Friday, February 15, 2008

Leave your crazy at home old man!


So, we're moving and that alone is stressful enough as anyone who has ever moved can attest.

An out of state move, beyond stressful.

Today was garage sale day. Let me just say upfront this is the first garage sale we have ever done. We were pretty unprepared to begin with, usually we do a good job of motivating each other but neither of us was looking forward to the garage sale and we both put it out of mind. Last night at 11:15 we realized we had not made or put up signs. We hunkered down and knocked out some signs then drove around the neighborhood at midnight taping them to light poles. We also realized we didn't have any change but figured we could get some in the morning when one of us went on what was sure to be one of many coffee runs, we are not early risers.

We woke up this morning at 5am to start setting up as planned but to our surprise (no we didn't check the forcast) it was pouring down rain. We figured people wouldn't be out in the cold and rain so we decided to watch the weather and hang out for a little while. At 5:55 am there is a knock on the door. To our surprise it was someone who wanted to know if we were having the garage sale. Apparently the empty driveway and dark house weren't enough of a clue. We explained that since we don't actually have a garage (1-car carport only) and it was pouring down rain we were holding off. He proceeded to grill Ben about what we had for sale. "Any hobby kits, remote control cars?" No & no!

A very strange occurence we thought but we had 2 or 3 more people show up and knock throughout the morning. While we couldn't understand what possessed people to come and knock on the door in the pouring rain they were mostly friendly when we explained we had held off due to the rain but would be going ahead tomorrow as planned. We got through the morning and most of the afternoon when...

At 3:00 it's still drizzling out and there is a knock on the door. Ben answers the door to find a cute little old man on the doorstep. Cute old man says gruffly "Are you having a sale today?"

I want to make clear that most of our signs said Fri & Sat 6am-11am (and who garage sales at three in the afternoon anyway?).

Ben politely replied "No, because of the rain we are done for the day but we will be having the sale again tomorrow." No need to tell the old man we didn't have the sale at all.

Little old man became visibly agitated and said to Ben, "If you're not having a sale, then take your signs down or I'll rip them down for you!"

WTF!? Ben's a little irritated at this point and says "Sir, if you have the time, by all means take the signs down but I want to point out that it's 3:00 in the afternoon."

Little old man's response? "Stores close at 5:00!" as he stomps off angrily down the driveway.

We all have our own different brand of crazy but I often wonder why people can't just leave their crazy at home. Shed it on your way out the door in order to function in normal society and put it back on when you get home. Take it out on the people who love you enough to deal with you, even though you're crazy.

We haven't yet gone out to see if he actually took the signs down. I think if he did, my vote is just to call off the garage sale completely.

Does anyone need any furniture, books, clothes or misc. crap?? Come to our garage sale tomorrow (but it's 6-11am only).

The joys of moving.

1 comment:

Guitar Ben said...

Thanks for not mentioning in your blog how I called the cute old guy a 'cranky old fart' as he stomped off down our drive. Not my proudest moment.

But technically I was still in my own home and so under no obligation to shed my crazy.