that she looked buff carrying around furniture. One good umph and my new wicker acquisition was in the back seat! Did I mention that it has springs? And that there has only been one paint job in many, many years? And that it has CRYSTAL CLAW FEET? Never in all my Wicker Collecting, have I seen claw feet on an item! Tomorrow, I will show you where it got located....


(P.S. This lovely woman had the nerve to sit in front of me and taunt me with her beautiful hair! Quite a bit of coveting going on today....! Had to take a photo of it and put in my Things I Must Do Before I Get Put In The Casket. Grow amazingly long red hair?? Good luck Deb.....:D!)

Clunker Cash

My husband is a skeptical cynic. I know that's redundant, but that's how bad he is. Not one to trust 'a deal'. 'No free lunch', he'll say if I tell him about one. He is annoyed with marketers that push Valentine's Day and Mother's Day on him. Skeptic Supreme.

Imagine my surprise when he calls me in Vivieland, to tell me that he is going to take advantage of the government's Cash for Clunkers program. I had to believe that he turned under every rock and probably read the 135 page rule book that accompanied the process. Who was I to impede the progress? If it passed HIS test, then what a deal it must be.

In my absence, he picked out our first brand new car. I believe I was still in shock, never thinking in a million years that he would go out on a financial limb to purchase a new car.

Now the Clunker.

Our (notso) faithful work horse, a 1991 Ford Ranger has served us well these past 10 years. It has moved our two youngest to college,and our Eldest Daughter to the Big City of Indianapolis. When our son used it, who knows where it took him. (There are stories of summer rides in the country with all his friends in the back, scaring the Amish and being scared by them as well....Better to not know everything......) Auctions, estate and garage sales, we hit them all with our ol' white truck. Recently, a deer hit my son on one of his country rides and even then, my husband was able to bandage it enough to carry on a bit longer....

It was with mixed feelings that we turned it over. We kept our eyes on the thermostat. It tends to overheat. We turned around a lot. It has no rear view mirrors. The outer one that survived, was taken out by the deer. When we reached the last stoplight before the new car dealership, a considerate citizen next to us at the light, informed us that we had no left brake light. We wanted to tell him that it also had no left turn signals either, but the light changed, we thanked him and then laughed hysterically as we drove off to our sweet little Clunkers last parking date.

We learned all about our new car's bells and whistles. We learned about the air bags, the Sirius radio, the lined trunk. We turned over our Clunker's license plates and signed final papers. We inspected the new car with a grin on our face that said, 'Inspect what? Did you not see what we drove in her with?? ANYthing would be better!!'

And so it was the Skeptic Supreme and his wife joined the ranks of the other 360,000 Cash for Clunkers program, rid ourselves of our gas guzzling work horse for the likes of an American made Korean car. We followed our president's suggestion to get a little greener and really did well in the deal too.

A great way to go out, Faithful Work Horse; you scored us $4,650 toward our warranty packed retirement car and gave us years of memories as well.....

Onward to make new memories.....