Monday Rambles

The problem with doing a mid-week update post, like I did last Thursday, is the potential to take the wind out of the sails of the Monday Rambles post, which is supposed to be my regular weekly update post.  Not that I'm trying to be some kind of kind of strict literalist when it comes to my posting schedule, but I did start doing certain posts on certain days so that readers might have a idea about what was coming up.  Assuming, of course, that I actually do post regularly.

I purposefully kept Thursday's post a little sparse, so that I would for sure have some things to ramble on about today.  Now it is time to expound a bit.

By the way, I am aware that it's Tuesday.  In the afternoon.  Late afternoon.

Bad blogger.

TREATMENT UPDATE

Last Tuesday was treatment number four, so it's time for me to have another scan to see if this immunotherapy thing is working.  I'll do that a week from this Wednesday, then get the results the following Tuesday when I go for treatment number five.

At this point, I seem to be tolerating the drug fairly well.  I'm not having any of the nausea/diarrhea issues, except on infrequent occasions.  The same for the other main side effects.  I'm still having to watch my blood sugar closely, but that's really it.  I do get fatigued, but that is worst on the day of the infusion and the day after.  Otherwise, I really only have fatigue issues when I go too hard too long without rest breaks.  And those can carry over to the next day, usually resulting in a day in.

All in all, if this has to be my condition and status for a while, I can tolerate and live with it.

At this point, the treatment is so new that the docs still don't know how long it will last.  They honestly don't know when to end the protocol.  The first people to receive this drug are still receiving it every three weeks, two and a half years later.  This makes me a little uneasy, mainly from a payment point of view.  What if insurance gets tired of covering a never-ending treatment?

The current line of thinking seems to be that they'll be able to make that call soon, based on the experiences of those earlier patients, but that I should be prepared for at least two years of treatments.  I guess this makes me "cutting edge" or something.

And that makes me think I should dye my hair pink, pierce my nose with a safety pin, and form a punk band called the Gall Bladders.  I've never been "cutting edge" before.

I'm not trying to make any predictions or get any hopes up until I have that scan.

On a related note, I seem to be mostly over that damn cold now.  Thank goodness.  I agree with everyone who said that summer colds are the worst. Because they are.

BOOTH UPDATE

May was a struggle.  I finally ended the month with an okay total.  Not great, but okay and totally acceptable.  Since last June, I have managed to top a thousand in gross sales every month.  Sometimes, it's waaaaaaay over and others it's just barely over.  My goal this year has been to get things to a consistent level every month.  I want that thousand to be my net.

So far, June has been good to me.  Sales have been consistently high and I am way ahead of where I was last month at this time.  Furniture has started moving again, something that wasn't happening last month.  Also, comic books are flying out of the booth in large amounts on an almost daily basis.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

The most surprising part of my sales this month is that my booth has been totally trashed for weeks.  After ten days in SF, plus several days of cold and other distractions, calling the place a "wreck" is an understatement.  I spent today pulling everything out of the end booth and completely rearranging it.  Now, I'll need to get a load of stuff ready to go over, so I can restock and do the big rearrange on the aisle booth.

The mall moved a bunch of showcases that used to be across the aisle from my endcap booth across the store, with the intention of creating more booth spaces.  I requested three of them, hoping to move my aisle booths up closer to my other ones, plus pick up a space to move the books and comics into and expand my selection.  Turns out they're only making six new booths and they've had multiple requests for those spaces.  To be fair, they're going to hold a lottery for the spaces, one per vendor who gets drawn.  I guess we'll see what happens.

Since it's only possible to maybe get one of those spaces, I'll use it for the books and comics if I get it.  That will pull the rest of my book stock out of storage, plus I'll also need a bunch of the shelves I'm storing.  Moving the books and comics out will let me move new shelves into the end booths and get more boxes out of storage, plus a few more pieces of small furniture.  It would be nice to make a dent in that stash.

In case I don't get picked, I went ahead and told the manager that I would like to pick up a space for the books and comics for July.  I think it's a move I need to make, even if I can't get one right near my current booths.  For all the sales, it is really hard to keep the comics and books neat.  They need a space away from my "curated" furniture spot.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Joy posted recently about the advantage of a church sale: lots of good loot in one place.  Usually.  For the first time ever, the largest and best church sale of the year let me down.  Miserably.  Part of the issue was a couple that had somehow managed to snap up all the best furniture within minutes of the sale opening.  Seriously, we got there about ten minutes after it opened and most of the furniture had sold signs on it.  There weren't even that many people there yet!  I watched the buyers loading up as we were leaving.  The furniture that was left was either unsuitable for my needs or overpriced.

As far as the other stuff goes, the volume was way down.  This is the place that usually has about six rooms full to the brim with stuff for sale.  There were still six rooms, but they were only about half full.  It was still a lot of stuff, but not in comparison to previous years.  The quality was way down too.  There just wasn't that much to be excited about.  The toy room in particular was a huge letdown.  Last year, I made four trips through this one room alone, buying armloads each time.  This year I didn't buy anything there!  You read that right.  I left a toy room empty-handed.  Me.  Really.

One of the shoppers remarked to one of the church volunteers about the drop in the amount of items for sale.  The volunteer kind of looked over her shoulder, lowered her voice, and said:

"I hate to put it this way, but it kind of depends on how many people in the church have died recently.  Or moved into assisted living."

Talk about killing your shopping buzz.  Now I'm feeling guilty about all the good years of shopping I've enjoyed at this church!  Welcome to the Dark Side of Resale!

Somebody leaving the sale told Keith about another church sale nearby that had lots of stuff, so we decided to hop over to that church, then hop back for the rest of the neighborhood sale around the church.  Yes, Mazda can hop.  Mazda's talents are limitless.

That sale turned out to be a bust--lots of stuff, but way overpriced.  They weren't open to bargaining either, since they were raising money to build a well in Africa.

On the way back to the other neighborhood, we detoured for a different neighborhood sale and ended up spending the day there.  The majority of what was in Mazda came from this neighborhood.  By the time we were through there, the van was full, so we called it a day.  Sometimes, serendipity is good for the soul.  And the inventory.

Most of you all called the green chairs in Mazda.  There were four of them.  They are heavy and quite sturdy.

I didn't realize that this pic of these cool MCM tables came out so badly until it was too late.  Somehow I didn't notice the chair legs flying across the front of the camera when I was taking the picture.  It was hot and I was sweaty. 

The tables are the round things.

We got the tables as part of a package deal with two small cabinets that were nothing special, but the price was right.  I didn't get pics of them.  I also didn't get the two directors chairs and the small book case I bought the funniest little woman.  When Keith walked up to the sale, she grabbed a mirror and shoved it in his face.  "You need to buy this mirror!"  I hope she wasn't trying to make a comment about his beard.

Coming up, I'll show the smalls.  Later in the week, the San Francisco finds.  Finally.  And the junk set out stuff.  And the San Francisco pics.  And some other stuff.  And the path to world peace and inner contentment.  Maybe.

REST OF THE WEEK UPDATE

This is booth week.  Most everything I'm working in is related to getting my booths back in order.  I'm planning in wrapping that up by Wednesday evening, so I can rest on Thursday.  We have tickets to see Todd Snider play Thursday night, so I want to take it easy that day.  Friday, I can see some thrifting happening.  This weekend is Louisville's big annual nerdfest the Derby City Comicon.  I got half price tickets through Groupon.  I'm pretty excited, as one of my favorite cartoonists is going to be a guest.

Of course, I'll be getting my shop on, but I'll be looking for stuff for me and the collection, instead of resale.  Still, if an unbelievable deal pops up...

SHOUT OUTS UPDATE

I forgot to mention that the wonderful Lorraine of Clamco celebrated her fifth blogiversary right before we went on our trip.  That's a lot of good reading!  She offers plenty of good information about re-selling along with entertaining stories about daily life.

Super blog friend Linda celebrated a milestone birthday last week!  Happy Belated Birthday wishes to her!  Woo hoo!

And the ever-awesome Shara recently celebrated her 24th wedding anniversary.

Big virtual hugs to everyone!

EMMYLOU HARRIS UPDATE

Last week, my most beloved and admired Emmylou Harris received what is considered to be the most prestigious music award in the world, Sweden's Polar Prize.  This award is considered the Nobel Prize of music.  Personally, I think this is entirely deserved.  There is simply no one else like her in music.  Watch her acceptance speech here to see what I mean.  One of the coolest things about the award ceremony is that First Aid Kit, an amazing duo from Sweden, got to perform their sublime song "Emmylou" for her.  Awesome.  There are lots of great clips from the ceremony available featuring a variety of artists performing Emmylou's music.  Well worth checking out.

In fact:

Can't think of a better note to sign off on.  Got to go load the van.

Stuff I Like

It has been a while since I did a "Linking Around" post here on the blog.  I need to rectify that, but don't have time right now.  Instead, here's a scaled down version, centering on three things that I like:  soap operas, comic books, and Emmylou Harris.  Consider this your "Eddie's gonna talk about soaps and/or comics" warning.

I'm pretty psyched to read that Emmylou's new project is a re-release of her seminal work, Wrecking Ball, with extra material, including a "making of" DVD.  While it's odd that they decided to do it this year, instead of waiting to do a 20th anniversary reissue next year, this is one to look out for.  Even this far down the line, it's impossible not to look on that album as a career-defining moment for her.  It rattled long-time fans' cages and set her loose on a new, introspective career path, where she's still mining gold.   It's a classic in every sense of the word.

I'm excited about the upcoming reissue.  She'll be doing some touring with Daniel Lanois, who produced Wrecking Ball,  but I don't know if it's going to come near here.

I hope this will help people think about more than this, when they hear the words "Wrecking Ball."  Not that there's anything wrong with Miley Cyrus' song.  It's a little overblown, but it's not a bad pop song.  The video isn't so much scandalous as it is cheesy and overly literal.  I do think this version is a hoot!  And this will be the last time I ever mention Emmylou Harris and Miley Cyrus in the same post.

The always awesome Roger Green (Check out his blog!) left me a link to a vote that chose Days of Our Lives as the greatest soap opera of all time.  It's really interesting, because it was done as a bracket, tournament-style.  The match-ups and outcomes are quite interesting.

While I totally appreciate the inclusion of the great soaps of the past, the outcome of those early rounds is not surprising.  Some of those shows have been off the air for decades.  While they'll always be fondly remembered, there are soap fans who have never even seen an episode of them.  I have been able to see at least one episode of most of them, thanks to YouTube.  My grandmother used to watch Edge of Night, and I saw a few eps with her.  I really got into Ryan's Hope when they were airing it on SoapNET.

The real surprise in the first round was ratings powerhouse The Young and the Restless (which has been the top Nielsen-rated soap for decades) losing to As the World Turns, which went off the air a few years ago.  I guess that cancellation still stings. ATWT is an old fave of mine.   It was the first soap I got into heavily.

All of the soaps that got axed most recently did well in the voting, it seems.  Three of the final four shows are not on the air any more.  All My Children defeating General Hospital makes sense, I suppose, even though GH is the only show left from ABC's once-venerable afternoon line-up (which included AMC).  It seems right that Erica Kane would defeat the juggernaut that is Luke and Laura.

I was really happy with the Final Four.  I was really getting into One Life to Live when it was cancelled.  I was never that much into AMC,  but Guiding Light was another one of my early soap faves.  (I was a CBS Daytime boy for ages!)

These days, though, my heart belongs to Days, although General Hospital  is just about unmissable for me.  In other words, I totally agree with the outcome and thank Roger for sharing the link with me.

Laying aside the not getting paid part, one of the nice things about having no work snow days was that I got to catch up on some comic book reading.  One of the things I read that I really enjoyed was the final Courtney Crumrin series, which I picked up out of the quarter boxes at Half-Price Books a few weeks ago.  I was unaware that creator Ted Naifeh had brought the Courtney franchise to a close.  It was one of my favorite series of the last decade.  I thought he wrapped everything for Courtney up quite nicely.

Courtney is the story of a misfit teen living in a snobbish, elitist community who discovers that she has inherited magical powers from her great-uncle.  Think Harry Potter, but sullen, withdrawn, and sarcastic.  She makes unbelievable mistakes along the way and hurts as many people as she helps.  She's actually about as anti-Potter as you can get.  She's also incredibly funny and has a charm all her own.

It was a real pleasure to read the finale to Courtney's story.  All of the various Courtney comics have been collected into book form, making the series easy to try out.  Also, the first issue of this last series is going to be part of the Free Comic Book Day giveaways this year!

There you go.  Three things I like!

Linking Around

This is a longer Linking Around post than usual.  I had the links gathered for a normal length one, but hadn't started writing it before I took my break.  I kept adding to it in the time since, so here it is in all its glory.  We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started.  Some of the comic links in this post come courtesy of the awesome Comics Reporter.

I'm behind on my Days commenting, so I didn't do my Day by Days yesterday.  I'll have to do an extended one of those soon.  However, here is a list of sexy Days wicked ladies, and (in the interest of equal time--AHEM!) a list of hunky henchmen to tide you over.

Speaking of Days, I was a little dismayed to see that they have released Chandler Massey, who plays Will, from his contract almost three months early.  Yes, he had said he was wanting to move on when it expired, but this seems odd to me, especially since the kid brought so much acting cred to the show with back-to-back Emmy wins.  I think the show is gambling on the fact that they tape so far ahead (Massey will actually air until the end of the year) that the fan furor will die down before the recast actually appears on the show.  I think they're wrong.  Honestly, I see some backtracking and an effort to get Massey back in a few months.  Charlie Sheen can't be wrong, can he?

On the one hand, the IRS moving forward to recognize same-sex couples is yet more progress on the gay marriage front.  On the other hand, it can create some other issues for couples like us who live in a state where same sex marriage is prohibited. 

Within the last few weeks, we lost a couple of really talented gentleman.  Cowboy Jack Clement helped shape the Nashville music scene for decades and is one of those forces that helped keep the kind of country music I like alive, leading to the birth of alt-country and Americana music.  Stan Lynde was an excellent cartoonist who drew the western strip Rick O'Shay for many years.  I used to get this magazine called Comics Revue in the early 90's which reprinted strips from many eras.  One of those included was Lynde's.  I was quite fond of his work.

Did you ever hear about the time some newspaper comic strip captions got switched by accident?

This guy is my new hero. 

This piece from the venerable Comics Journal is a great article about comics and the misconceptions of their value. It should be mandatory reading for junkers and resellers.  What I found most interesting was the assertion that lots of fans from my era are trying to get rid of the comics of their youth right now, creating a soft market.  I know I've found those issues in good shape in the 25 cents to a dollar range for quite some time now, without much trouble.  The real irony here is that thirty years ago I was finding them for that price in flea markets!

I unloaded a ton of that stuff several years ago and I'm glad I did now.  I took the X-men stuff (including the seminal and sought after Giant Size X-Men #1) to my comic shop and got over $350 and then sold a bunch of long boxes at a yard sale for $400.  I didn't know it then, but apparently timing was on my side.

Oh, Pooh!  Say it ain't so! 

I was really upset to learn from Roger that Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's.  We're talking one of my favorite artists from my youth and an incredible musical talent.  As I've said before, she's the reason I discovered the musical love of my life, Emmylou Harris.  I know there are treatment advances happening all the time, so I'm hoping for the best for her.

Look out, Miley Cyrus!

One of the first Golden Age comics I was ever able to buy was an issue of Fairy Tale Parade by Walt Kelly.  I came of age reading all kinds of Golden Age reprints, so I've always had a love for them.  The problem is that GA comics tend to be pretty pricey in the back issue market.  I was kind of tickled to not only find this one in an antique store in the town where I went to college, but to get it for a dollar.  (Really!)  This was just a few years after I graduated.  I had come back for homecoming and was wandering around town.  I found the comic on a shelf of books and the store owner didn't seem to know what it was, so he said "How about a buck?"    Needless to say, I took it.  Here's a sample of the kinds of stories Kelly (better known for the newspaper strip Pogo) did back then.  (Link courtesy of Comics Reporter)  His art is fluid and expressive and the story is sweet as can be.

Finally, ever wonder how the design for the push button phone came to be?

Linking Around

It's "Geek Week" on YouTube, so in honor of that I present this pretty awesome Nerdy Jokes video.  How many do you get?  I'm either pleased as punch or appalled that I got everyone of them, save two.  Nerditude confirmed. 

Turns out the most famous Mark Twain quote about Kentucky didn't come from Twain.  Doesn't matter.  It's still true.

Roger already did this one but it's too funny not to share:  George Takei on the aftermath of the DOMA decision.

Finally, links to a couple of collectors sites that I got from monkeybox.  I'm always interested in seeing what people collect.  Sadly, both these sites are defunct, but they've been left up for others to appreciate.  I didn't care for Collection a Day so much because it was so curated and staged.  It really felt artificial and contrived to me, because I didn't feel any of the passion of the real person that is supposedly collecting all these things.  She did get a book deal out of it, so what do I know?

Copycat Collector based her blog on the CaD site, featuring a part of her collections every day for a year.  This one I like a lot.  It just feels much more genuine.  Part of that is because she shares about her items, where they came from, why she likes them.  That is what collecting is about.  It doesn't matter what it is.  There's always a reason why someone collects it.  Divorced from that reason, a collection is just a pile of stuff, and who wants to look at that?

Linking Around

I kind of enjoyed doing a little link around post recently, so I thought I'd do another one.

Since I lost my own blogroll by accident a couple of years ago, I've been dragging my feet on recreating it.  The blog desperately needs a makeover, but it's hard enough to maintain the blogging momentum when it's just about writing posts.  Adding blog design into the mix just doesn't seem like it's going to happen any time soon.

I have been spending time exploring blogrolls on other blogs, however.  That's led me to a couple of similar-themed blogs, which I enjoy and think are worth checking out.  Gorillas Don't Blog (which is also my new favorite blog title) is dedicated to sharing vintage pictures of Disneyland and other amusements and attractions.  If you're a fan of vintage, Americana, Disney, or just cool pics, you should check it out.

I went to Disneyland in 1984, while I was working in Southern California.  Since that trip was before the "Disney Renaissance" of the late 80's and early 90's, I really ought to dig my own pics out and do some research.  I wonder if anything I saw or rode isn't there any more.  Geez!  That's almost 30 years ago.  That's an eternity in modern pop culture terms!

The other blog is also a Disney blog, but it focuses on Alice in Wonderland stuff.  I'm always nuts for character merchandise, so I love checking this one out. 

Sue at Vintage Rescue Squad did a really great post offering tips for sprucing your booth space when the sales have been dragging.  I should probably heed some of that advice.  Our heat wave this week sent my sales into the toilet!  Her advice about diluting your brand really got me to thinking.  I've got a rep as dude who never says no to anything free.  I get given a lot of stuff that other dealers are tired of looking at.  I do make money on it, but many of those pieces aren't "me" and what I've tried to build my space into.  I need to ponder this.  Thanks, Sue!

Ever wonder what religion your favorite comic characters are?  Probably not, but I had to check out a site that combined a couple of my interests.  It's quirky, for sure.

Real junkers fuss about all those "reality" TV shows about junking that create such a false impression that they make it really hard for us to make any money.  Here's a good article that gives more information about how storage auctions really work.

If this doesn't make you go "Awwww!" then you have no heart.  She looks a lot like Chiquito, surprisingly, except that he has a tail.  He makes a noise like that when he is feeling neglected.

Follow the history of same sex marriage laws with this interactive map.  Play it slow and read the captions.  There's still way more orange/red states than blue/green states (one of them is my own), which means that, DOMA decision notwithstanding, there's still a lot of work to do.  I'm going to have to leave my own state to get married.

Employment non-discrimination doesn't get near the play it deserves, since the marriage issue began breaking big in recent years.  We need a new, comprehensive, national strategy to bring it back into prominence.

Fans of retro graphics and vintage printing really should pay more attention to old comics.  You can find so many wonderful examples of both.  See this awesome post from Progressive Ruin for an example. 

Linking Around

I haven't done a link post in ages.  Not sure why that is, so I thought I would rectify that and do a post of a bunch of quick shots and links.

When I was a kid, I had a collection of pennants from states that we had visited in our travels.  For the life of me, I don't know whatever happened to it.  Luckily, Magpie Ethel knows where hers are.  Mine were in the style of the Texas and Oklahoma pennants in one of her pics.

Congratulations to Days of Our Lives for winning "Best Show" at the Daytime Emmys!  I guess I really do need to finish those Days posts I've been working on.

I thought this was funny.

You all know how I feel about cancer.  It's not so hot for other people either.  Please show Heidi and her family some love.  They need it.  I should warn you that this is a three hanky link.

Fear the thrift horrors!  God knows, you see a lot of this kind of stuff when you're junking.  An awful lot.  Heck, you sometimes see a lot of it in other booths in your vendor mall.  Flee!

Curious about what you can send via media mail?  Ignore their really poor understanding of comic books and graphic novels.  That link comes courtesy of the fine folks at Yard Sale Queen.

Speaking of thrifts (and I do have a long post about thrifting planned for next week), did you know you can get your junk on even when you're not on your home turf, thanks to ThriftShopper?  I've used it more than a few times and found it to be pretty accurate and helpful.

Roger writes about writing.  I've always admired him for his ability to turn out thoughtful posts day after day after day.  His thoughts about excuses people use not to write are interesting.  Wonder where chemo-induced fatigue and nausea come in on that list?

That was kind of fun.  I need to make a point of doing that again sometime!

A Whole Lotta Thinking Going On!

There's a lot of contemplating and philosophizing going on in the junking world these days.  It seems to have hit everyone at once.

Sue at VRS is pondering gateway drugs, those items that got us hooked into this weird second-hand world and kept pulling and propelling until we turned into...junkers!  Mine were old comic books, followed by holy cards and other religious items, leading on  up to my latest obsession, which is vintage Christmas stuff.

Over at My Vintage Soul, there's a little bit about that phenomenon most of us despise, but can't avoid, the dread estate sale line! (Plus, the eerie coincidences that crop up from time to time.)  I haven't had to deal with one so far this year, but that's partly because most things calling themselves "estate sales" around here so far have really been indoor yard sales with badly worded ads, which were easy to spot and avoid.  I haven't been out much so far this year at all, in fact.  Uninspiring listings + too much stock = One Picky Picky Eddie!  We did go out for the first time on Saturday--four sales, one small purchase.

Shara at Monkeybox is taking the more active approach, kind of a thrifting random acts of kindness thing.  Sort of putting thought into action, as it were.  She's nice like that.  I think that's why the junking/thrifting gods keep rewarding her with Shiny Brites.

Finally, Manic Thrift Store Shopper is thinking about (and lamenting) what happens when a whole, obviously treasured, collection ends up in a thrift.  It's got me to thinking about what's going to happen to my little stashes one day.  Hopefully, Keith, or my brother or whoever has to deal with it, will be smart enough to take the library to half-price books, the comics to a local shop to sell, and donates the saints to a Catholic thrift store.  If I still have a booth, they can work put a bulk deal with the management, and that takes care of it all!

Geez...that was morbid.  Maybe that's why I don't do my own "pondering" posts to often.  Everyone else is constructive.  I'm a downer!

Pondering, updates, and linkages

Just a bunch of sheer randomness.  Trying to get a bunch of stuff done right now, so I apologize for the extreme stream of consciousness ramble.  Onward!

Cold weather moved in with a vengeance last week.  Snow, ice, and wind.  I can deal with everything but the ice.  Everything has been slicked over like a skating rink.  The effect is beautiful when you're looking at blades of ice-encrusted glass poking up through the snow.  Not so much when your stuck in the middle of a damn sidewalk trying not to fall on your fat ass.

Seriously, it's like we're having January four weeks early.  What's up with that?  More is on the way for Xmas.

When the storm moved in, I had a one day sales dip, but it bounced right back.  I'm over 600 at the moment.  Not sure how much higher they'll go, as I'm expecting a slow down this week.  I'd like to clear four hundred this month, which would be my new record. 

I'm holding up on re-stocking right now, hoping that the last of the holiday stuff will ride out the month okay.  Otherwise, I'm shifting things around to fill holes on shelves.  Sometimes, all an item needs is a new location  in the booth to sell.

I'm planning on calling a moratorium on merch purchases at the end of the month, after I get through the post-Xmas clearance period.  I've got about 8 large Rubbermaid tubs of stuff stashed all over the house, which should give me enough to last the winter.

Early next month, I'm sweeping through, pulling some items, marking down a bunch more, making a clearance table and completely re-stocking with fresh stuff for the new year.  I'm ending 2010 on a roll, so I need to blow into 2011 with a bang.

I had a moment of panic a couple of days ago when I couldn't remember all Santa's reindeer.  I was forgetting Dasher.  Why does Santa have a reindeer named Vixen, by the way??

I've come to realize that I could watch the Powerpuff Girls Christmas Special, "Twas the Fight Before Christmas" over and over every year and not grow tired of it.  And I'm not ashamed to admit it either!

Enough of that, how about some links?

Queen of Fifty Cents has put a new video up.  This time it's all the pets she has met while out saling this year.

Why has this not been done? Link courtesy of VRS.

Well, I gotta scoot.  More later.

Updates and Linkages

No time for much right now, just a couple of notes:

My uncle and I cleaned out the storage unit where I was keeping Mom's stuff last week. We donated the clothes to a thrift store (of course!), then loaded the rest on his van. Now it's crammed into my backyard shed with all my stuff. I've been chipping away at it all weekend, getting it organized. My goal has always been to have the she turned into the place where I keep my booth merch. I've just been putting off getting it cleaned out and organized. Not any more! I've got to get Mom's stuff stashed until my brother can get up here and we can sort through it all, but I need to keep it out of the way of the rest of the crap in the shed. I'll be getting back to the mines in a bit.

With a little bit of rain and some cooler temps, the Louisville funk is subsiding a bit. We've still not had enough rain to make it all go away, though. We had a pretty severe drought this year, and those storm drains still need a real good washing out. But it's not as bad as it has been.

The booth is still struggling this month, and I cannot figure out why. After two bang up months, October has sucked royally. I just (finally) made the rent a couple of days ago. On the bright side, I have had at least one sale every day, but a lot of them have been pretty tiny. The past two days have been up to the level that they should, so I'll clear a little money this month, if the trend holds. Just wish I knew what the devil was going on.

My uncle said he's had slow sales at his place across the river this month as well. Maybe it's a Halloween curse of some sort? Or maybe such is the life of a junk dealer?

My Vintage Soul mourns the loss of a local landmark for secondhand shoppers.

Speaking of links and such, you may have noticed that my blogroll has gone missing. Fear not, it will return. Dummy me didn't realize I would lose it all when I started twiddling with new templates. The whole thing needs to be redone and updated, so it's probably a good thing it's gone for the moment. Several sites have changed addresses, while others--comics news sites, for instance--I never visit any more. My goal is to have a new look for the blog ready to roll for the beginning of the year.

Gotta run! Time to finish the dishes and head to the back yard again!

Couple more links and couple more musings

Queen of Fifty Cents has come up with a novel spin in the yard sale report back blog post. She turned it into a video! Now, there are lots of voiceover, blah blah, YouTube vids out there where people pan and scan their yard sale finds as they wax (sort of) eloquent about them. Queen Fifty has gone those shows several better with this fun montage of several weeks of finds arranged by price. Check it out.

I'm linking to her blog post rather than embedding the video in hopes that you'll also check the whole blog out. I just found her and it's pretty neat. In addition to the usual talk about her shopping adventures, she takes pics of the dogs at the houses where she stops. It's awfully sweet and worth scrolling down to see.

I'm really psyched that the Old 97's have a new release coming out. There's a sample mp3 here and a promo video here. Rhett Miller just gets sexier all the time! The song sounds great, so I'm plotting how I can scrape together enough for the CD. They're one of my favorite bands, so I'd really like to get this one.

Image from the Old 97s website.

Speaking of music, Emmylou Harris is putting the final touches on a new album, due out next year. Of course, I am beyond psyched about this one. I'll donate plasma to get the money for it if I have to. She talks about it a little here. I'm surprised after all this time that she's still having to defend Wrecking Ball. Besides being one of the most amazing albums of her career, it's hardly the left turn that so many folks seem to think it is. I find it impossible to listen to just about any of the albums that came before it and not hear germs of the seeds that led to WB. Her entire career led to that album at the moment. I think her last release, All I Intended To Be, was kind of the culmination of the phase of the journey that began with Wrecking Ball, so it will be interesting to see where the new one leads. I know I'll be along for the ride for s

Louisville stinks these days, literally. Especially in our 'hood and the downtown area. We've had so little rain lately that the drains haven't been cleaned out in a while and the urban area is taking on that open sewer smell as a result. It's really disgusting, but there's nothing one can do but hope for a good downpour.

I think this is going to be a good month for the booth, but it will be a long crawl to get to the end. Last month, nearly every day was at least a 20-dollar sale day, sometimes a lot more. It was the best month I've ever had. This month, I'm back to the up and down path I'm more used to--20 bucks one day and 3 the next. It's going to be a long road to the end of the month at this rate. I'm bracing for the long haul.

The double space across the aisle from me has opened up. I'm thinking of consolidating my two single spots into it. I'll need to talk to the manager next time I'm in there.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy days for yard sales. Two church sales, plus a block sale in the "cool" part of town. I'll be hopping for sure, on the hunt for merchandise and hopefully a treasure or two.

Linkages and musing

October is always a fun month in the blogosphere (Does anyone use that term any more?) as various bloggers start their spooky celebrations. I've got something planned for a little later, when I've got time to fire up the scanner, but here are a couple for your reading pleasure right now.

Bully is revealing the awful truth about Archie's hometown. And it's shocking. And apparently all the evidence has been staring everyone in the face for years, but no one ever put it together before. Leave it to the little stuffed bull to put it all together.

Meanwhile, at Postmodern Barney, Dorian has started his annual celebration of horror movies with a long-forgotten "gem" from the 80's and the early days of the video revolution.

On the yard sale front, Yard Sale Bloodbath shows us how Berkeley a yard sale can be. In case you're wondering, it's pretty Berkeley. That may not qualify as an October horror--unless you're a rabid tea-partier, that is--but it's certainly something to see. I'm kinda jealous I wasn't there.

October or any time of year, Thrift Shop Horrors is always the best stop for things that should not have been sold the first time, much less resold.

Continuing my Nanci Griffith kick of the past few days, here's a very nice overview of her career and its ups and downs, album by album. No vids this time, but I do have a couple set aside for a special occasion.

October has started off extremely slow for the booth. Last month I set a sales record; this month I've only broken five dollars in sales on two days, so far. It's going ot be a long, slow, up and down month, I fear. I'm taking another load of Halloween and fall-themed merch over today, including a couple of cute vintage straw cowboy hats. Hopefully, that will help. I may add some fall-colored decorations to the booth to make it stand out a bit.

Addenda and Updates and stuff

Thanks for your patience and forbearance with last week's "Yard Sale Week" extravaganza. I was looking on an old flash drive and found those pics. I had originally taken them to make a blog post about yard sale finds from several weekends. That was at least two years ago.

What is most interesting about them is that they all date from a time well before I ever thought about renting a booth. Okay, well, I was kind of thinking about it, but had not yet gotten to the point of taking any definite steps. In other words, I was out yard saling for fun and not profit.

The little globe things all came from the same house. There were a ton of them there and I bought them all. I think they were a buck a piece. They all used to hold water, like snow globes. You can see some left in one of the Mary globes. I remember this weekend really well because Keith and I were out on our bikes as a part of Worldwide Car Free Day. It's difficult to yard sale by bike, but not impossible! I've done it more than a few times since.

At one point, I was thinking about doing regular blog posts about my finds, hence the photos. I ultimately decided against it as being a little self-indulgent. Even the few such posts I've done recently really don't strike me as anything anyone would want to read, even from the point of view of the booth. I think instead, I'll stick with focusing on the most interesting/unique/fun items I find. So expect more of that in the future.

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Speaking of the booth, I'm well over 500 in gross sales this month, so every day is like a new record for me. I'd love to top 600, but we'll still have to wait and see on that. I'm cautiously optimistic. Another month or two like these past two and I'll start feeling like this is something I can consistently do and not just some sort of fluke. My new wild-eyed dream is to gross enough over 600 that I can take home 400 after the rent for the next month is deducted. We'll see. If nothing else, it's a new goal.

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Since I haven't been blogging for so long, it's been ages since I've done any kind of linking to anything in literally forever, so it's time to make up for that a little.

One of the women behind the always excellent Yard Sale Bloodbath went to Europe this summer and presented this report on what it's like to shop second-hand overseas. It's fun reading.

Meanwhile, at Yard Sale Queen, Her Majesty recently encountered some questionable decorating choices.

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I'm realizing that I need to overhaul my links and such, and maybe even my template. I'm adding that to my list of things to do over the next few weeks.

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Among other things I want to do:

A photo tour of the booth(s) these days
Something about what I look for when I go out merch-hunting
Something about camping
And (finally) some stuff about Mom's passing

It's actually been about three weeks, and I'm still keeping up with this thing. It's only taken five years, but I may have finally become a blogger.

And now that I've said that, this will turn out to be the last thing I post for six months. Just you watch. I have now tempted fate. And fate hates me.