Monday Rambles

LOOKIE HERE!

It's Monday!  I'm rambling!  Will wonders never cease?

QUESTIONS WHICH DEMAND AN ANSWER

Has my forehead always been this wrinkly?  Also, is my hair thinning?

STRANGE WEEK

This is going to be an unusual week for us here.  I have treatment tomorrow.  If I feel up to it, I'm going to go see Black Panther afterwards.  If not, I'll be seeing it later in the week, for sure. 

Keith is heading to Arkansas after dropping me off at the cancer center.  It's moving day for his mother, and he's going to help out.  It's been a long, stressful journey for everyone concerned--one that demands its own post.  Tucker and I will be holding down the fort here.  Woo hoo!  Cartoons all the time!

WRAPPING THINGS UP

After today, I should have the big booth redo I've been working on for several weeks now completed.  I've just got a few more things to do, including taking pics, and I'll be able to do the big reveal here.  This has been a real challenge this time around.

Just as soon as I would get one part done, a really large prominent item would sell, meaning I'd have to start on that part all over again.  Then junk set out hit last week while I was still working on the booth, adding in more big, new stuff to deal with.  On top of all this, Keith has been inspired by his mother's ordeal to start downsizing, which means more things for me to deal with. (So. Many. Books.)  On the other hand, getting that crap out of the house has been nice.  We even got a new bed to celebrate.

Speaking of junk set out, it was kind of short this time around.  It rained off and on. It was cold.  Not much stuff got put out.  Regular spots didn't participate. Then, the trucks came through extremely early in the week and it was all over.  Despite all of this, I did get two mice Mazda loads of stuff.  I just finished getting pictures of it all, so I'll be sharing those too.

MUSIC FOR MONDAY

Not much else to talk about right now, so let's cut right to a very special Music for Monday.  Seriously, even if you normally skip these videos, check this one out.  It's awesome!



Old Sesame Street kicks ass.

Have a good week!  Watch out for wrinkly foreheads and buckets with holes!

Monday Mini-Ramble!

Not much time to chat this week.  Sorry about that.  Got a lot on the old plate at this moment, but I did want to give you all a couple of updates.

First, the good news.  At my treatment last week, the doctor told me that there is a meeting planned for May that will discuss the process for ending immunotherapy treatment for long term patients like me who are doing well and not having any problems.  One possibility is moving to bimonthly or quarterly treatments from the current every three week schedule.  Another is just ending treatment all together and monitoring with scans.  Exciting times.  Also, my nest scan is in a couple of weeks.

Now the bad.  Keith's brother passed away last week.  His mother is taking this really hard.  He had not been doing well for some time, but this was still kind of sudden.  We're heading to Oklahoma for the memorial service on Thursday, which puts me on a really tight schedule this week, especially since the booth is a wreck right now.

I had two items left to share from the freebie haul from the secondhand/vintage store.  Here they are.

These two caused me the most grief getting them in the van.  It was already quite full and they just would not go in the available space.  I was determined not to unload it all and repack, while Keith kept insisting that I would have to leave one behind.  Showed him!

So last week, I headed back over there and did it all again.

What was I supposed to do?  It was the last day, and they had a whole room full of free stuff! 

Monday Rambles

RUNNING LATE

It may be Tuesday when you read this, but come Hell or high water, it's going up tonight.  I was kind of tuckered out from the jaunt yesterday, so I stayed in and rested.  I've been writing a little bit at a time through the day.  I spilled coffee on my keyboard and mouse, which killed the mouse and sent me scrambling around the house to find another one, further delaying me. 

MY WHAT A CLEAN EDDIE!

I guess I'll crawl out of the shower and do this week's ramble. I've been in there ever since Friday when we finally got the new hot water heater and turned the agua back on.  I've never been more grateful for a material item in my life.  I finally feel really, truly clean again.

Also this:

The kitty's happy.  We're happy.  Everyone's happy.  And all is right with the world.

CAN YOU HANDLE IT???

Cuteness overload alert!  Pink Hello Kitty cowgirl boots!

Seen in a friend's booth at the Peddlers Mall

Also, Hello Kitty does sushi.

A VIRGIN NO MORE!

Like I said in yesterday's post, I finally made it over to part of the 127 sale. (What exactly did you think this section would be about???)  I still have to take pics of everything, so I'm holding off on the full details for another couple of days.  I will say this:  MANOMAN WAS IT HOT! 

Otherwise, I am back on my shopping moratorium, until the Labor Day Big Flea.

TREASURES

Speaking of moratoriums and such, how about a couple of things I haven't shown you?

I found this late 50's edition of a Masonic encyclopedia in a trash pile during set out.  The cover is kind of scuffed, because someone tossed it on the pavement in the alley where I found it. Interestingly, a couple of years ago, I found a late 50's edition of Morals and Dogma not too far from the spot when this one was found. 

I looked for an entry on the Illuminati, but there wasn't one, probably because this was the second of two volumes and started with the M's.

I've come to the realization that I could very easily be collecting flower frogs, if I'm not careful.  I'm kind of fascinated with them, especially the unique ones like these.

I found this wooden hashtag at a church sale.  The seller said that I had just missed the @ sign, which someone had just bought.  I'm debating tracking down some wooden letters and making a big sign that says:

#getyourbuttinthisboothandbuyallofmycrap

AGAINST ALL ODDS

Last Tuesday was treatment day, and it was full of snags, which is highly unusual.  Typically, we are in at 8 and out by 12:30, with the longest part being the wait for the lab results and the wait for the pharmacy to send the drug over.  We were kind of on a tight schedule, because we were under the (mistaken) impression that we would be getting the water heater that afternoon.

So of course, my port was clogged.  No labs out of that puppy!  They tried everything to get it to work, with no luck.  So they sent for the drug that unblocks ports, which added an extra pharmacy wait.  To keep on schedule, we all decided to try one of my raggedy-ass veins for the blood draw for the labs.  Two sticks.  No blood.  Not my day.

They injected my port with the declogger, and sent me down to the clinic to wait.  It takes 45 minutes for that stuff to work, on top of the wait I was going to have for the labs (once they got them drawn) and the drug.  By that point, we were making back up plans for Keith to leave me at the clinic and go home to meet the plumber.  We figured it was probably inevitable.

Except that it wasn't.  My labs came back so fast that I couldn't believe it, and the wait for the drug only took about half as long as normal.  We were actually walking out the door at 12:30, just like always.

Of course, we didn't get the water heater that day, but I'll still take a small victory. 

SAD NEWS

The Go-Gos are on their farewell tour.  My favorite band of all time is calling it quits.  I guess seeing them live is one item that won't get crossed off my bucket list.  I'm kinda bummed.

Admittedly, it hasn't been the same in recent years, since Kathy Valentine got let go, but I was still holding out hope for one more album.  Hopefully, they'll all come back together again, when/if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame finally pulls its head out of its ass and admits them.  Hello, people!  We're only talking the first all female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the charts.

HAPPY NEWS

On the other hand, there's an awesome set coming out next month with alternate takes, remasters, out-takes, and just general treasures from the classic Trio albums recorded by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and my supremely beloved Emmylou Harris.

They can't perform together any more, since Ronstadt's Parkinson's prevents her from singing, so it's wonderful to have this tribute to the beautiful harmonies the three of them made for decades.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Mural on the wall of a bar down the street from the house.  The place is called Kaiju, which is the Japanese word for those big-ass classic monsters, like Godzilla.  The side panel used to say "The end is near, so have a beer."  I don't know why they took that off.

AND FINALLY

How about some music for Monday (night)?

Monday Rambles

HAVE WE MET?

Well, hello again, friends!  I've not had many opportunities for blogging lately, but I have missed you.  There's lots to share, so let's get started.

EDDIE UPDATE

I haven't talked a lot about the cancer stuff lately, because there really isn't anything changing.  I get my treatments every three weeks, and things continue to go well.  I had another scan at the end of last month, and everything still looks good.  I qualified for an assistance program from the drug company, so my co-pays are now taken care of, which is nice.

I seem to finally have all the steroid withdrawal over with, so things are returning to normal on that front.  The blood sugar is lots better, and I've dropped a few pounds.  Not many.  Just a few.

I had a sinus thing going on last week that kept me out of action for a few days.  It seems to be clearing up, although I still have a head full of yucky stuff.  I feel like all I do is blow my nose.  And cough. A lot.  I'm afraid that I may accidentally blow one of my lungs out my nose when I get on a coughing jag.  Hate it when that happens.

I've always been prone to stuff settling in my chest, which then takes forever to clear out.  I've actually coughed so hard before that strangers have come up to me and told me I need to stop smoking!  And I don't smoke!

The sinus thing started last Tuesday, which was also a treatment day.  Since I was already planning a stay-at-home low key week, I was in a great spot to just stay in bed and rest. Things really worked out well, and Chiquito liked it too.

BOOTH UPDATE

Well, sales are a little better this month, but not by much.  It's very fits and starts right now.  I did HUGE over the July 4th weekend, but then took the rest of the month up to this past weekend to double that amount.  The crying of the blues will continue until further notice.  I'm moving lots of stuff, but it's nearly all small, lower priced items right now.

It seems like on the days when I do sell a larger, higher-priced piece or two, that's all I sell.  The mix is off in my sales totals.  Still, they are higher than last month, for the most part.  

I moved out of the booth with the pole smack dab in the middle of the entrance to a space right next to may other spaces.  Less walking for me.  I like having all my spaces together.

At the same time, one of my college roommates, who also had a booth in our mall, got a new job and had to give up his booth due to time issues.  He gave me and another vendor about 75% of what was in his booth--FOR FREE!  I've been kind of awash in stuff from that.  Really nice stuff to boot.  He does a lot of woodworking and repurposing kinds of stuff, and some of his projects were included in the items he gave us.

Slow sales are causing a lot of vendors to leave, but there's also been an influx of new folks.  Open spaces in out store get snapped up pretty quickly, often by existing vendors.  The manager told me at the beginning of the month that there wer so many vendors swapping out spaces that it was almost like a jigsaw puzzle. 

This was one booth's closing sign.

I had been intending forever to get a pic of the "Buy from the BUNNY" sign to put in the blog, because I just love it.  I never got around to it, until it was time to say "Bye Bye Bunny."  Sad.

Of course, since I was out all last week, I'm planning on spending all this week at the booth trying to pull things back together.  I'm hoping to take new pics, since an update post is long overdue.  I just need to remember.  That's the hard part.

DVD OF THE WEEK

This is a favorite movie of mine and I like to pull it out and watch it from time to time.  Martin Sheen and Trevor Howard work so well together and their scenes just shine throughout the whole film.

Religious politics and inner working fascinate me, especially with the Catholic Church.  I am constantly reading up on various aspects of the way the church operates.  One of my favorite subjects is the tension that exists between the newer course the church has taken since Vatican II and Catholics of a more traditional/conservative bent. 

This 1973 TV (!) movie (based on a novel by Bryan Moore) examines that tension with Sheen playing a young priest sent to get a recalcitrant Howard and the monks of his monastery to update and move along with the times.  The story is set in a fictional time after two more church councils have brought even more changes, and the monks have become steadfast and reactionary.

Like I said, the acting is exemplary and the story avoids any easy answers as the men strive to understand each other and seek a resolution.  The ending is haunting.

Given the current tension that exists between the current, very progressive, Pope and many more conservative bishops and cardinals, this 40 year old movie is surprisingly timely.  Well worth hunting down. 

STUFF UPDATE

Since sales have been so slow lately cutting back on going to yard sales and such.  I'm in "clear out the backlog" mode instead.  I did buy a bunch of manga over the weekend, but I was really low on it.  That was the first major purchase I've made all month.

Since that means I won't have any new things to share here, I'm taking a different approach to doing finds posts.  Check in tomorrow for the first installment.

MUSIC FOR MONDAYS

Have a tune for the first of the week.



Since the FBI officially closed the DB Cooper case last week, I thought this was an appropriate way to mark the occasion. 

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Now we're all caught up!  Thanks for stopping by!

Monday Rambles

Crazy times!  That's what these are.

My CPAP machine gave up the ghost a few days ago, and trying to get a replacement that isn't going to involve a lot of time, effort, and extra expense is proving to be a hassle.  It is actually cheaper to order one on my own and not involve my insurance, but I don't have a copy of my prescription and the sleep center where I did my study won't give me one.

In the meantime, Keith and I are sharing his, which means that neither of us is feeling particularly rested at the moment.

Booth sales have been off the chain lately.  February ended up being my second best month ever (coming very close to my record), despite the weather issues at times.  March has started off even better.  I know that ride will have to slow down at some time, but for now, I am content to let it go as it will.

I topped 200 in sales two days in a row last week, which has never happened to me before.  All of a sudden, everyone wants to buy my shelves.  I sold three different sets last week, which, of course, meant I had to rearrange booths three different times.  I feel like I have been living at the mall.  I love tax time!

Saturday, a guy parked himself in the book booth and stayed for well over an hour.  He just kept looking through books and tossing them in his cart.  I really needed to do some work in there, but I did not want to disturb him, since he was on a roll.  I was kind of concerned that he might be one of those folks who fills up a cart, then makes a second pass through everything and puts most of it back, but he wasn't.  The cashier said she told him that he was making me a happy vendor for the day, and he told her that was good because I had made him happy too.  Thta's the way it's supposed to work.

On the other hand, a woman wandered into my other booth and started complaining loudly to anyone who would listen about the price on a small end table.  She kept repeating the price, then loudly stating:  "Judy would give me one for free."  After she had done this a few times and had people staring at her, I looked at her and said, "Well then, why don't you go ask her?"  She stared at me for a moment, then walked off muttering something under her breath, which I was hoping wasn't about Judy coming back to punch me in the stomach.

The weather is still iffy around here.  Good one day.  Not so good the next.  Still, the sales are starting.  At least the church sales.  One of my regulars happened last Saturday, with another one scheduled for this Saturday, followed by one of my favorites the week after.  I'm trying to stick to just the tried and true this season, while I keep whittling down the Mountain.  Having a couple of nice days in a row would help in that process.  I am tragically low on smalls in the booths.  There's a good-sized stash of them on the Mount of Sorrows, but they're on the back side of it, due to poor planning on my part.  I need some more reliable weather before I can pull everything out to hunt for them.

Thanks for all the kind words about my TV interview.  I was surprised they used as much of me as they did.  They actually talked to three patients, and I thought the other two were way more interesting than me.  One of them they ended up not having time in the spot to include, and she's the one who got to meet Jimmy Carter!  The PR person at the cancer center said that you don't often see a spot as long as this one was.  It was nearly five minutes on air, which is unheard of these days.  I thought they got some good stuff from Dr Chesney too.  He is a really cool dude.

I think it's kind of funny that he's the deputy director of the center, and my other doc is the director!  I get the executive treatment.  They do some incredible work there, and are both so down to earth about it.  The director in particular is fascinated with Keith's beard.  Keith's beard has lots of fans.

Sometimes, they even get in trouble over it.  Saturday, after the church sale, we stopped off for Mexican food for lunch.  They sat us next to a table where there were three little kids. One of them took one look at Keith and started yelling:  "It's Santa!"  He gets that a lot.  He is a big guy with a big beard, after all.

Well, this kid cannot control himself,  He keeps staring and yelling and pointing.  His mother keeps telling him to turn around and finish eating, but he's having none of it.  He looks at Keith and says:  "Say 'Ho Ho Ho!'"  After Keith does, the kid starts shouting "Ho Ho Ho!" over and over again.  Finally, Mom loses patience and heads off to the bathroom, kid in tow.  Keith looks at me and says:  "I guess I should put myself on the naughty list."

They come back and the kid is a good deal more restrained, although he does keep sneaking peeks at Keith.  Finally, they all finish their lunch, and Mom says:  "Let's go potty one more time."  The kid says back:  "Are you gonna yell at me again?"  Poor guy!

Monday Rambles

It's the return on the Masked Man!

For once, I was having a halfway decent hair day last week on cancer center day.  Good thing too, because I got interviewed by a local TV station for a story about the drug I'm on.  I don't know yet when it will air, but I'll post links and such when I do.

New Blog Recommendation:  Look What I Found! is another trash-picking and selling blog, but the author lives in the Netherlands, which gives her varied and more interesting outlets for finding and selling stuff.  She also makes things to sell, and there are cats.  I've read back through the last few years of posts and quite enjoyed it.  Give it a look.

And speaking of things that I found that I'm kind of fond of, take a listen to this:



Also, Lara at Pretty Quirky did a round up of blog posts all about the booth business that's worth checking out. (Even if she didn't include a certain handsome, if shaggy, intelligent, if goofy, dude we've all come to love and enjoy.  Sniff!)

Also, another fun blog I've been meaning to recommend for a while, but kept forgetting, is Stories of Objects.  I really love her sparse, almost minimalist, vibe. Since she's another European, her stuff and her stories have a different flair to them than what you might be used to.  I will say that her header photo might unnerve you a bit, so be ready for it. I think it's kind of cool, but that's just me.

One of these days, I shall have to make a blogroll and incorporate all this good reading!  (Plus the many blogs that belong to you great people!)

Tuesdays seemed to be cursed, sales-wise, for me right now.  I'm in this pattern where I have a good weekend, a strong Monday, and then a really crappy Tuesday.  Not at all sure what that's about.  It's still a good month overall, though.

This weekend was particularly good.  I was there all day on Saturday and the place was packed!  Every shopper seemed to have a cart just crammed with stuff.  at one point, it felt like everyone in the store was in my aisle at the same time.  I had been a little worried, since it was really, really nice both days.  I was afraid that after the bad weather we'd been having that people would want to be outside on a nice weekend, rather than cooped up in the mall buying my awesome junk.  Happily, I was wrong about that!  Junk triumphs over nice weather!

By the way, I'm really kind of amazed by the number of you who say that your sales go UP on bad weather days.  It can be hit or miss here.  If it's rainy, that'll drive the folks indoors to shop, but if it's wintry, around here they tend to stay home.

I'm also surprised by the stories of how slow it can be this time of year for booth sales.  This is our busiest time of the year.  Once the tax money starts rolling in, so do the customers.  I don't know if it's a regional thing or that fact that I'm in a flea market flea market that makes the difference.  Our slump season is the summer.

I spent Thursday and Friday at the booth, bringing my brand of order to my brand of chaos.  I went in with a nice load from Sorrow Mountain and the Hillock, thinking that I really didn't have too much to do other than put it all out.  With that thought in mind, I decided to tackle a couple of other jobs that I haven't had the time to do lately.

Those jobs turned out to be the proverbial jobs that lead to other jobs, which lead to other jobs, which lead to other jobs.  End result?  My easy afternoon of stocking turned into three crazy days of work!

At least for once I wasn't out in the aisle with my stuff, because there was an empty booth next to my spaces where I had plopped my boxes.  I never block an aisle and I keep my stuff far away from other booths when I work.  The end result is that all access to my own stuff is pretty much blockaded until I get done.  Despite this, a couple of my neighbors constantly complain about me and my stuff, which is never anywhere near their booths and is crammed as closely up to my own spaces as I can get it.

So, I'm working along, happy for once that no one can complain about anything I'm doing, when along comes the folks who have just rented the space where I'm plopping.  Of course, I cleared out right away, but I still got the stink-eye.  It seems I am forever cursed to be hated by my neighbors!

At least, I got everything done!  All of my religious books are in the booth (finally)!  Valentine's stuff is gone.  Some Easter is out.  (I found a couple of boxes of Easter on the Mount of Sorrows that I had forgotten about.)  I still have a few Easter things in the shed to dig out.  I have a little more Easter than I really like right now, but I caught a 90% off sale last year where they still had some BIG items left, so I got a couple.  We'll see what happens. I have about one more half-load of stuff on the Hillock to take out, and then it will be time to close it down!  Woo hoo! 

I ended up working from open to close on Saturday.  I was exhausted by the end of the day.  About midway through the day, one of my favorite vendors came in.  He's got two booths, one about halfway down the aisle from me and one the next aisle over.  His booths are kind of like topsy-turvy land.  Stuff that should be high-priced is super-cheap and the stuff that should be super-cheap is way too high.

I ended up buying this:

It was way cheaper than I would have expected and is the right size for holding board games and puzzles in my booth.  I also got some small things from him, including some vintage Fisher-Price. A little later in the day three guys came by looking for glass jars.  I know this dealer always has tons of cheap jars, so I sent them to his booths.  Later, I saw them checking out with a bunch of them.  I felt like I repaid him for all the good stuff I got.

I did hit one garage sale on my way to the mall.  It was the only one worth stopping at.  I already had Mazda loaded with stuff for the booth, so I didn't take a Mazda shot.  It would not have been fair to the new stuff.

This is the sale by the dealer that lives not far from us with great stuff and good prices.  I told Keith as we were leaving with Mazda about half full that this would be the day I found a ton of stuff from him, just because the van space was so limited.

Talk about self-fulfilling prophecies!

There were two of these extra large wire baskets.  Only this one made it into the pic.  The other one turned out to be quite camera-shy.

Fun wrought iron plant stand and a really interesting box.  Really interesting.  I think the box itself is kind of old.  The wood looks like it.  It has tiny, old metal casters on the bottom that barely roll.  Along the way, someone attached paneling to the ends of the box and carpet to one side.  Quirky.

All these books!  Two U-Haul boxes full of them.  I saw one of them and it was marked five bucks.  I pulled the tag off and added it to my pile.  Then the seller tells me he's got another one that he'll let me have for four, so I take it too.  

Just then, another guy there starts trying to get down in the second box as I'm checking it out and taking it to my stash.   "What you got there?  Anything good"  Not cool, dude!

This one is my favorite book of the batch.  It's also the only picture book.  There were a lot of old textbooks, several old Bibles (LOVE!), some old religious books, a few novels, and several books from the Five Little Peppers series.  All in all, a really nice haul.

 This is my second favorite from the lot.  Sadly, there are no illustrations inside to match that sweet cover.

 

This book yielded one of the most awesome surprises I have ever found tucked inside a book.....

....VINTAGE PAPER DOLLS!

Cut right out from the newspaper!  How fun is that???  They remind me of those wonderful Golden Age Katy Keene comic books.  Of course, she wasn't the only comic in the 40's to have paper dolls, but it's one of my favorites.  There was a brief Katy revival in the 80's, which I totally loved, even if I did slip her in between the Batman comics in my stash at the comic shop.

There was also another really fun item of great historical interest in another book, but I'm saving it for another day.  Those are the highlights from the haul.  I also got five toy guitars and a framed golf poster, but didn't get pictures.  Combined with what was already in Mazda, I filled it up!

Not much on tap for this week.  The weather is supposed to be okay for a couple of days, so I'm going to spend some time in the back yard cleaning the last of the curb finds, so they can head to the booth. 

I have a couple of fine-tuning booth touches that need to be done and I need to finish my Easter display.  Once I get everything done, I'll take some pictures for you nice people.  I haven't done that in a while.

Monday Rambles

Let me just say right off the top that I am so ready for winter to be over.  So ready.  We haven't had a bad winter at all, mind you.  I'm just tired of the cold and the dreariness.  There are things I want to do outside!  Shoo, winter!

We had another four inches or so of snow yesterday.  Shoo, winter!  It's supposed to start warming up this week, so it won't last long.  I hope.  Shoo, winter!

This is kind of another quickie, mini-ramble.  There's just not much to say right now, for real.  I'm pretty sure that you all honestly don't want to read about me sitting around in my robe, drinking hot chocolate and petting the cat.  Shoo, winter!

Last week was all about getting the big junk from the set out pick to the booth.  This week will be about getting the small stuff over.  I made a super score on some wrestling action figures, so I'll also be getting those ready to go.  And probably bagging some comics.  In my robe.  While drinking hot chocolate.  And petting the cat.  Shoo, winter!

My, what a lot of wrestling action figures!

A competing vendor mall has opened up across the street from the Peddlers Mall.  I might head over there to check it out later in the week.  I've heard it's not very impressive, as it's less than half-rented out and most of the vendors over there have either left our mall or also have booths in our mall.  I have to confess that I do not understand paying to compete against yourself like that.  It's not like two malls that close to each other are going to draw significantly different crowds of shoppers.  In fact, reports have most shoppers leaving there empty-handed and coming over and spending money with us.

Honestly, I'm not worried about competition.  Nobody anywhere does this thing the way I do it, if I can say so myself.  I've never been that impressed with the other malls that the owners of this new one operate.  The staff are unfriendly and none of their stores is ever fully rented it seems.  On the other hand, I have found really good bargains in some of them, so it's worth checking out to see if maybe a new close source for stuff has opened up.  We'll see.

Speaking of booths and such, February is rolling long well.  I had a bit of a glitch last week for a couple of days, but the tax money is now getting to people and they are coming in and filling their carts.  Seriously.  I see more people walking by my space with huge mounds of stuff in their buggies and think:  "Tax refunds."

What's really wild is that there are a bunch of them that have never been in a Peddlers Mall (or a flea market, for that matter) before.  You can tell by listening to the conversations.  They're the ones that are either amazed at how much stuff there is here or they're appalled that so much of it is secondhand.  I really don't know exactly what that last group was expecting when they came in.

As someone who does not sell anything remotely resembling a necessity, I am very grateful for the tax refund folks, since for some of them, this is the only extra money they get all year.  The sales boost is always appreciated.

The real issue sales-wise right now is the weather.  All of my off days have also been snow days.  Shoo, winter!

Tomorrow, it's back to the cancer center.  This is treatment number 16, so I'll be scheduling another scan as well.  Those come every four treatments.  Wednesday will be a day of rest. I keep forgetting to do that, but it makes such a difference when I do it.

If I'm feeling up to it on Thursday, I need to take some stuff from the Hillock to the booth.  I still have a hunk of my religious books in storage, because I didn't have room for them.  I figured out how to rearrange some things at the booth and make more room, so I need to get them.  I have some empty shelves sitting and waiting for them.

Also, I need to take the Valentine's stuff out and replace it with St Pat's and Easter stuff.  I really don't ever sell much for any of those holidays, so I never have much to put out.  I barely sold anything for Valentine's Day this year.  I think I only have about a half-dozen St Patrick's items, but they should go out.

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day full of hearts and flowers and chocolate and whatnot.  We stayed in, and I made dinner for us--the kind of big cooking with side dishes and fresh veggies and chopping and peeling and dessert that we hardly ever do any more.  It was fun.

This is a post "dig in" pic.

Then I realized that kind of cooking makes dishes to be washed.  Lots of them.  And I understood why we don't do that kind of thing very often.  Oh well. 

If you need a little Monday giggle, try this collection of Popes in sombreros.  Fashion-forward Pontiffs for the Win!

All together now:

SHOO, WINTER!

Thoughts from a Scan

I had my scan yesterday.  I'll get results next week.  Getting a scan is a lengthy process.  If you've never done one, you would think they just shove you in the machine, yank you out, and that is that.

In actuality, it takes about two and a half hours for the full body scan, which is what I get.  First off, you have to do all the prep stuff:  blood sugar check, isotope injection, and contrast consumption.  The contrast is gross-tasting, like an off-flavor Tang.  After that, there's a wait for the contrast and the isotope to get all over your insides, so they'll be all glowy and stuff for the scan.  Bear in mind, that while this is happening, you are very aware that you haven't eaten for HOURS.

The scan itself takes about 40 minutes, or at least mine do.  They do two scans on me.  The first is a head/neck scan, which is the short scan.  This is followed by the rest of the body, which is longer, and also requires that I hold my arms above my head, which makes it seem a lot longer.  My shoulders are always so stiff that I can barely lower them when it's over.  I do have to admit that this part is a lot more bearable since the steroids came into my life.

That's a lot of time just laying around, doing nothing, which means that I start getting bored, which means that my mind starts to wander on to all kinds of bizarre things.  If I actually got around to typing all the blog posts I have drafted in my head during my scans, you all would either think I'm a genius or totally insane.  (As if you don't already.)

This time, however, there was a bit of a wrinkle.  I've been taking anti-biotics for the past week or so to finish off my post-Thanksgiving illness.  I took the last one today, so that's done.  Everything is cleared up, even the cough is gone.  I'm feeling good, but this process has not been without side effects.

To be blunt, the anti-biotics have made me...well...a little...gassy.

Now, I'm not talking blow-the-door off, clear-the-room all-out farts.  These are just little build ups of air in the gut that have to go somewhere.  Somewhere, as in outside of me.   Generally, it's just a bunch of tiny toots.  A bunch.  Usually these little spells last for several minutes and happen two or three times a day.  Since I took the last pill today, I'm expecting them to stop in a day or two.

Of course, one of these spells hits while I'm getting the scan.  As I'm sitting in the injection room, waiting for the contrast to take effect, I just start firing off a series of these little toots.  It lasts for about ten minutes or so and then it passes.  I'm alone in a closed room, so it's no big deal.

Until I get to the long scan.  And another spell hits.  I'm in the scanner.  The tech is in another room, running things.  These are the thoughts that result.

"I gotta fart."

"Should I fart?"

"Who would know?  Maybe I should fart."

"What if I accidentally move a little when I fart?  Would that mess up the scan?"

"I would hate to have to do this again, just because I farted."

"Surely I can fart without moving.  Don't most people?  I've never seen any fart wigglers. Or wiggly farters."

"What if I don't fart?  Will that show up on the scan?"

"I couldn't eat or drink, because that would show up on the scan.  Would a suppressed fart show up?"

"It's just a cloud of air in my gut.  Would a cloud of air show up? I guess it could make me look bloated."

"If I look bloated, would that be some sort of sign on the scan that could be misinterpreted?"

"I would hate to get bad news next week, just because I didn't fart."

"If I get bad news because I didn't fart, then I would have to tell them that I had to fart and didn't."

"I don't want to go to the cancer clinic and talk about my farts."

"Maybe this kind of thing happens all the time, and they can tell on the scan when someone needed to fart and didn't."

"Would that get noted in my file, where anyone could read it?"

"I would hate for all the interns to be looking at me and thinking: 'So this is the fart represser.'"

"How would I explain that to Chiquito?" 

"If I farted, and they could tell that, would that end up in my file?"

"Would people start watching me to see if I'm going to fart?"

"Nobody wants to be known as 'the farty dude.'"

"I'd rather be called 'Gassy Guy!'"

"That would be a good super-hero name."

"Just fart already and get this over with."

"I'm totally going to have to blog this."

In the end, I decided to fart.  We'll see what the result was next week.  I'm working on my Gassy Guy costume, just in case.

Some pics I forgot to share

I've had these kicking around for a while, since my last cancer treatment, in fact.  I just kept forgetting to put them in a post.  Being way off track in my blogging schedule lately threw off a lot of my content plans.  When I have to rush to get something (anything) up, it throws off my content plans.  Since I have another treatment tomorrow, it seems like a good time to put these out.

Getting my port accessed.  That's my favorite nurse at the center.  He is so laid back and mellow.  I'm letting my hair grow out right now, so it's always somewhat of a mess.

Lily also came by again for a visit.  She went right to me and laid on my feet for the longest time.  I'm hoping she might drop by again tomorrow.

Monday Rambles

A funny thing happened over the weekend.

I finally hit and then passed my monthly sales goal for the booth.  In fact, even if I don't sell anything else this month, I'll now have set a sales record for this store.  If I keep selling at the rate I have been (and who can predict such things), I'll have my second or third best month overall anywhere.

Suddenly, a wave of entrepreneurial energy has flooded over me!

Look out wanna-be presidential candidates!

The Donald is over!

It is now the era of The Edward!

Fun fact:  The Edward has better (and more natural hair) than the Donald, even if he does still need a damn haircut.

Don't worry.  I am not going to start referring to myself in the third person all of the time now.  Just some of the time. When I'm feeling cocky flushed with victory.

Strong sales this time of year are not unusual.  Fall is a good time for the vendor malls around here.  What's weird is that this sales-run is entirely smalls driven.  I've sold two pieces of furniture this month.  Two.  I've only sold a couple of larger-priced items besides that.  Everything else has been small stuff that's ten bucks or less, with much of that being in the one-three buck range.

My biggest sellers have been Halloween and comic books.  I'm going to have to reshuffle the Halloween again to try and fill in some major holes.  I think I'm going to sneak the fall stuff in amongst the Halloween to see if some of it might sell by mistake.

I'm down to my last batch of already priced comics.  I priced up everything I got last weekend, but I'm going to have to do some bagging and pricing this week.  I'll also need to haul in a box of books.

Once I get the restocking done, I need to spend some time working on the Endcap Booth.  It's become a little more disorganized than I like, so I'm going to try creating some sections and "zones."  I'm also going to move pull all the furniture out and put it in new spots to try and jump start those sales.

In other good news, my scan was good.  Really good, in fact.  The docs are happy.  I'm happy.  Things are definitely moving in the right direction.  The treatment will be continuing for some time now, but it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.

The whole visit went really smoothly last week, except that the lab got backed up, which delayed my treatment for a little while.  I was out about 30 minutes later than normal, so it wasn't too bad.  The Bingo volunteers were there this time.  I didn't play, because I was really engrossed in my puzzle book, but there was a woman in my section who was intense about it.  Made me realize that Bingo Halls are not places I want to be hanging out.  People get cut-throat over their Bingo.  Even though I didn't play, they let me pick a prize out of the prize basket at the end. 

Still waiting for the arts and crafts lady with the macaroni art.

Celebratory Good News Mexican Food Lunch!

This weekend is the big Highway 60 sale, and I am psyched to go!  We'll only go about an hour or two down the road, then turn around and come back.  That's usually enough for a full van load.  I'd love to make a killer vintage Christmas score.  My Christmas stash feels so light this year that it worries me.

It's just going to be a short trip, but it's going to be fun and different and I think I would like that right about now.

Monday Rambles

Happy Labor Day Everyone!  I hope everyone has had a safe and happy holiday weekend.  The last blast for summer, as it were.

It's the last day of the Labor Day Big Flea, so I'm heading out and looking for some bargains in the Antique Wing.  Plus comic books.  Plus whatever else I can find.

It has been ungodly hot here this past week.  Saturday was the worst.  Just awful.  It really killed the business at the sidewalk sale, unfortunately.  Even though the sidewalk outside the Peddlers Mall is covered, the shade doesn't really take effect until mid-afternoon.  It was a roasty, toasty morning.

The real problem was that no one wanted to linger outside and shop when they could go inside and shop in the air conditioned comfort.  And I did not blame them. 

Still, fun was had.

C'est moi!

I did sell a lot of stuff.  When your top price is a buck, things do move pretty quickly for you.  I wanted stuff gone and it went, making every hot sweaty minute worth it!  Towards the end of the day, I corralled a shopping cart and dumped some stuff in it with a big FREE sign on it, and even more stuff left. 

I'm going to take the leftovers, dump them in some large bags, and put a really good lot price on them and blow them out of the booth.  (Those plastic zipper things that linens and sheets come in are wonderful for this!)  A few of the larger things will get another mark down and then get shoved in a corner to fill space until they sell. 

There's about a trash bag full of stuff that's headed to Goodwill as well.

The only thing that did not move at all was that damn glass.  I'm leaving it in a box, shoving it on a bottom shelf, and letting it sit until my yard sale at home.  Diggers will hunt through it, if they want.  Everyone else can ignore it on the bottom shelf as easily as they do when it's out in the open.

The sidewalk sale was part of a special event to raise funds for one of the cashiers who is going through chemo and can't work as much as she usually does right now.  There was a bake sale, raffle, and cook out, with all the proceeds going to her.  It was pretty awesome!  A pair of customers out of the blue made a fifty dollar donation!

Sales inside were really brisk this weekend.  Saturday, I had my best day ever at the mall and came within a couple dollars of my best one day total ever.  Friday was super too.  On both days, I sold a ton of those manga volumes.  A serious ton.  I gotta get my hands on some more of those.

I was actually worrying about September, because the first three days were way off.  Now, I'm way ahead, so we'll see what's going to happen.

I have all my Halloween out, right now.

The skulls are back and they're FESTIVE!

It's not quite blog worthy at the moment, so this is the only peek you get right now.  After a bit of tweaking, I'll do a full reveal.

Oh, all right.  One more little look.  Just because you've been good.

A bowl of HALLOWEEN CUTE!

I haven't sold a lot of it as yet (or the fall decor stuff), but it's starting to pick up.  I think it's hard for people to think acorns, scarecrows and pumpkins when it's so freaking hot.

I'm still doing really well on the steroids.  I did learn last week that I really should still take treatment day and the day after to rest.  I wasn't overly tired, but I did move much more slowly than I had been doing.  I'll be keeping that in mind.

This week, I'm planning on taking a few days to totally chill.  I need to spend a couple of days at the booth to put it back together after the sale, but I'm taking the next 3-4 days after that off.  Since starting on the steroids, I've finally been able to get to some things that needed to be done, so I can take some time to do nothing and not feel so badly about it. 

Last week at the cancer center, they added something new to the free snacks.

LORNA DOONES!

I love me some Lorna Doones!

Like I said before, the doctor thinks I am looking much better, so we're both happy.  It's time for another scan, which I'll get next week.  We'll go over the results at my next clinic visit, the week after.

Due to the sidewalk sale, I didn't go to any yard sales, but I did shop a couple of the other sellers and picked a few things up.  I'll do a post on them (plus any Big Flea finds) later on.  Late last week, I found a bunch of Libbey jar style drinking glasses in various colors on clearance.

I know these are supposed to evoke images of drinking iced tea and lemonade on the back deck on summer nights, but I look at that red and green and think "Egg Nog!"  The red and blue also make me think about the Wildcats and the Cardinals, as college football gets started.  These will be in the booth this week.

This coming Saturday is the community sale for our neighborhood.  Everyone sets up on an empty lot, and there are always lots of good finds.

It's time to get the granny cart out of the shed and start my Big Flea warm ups.  If you don't stretch and properly prepare, you could hurt yourself, you know.  Junking ain't for sissies!

Let's close out this ramble with a picture of a blue-eyed ape riding a tiger!

Seriously

Well, why not?

Helping Hands

This is what I'm calling my steroid now.

Thought you'd like to know.

Seriously.  The doctor on Tuesday said I looked like a whole different person!  I'll take it.  I have never been a fan of having to take a lot of meds, but this is really helping.

I made a new friend at the cancer center during my infusion.

Her name is Lily and she's a therapy dog.  She was a true sweetheart!  She just laid her head in my lap for a long time and let me pet her.  She also got a big kick out of sniffing around in Keith's beard.  Everyone loves Keith's beard.

I think I'm pretty much past the point of emotional distress during my infusions, but spending time with her left me with a huge smile.  In all the time I've been going there, this was the first time I was there with a therapy animal.  It was way cool and I loved it.  I hope to see Lily or one of her friends again soon.

There was a parade of helping hands through the cancer center on Tuesday, in fact.  None of which I have ever seen there before.  Over the past couple of years, I've seen the chaplain come through a couple of times, but that's about it.

On Tuesday, we had Lily, followed by a wandering violinist, followed by the massage therapist (who had a cancellation, so she came to the clinic to see if anyone wanted a quick massage).  I kept hoping the arts and crafts lady would be next.  I haven't made any macaroni art in ages, and I totally rock at macaroni art!

Monday Rambles

To start us off, a poor picture of belly-button rings.

OUCH!

Why a poor picture?  Because I accidentally totally deleted the carefully edited and fixed up one.  I am a crappy blogger.

Why belly button rings? Because I found them when I was going through a big batch of jewelry that came with the booth I bought.  I was bagging like items into bulk lots and marking other things down.  It just struck me as kind of odd to find all this body jewelry mixed in.  There are booths in the Peddlers Mall that sell body jewelry and stuff like that, but that's all they sell.  You don't normally find it mixed in with lots of toys and dozens of relish dishes.

Also, aren't some of them a tad elaborate to be hanging out of a navel?  I'd be afraid they'd get tangled in my shirt or something.  Of course, I'm not really a piercing kind of guy, unless you count the time I took a BB to my left buttock hind quarter.

Too much info?

How is that for a totally random start to the week?  How about some junking stories?

I was in a thrift near the booth a little while ago, just kind of browsing stuff.  There was an older couple there, also just browsing stuff.  All of a sudden, he finds a pink wig.  He starts rubbing it and holds it out to his wife.  "It's sooooooo soft!  Feel this!"

They walk around the store carrying the wig for a while.  When I go to check out, they get in line behind me, still carrying the wig.  They're chatting with each other and the cashier.  I'm chatting with the cashier as well.  Finally, I cannot control myself any longer.  I've paid for my stuff and they're getting ready to pay.  I turn to them and say:  "I just have to know which one of you is going to wear the wig."

Everyone starts laughing, then he kind of stammers out:  "My wife will wear it."  To which she immediately replies:  "It's your collection.  You wear it!"

Collection? Of pink wigs? Odd colored wigs? Wigs in general? Cosplay stuff?  What can of worms did I unwittingly open?  Oh my!

Sometimes I need to just keep my mouth shut, I guess.

It has been a typical August for the booth--a long, hot slog.  Daily sales have been all over the place.  Fabulous one day.  Not so hot the very next one.  I was holding my own until the fair started last week. For the first three days, everything ground to a halt.  Killed my momentum and my sales.

The fair was late this year.  Usually, there's a week or two afterwards for sales to recover.  This year, there's only two days.  I'm going to come out about like normal, when all is said and done, but I'm looking for some sales growth before the end of the year.

The fall is usually good for sales.  I've already put my fall decor in, and am going to start putting Halloween out this week.  It's a little early for the Halloween, but I've got the space and a little more Halloween than normal.  Last year, during Halloween clearance sale time, when I was stocking up for this year, it was right around the time I started chemo again.  I think I was a little more aggressive in my shopping in order to make some kind of personal point.

At any rate, I've got a lot of skulls to sell.

No one seemed to know what to call the metal thing in Mazda yesterday, other than "something metal."  The community sale I went to was right around the corner from the Peddlers Mall, so I dropped off the big stuff and took these reveal pics.

The metal thing is actually used to convert linear measurements between metric and standard units.  It's just odd enough and geeky enough that I couldn't resist it.  Also an old window.  I only like to carry windows that have something kind of special or different about them.  I like the privacy style glass on this one.

Everybody pretty much guessed the bookcase.  The checks are contact paper.  One of the churches I went to had closed its preschool and was selling stuff off.  Unfortunately, most of the furniture was either too large, too ratty, or too pricey for my needs, with the exception of this bookcase.

I did get some fun small stuff there, however.  But you'll have to wait for tomorrow for that.

Technology has been frustrating us lately.  Our internet went our last weekend, when something knocked our cable loose.  We get that fixed, and then the power goes out Saturday right before we were heading out to the sales.  A transformer down the street blew.  I step out front and join the neighbors in staring down the street, like that's going to fix something.  It was back on by the end of the day.

This Saturday, the Peddlers Mall is going to have a sidewalk sale and cookout.  I've signed up for a spot and will work on getting stuff together this week.  I plan on putting out a lot of what I have left from the booth buy-out--marked down real cheap. I've had a lot of luck moving the marked down glass stuff and toys.  The toys are nearly gone, and a good hunk of those divided dishes are too.  Now is the time to finish them off, along with a lot of the household implements and such from that buy.  It'll be a bargain extravaganza!  (I'm hoping to find a few deals for me from other sellers.)

I set up a special sale table for those dishes.  That's helped them move.

I'm also going to pull a couple of things off Sorrow Mountain to join the fun.  Speaking of Sorrow Mountain, that post brought lots of comment.  I call it "Sorrow Mountain" because I am not so happy that it is there.  I don't like the added expense that comes a long with it and I hate having that much excess stuff.  My goal in life is to whittle it away to Weepy Molehill.

I resisted getting a storage unit as long as I could, but it was inevitable.  When you lose a store where you have ten spots, including a storage room, it's a big hit.  Up until the last days of the move out, I kept insisting that we could handle the overflow in my junk room, our shed, and the small storage unit we have for the house.  As it turned out, I used all of those areas to hold stuff, and still had to get Sorrow Mountain.

I didn't mind having a backlog in the beginning, because I was afraid that I might not be able to get out as much in the summer, due to my treatments.  My plan was to slowly whittle away at it with the goal of majorly reducing it by the fall.  I had a vision of going over there every week and sorting stuff and tagging stuff and making it something more viable than just a repository.  That kind of didn't happen, mainly due to the treatment fatigue.  It's been hanging on me like a weight ever since.  Getting over there the other day to do the little I did felt good.  Real good.

By the way, in answer to Judy's question, the patron saint of Sorrow Mountain is, of course, Our Mother of Sorrows.  This reminds me that I ought to warn tell you that my answers to your "Ask Eddie Anything" questions resume this week.

Turns out I got a little too carried away pulling stuff off Sorrow Mountain to take the booth last week.  Somehow I had it in my mind that I needed four small pieces of furniture to fill holes that didn't really exist.  I'm a bit packed right now, needless to say.  Fortunately, one piece was a too cute yellow primitive table that sold practically as soon as I unloaded it and thus made more money than it would have continuing to sit on the Mount.  Unfortunately, I realized too late that I had never taken a pic of that table for the blog.  Sorry.  Bad blogger.

I took six boxes of books, tapes and records from Sorrow Mountain to Half-Price Books last week.  HPB is my last ditch resort to get rid of stuff, since they don't pay that much.  I ended up walking out with something better than money.

WOO to the HOO!

TWO FLATS OF MANGA!!!!!!  That's over 100 volumes.  I made enough selling my stuff to pay cover one of the flats, so that all worked out well.  I had to rearrange my book booth to get them all in.  I now have two entire bookshelves of manga.  I think I'm going to take the shelf I bought over the weekend and dedicate it to graphic novels, which will free up space in the comic boxes, which means I can bring more comics in.  All is good.  That sound you hear is the local nerd council humming in agreement and approval.

Of course, since it's Labor Day weekend coming up, that means there's also going to be a Big Flea coming up--with an antique wing, yet--woo hoo! Gotta get the granny cart spruced up and ready.

I read the best book the other day.  I've been trying to use my down time to read more, since that always makes me feel better.  It's sad when I get too tired to read.

Image from Amazon.

It's a sort of alternative look at Shakespeare's King Lear though the eyes of the court jester, who's quit a bit smarter than his sovereign.  If you remember your Shakespeare at all, you'll know that being brighter than Lear wasn't terribly difficult.  I say it's a "sort of" alternative look, because Moore deviates wildly from the plot, tosses in characters from other plays (like the witches from Macbeth), and is not afraid to throw in an anachronism or two for giggles.  It's a wonderful, if somewhat bawdy, romp and an awesome way to spend an afternoon.

While our cable was out, I needed something to listen to/watch while I tagged merch, so I dug through the DVD pile and did some binge watching.

Image also from Amazon

This is one of those lesser quality sets you can buy for five bucks at Wal-Mart and the like, usually containing material not available elsewhere.  I paid a buck for this one when the local Borders stores were closing.  It provided hours of entertainment.  It seriously doesn't get any more retro cheesily wonderful than this--preposterous plots, laughable special effects, and plenty of buff shirtless guys in mini-skirts.  (Not that I was noticing that or anything.)  Totally awesome.  I ought to do stuff like that more often.  I have a Bela Lugosi set around here somewhere....

While we're on the subject of good reading and the like, please check out this awesome post of tips for folks planning to hit those long highway yard sales from Melissa's Antiques.  She actually went to the Highway 127 sale for the first time this year, but--like me--she's a vet of several smaller, local highway sales.  Good tips and advice in there.  One that I would add is to keep an eye out for small country churches.  Even when they're not having sales, the empty parking lots are a safe place to pull off the road and do things like rearrange your load, without having to worry about getting mowed over by a semi.  Be sure not to miss the pic about halfway down or so in her post.  You'll know which one I'm talking about.

I have my next cancer center visit tomorrow.  These infusion days roll around fast.  At my last visit, they gave me a prescription for a low dose steroid in hopes of helping with my fatigue.  Boy Howdy!  The difference is like night and day.  I'm not even taking the whole prescribed amount each day and I feel so much better.  I need fewer rest breaks and my energy level is much more consistent.  I do feel a fade slowly come on late in the day, but I'm able to get so much more done in a day and not feel like death while I'm doing it.

Don't worry.  I'm being cautious and careful and not overextending myself.  I'm still rests and breaks and the like, but it feels good to get things freaking done.  I feel like my life has been on hold all year, while I've been eking out little dribs and drabs that have never quite been enough.  It's nice to see a change on that front. I don't like adding another med to my regimen, but this feeling seems to be worth it.

How about we wrap things up with a pic of Chiquito making his sleepy face?  He always looks so cute when he's struggling to wake up and figure out what's going on.

Focus on the cute, groggy kitty.  Not the messy sheets.

That's not even your Chiquito of the Month for September!  You'll get that tomorrow, of course.