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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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Garage sales, the same shit over and over again, old cameras, another maul, another old phone, these are all just tools - symbols, markers of my interior life; a phone: communication - through time and space; a camera: memory, records; the maul: history - sometimes mine; fountain pens: writing, expression, vanity; art supplies - the same; clocks, watches: time - the brevity of life; skulls, antlers, watches, trophies: memento-mori, vanity; music boxes: love, romance, ideals; puppets: expression, drama, the human condition, your own condition, made accessible to others; Rulers, Telescopes, Microscopes, Scientific Instruments: the attempts to order, understand, classify, measure; Postage Stamps: art, communication; Dolls: love; broken dolls: neglect - coin for mixed media, artworks; Candlesticks: history, illumination; fishing gear: sustenance, relaxation, ... I could go on endlessly.
But I've noticed, in the absence of possessions (everything being squirreled away in the locker) that I am again re-acquiring the same-old, same-old shit. I can't seem to leave it behind. OK, I'm acquiring it at prices that allow for a good margin of profit - always, it's never a "I have to have this..." situation, but it reinforces how much of my life is lived unconsciously, drawn towards the same ideas, expressions, much like breathing, smoking, drinking, it's it's own bad habit, a circular pattern of thought.
Some of it is cultural, there is only so much that can be acquired, understood, within our culture, for some other curiosities for my wonder-cabinet I'll need to source further afield, a field trip to do some Thames digging, or Bangkok - India -Nepal - for more varied religious kitsch, I'll need to top up the Paypal, acquire some bitcoins, ethereums, cryptocurrencies for my more outlandish tastes, but I seem to have fallen into a rather predictable pattern...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1638
3 Fentanyl deaths per week, or thereabouts, apparently it's good for the organ market. Once a month somebody disappears, falls into a creek, or jumps maybe, the media is sensitive to the families, speculation is confined to the few close friends. A plane crashes, car crash, there's an assault, a break-in, it's a small town, everybody knows the victim, the perpetrator, it's strange, this, more personal, rarely in Calgary did the news make a difference, seldom did it impact you, but here, it's all personal, if you didn't know them somebody you know did, you're only ever one degree of separation from the news...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1716
Up at 4:30, a misty morning on the lake, coffee, fidget, can't sleep, not in my bed anyways, not until the guests leave, so I mope about the house drinking coffee until it's time to go off garage saling.
A misty morning, countless spots to stop and take pictures - every morning the same, clouds wreathe the road, the road winds above them into the jeweled morning, then down again into the mist. First stop is Blewett - 7:00 AM, a collector. It takes me a few tries to find it, consulting the phone, and despite my being so early I still manage to arrive late. Classic farmyard full of antiques and collectibles, mostly car related - Studebaker, Model T, parts, a few other treasures:
A very antique typewriter, beyond repair or restoration, but cool looking in the morning light, I gave it a pass.
3 machine parts of some sort, or display for lightbulbs? I don't know, I'll use them as pencil holders. I'm drawn to anything that promises to make my life more orderly...a mere $1.50.
An old - 40's or 50's - bakelight rotary phone, excellent condition, he has a few, I pick it up for $25.00. I don't need another but it's impossible to leave it at this price, I can find it a home. The others - well, a dealer has beaten me to two, and I've shallow pockets at the moment, I leave them.
Onward, searching, next stop Robson - Garage Sales, 8:00 AM, I'll be late...
On the way, sidelined, another sign, garage sale, and here my next (and last) big find:
Native American Maul - hammer, some 7" or so high and weighing a ton (well, few pounds, distinctively heavy, Museum Quality, probably sculpted from meteoric iron...I should check that out.). Apparently gotten by the seller from a widow at Thrum, her husband had it, likely picked up locally. I prefer to find these things myself, but there are finds and there are finds, $25.00 for this, it's coming home with me.
From here the day is more or less done, find the Robson garage sale, nothing, then into Castlegar, few more, all bad, returning, Beasley, 2 fishing tackle boxes filled with lures, floats, sinkers & reels, both for $5.00, good - fishing equipment is abundant, you have your choice. Then through Nelson, quick coffee to go, few sales in town - none worth mentioning, and a couple of sales out of town, the latter of which gives me an old tripod for the cameras I bought and a CO2 canister for a paintball gun I bought a couple of weeks ago - next week, or the week after, it will be the paintballs, it's just a matter of time.
Home, or Homeless, more like, by noon, time to change and head to work...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1713
Having to pack up my shit, get out of the guest-house for a few days, there's visitors, my shit, my countless garage sale finds, they're everywhere...
I try to talk her out of it..."You don't want them to get too cozy or they'll want to stay on here...". She just laughs, she gets it, I've become rather transparently a pest, the uninvited guest who's stayed on just a bit too long, summer here will be busy, there will be lots of guests visiting, time to get a place. Damn. Well, not damn, it's time as well for me to start getting settled, almost 3 months already, and my interests will come along, for the moment I've gotten a little too comfortable in temporary housing, time now to pack up my shit and get going, find a place of my own, she's been more than generous and try as I might to summon up my mock indignation at being displaced I know I haven't got a leg to stand on...
"Free Man on the Land!!" I shout, I got this from an old roomate, he knew the rules..."I'm a free-man on the land!!!" but it's not working, I got 2 days, clean it all up, get out. Fuck.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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Starting in Nelson, church sale, I'm about 5 minutes late. Too late, as it would turn out:
A pair of beautiful antique candlesticks, early Georgian, but in somebody elses pile of stuff. Damn Damn Damn. I need another set of Candlesticks like I need a hole in the head, but it's not my nature to pass them by...
A good deal on a kitschy antique porcelain clock. I think it's a good deal, in any event my pockets weren't so deep, I left it.
"The Seven Storey Mountain", by Thomas Merton, I picked it up. 50 cents.
And a beautiful inlaid music box, made in Italy. I had to pick this up, I remember buying one for a girlfriend in the early 80's, cost a fortune, well over $100 when $100 was a proper sum of money, I'm not leaving it here...
With Key!!
***
From here, a couple of other garage sales, nothing of interest. Then the road home, there were a couple of people putting out signs on the drive in...
And this is where I score: A big barn, filled with miscellaneous rubbish, everything, a collector...
3 vintage cameras, excellent condition, with flash bulbs and a leather case for the Zeiss...
$5.00 each. Surprisingly they're not worth a lot more than that, but for aesthetics and mixed media possibilities they're priceless. After some internal debating I pick them up, there's lots more equipment, lenses and such, but I'm on the first tour of the room. I'm being followed, I don't know it, but walking round the barn - a Hamilton 8 Day instrumentation clock, pair of vintage snowshoes, pick up, admire, by the time I make my second pass they're gone...
And:
Uranium pressed glass swan. Under UV Light:
I'm glad I held on to the Cameras, and given that I'm 90 minutes or so late I wonder what I missed - I definitely chose my garage sales in the wrong order...
Excellent quality bikers wallet, with chain - perfect for waitering. I have similar in Calgary, better even, but the finding of them in the locker is it's own private Idaho...
Another bunch of sales in the trailer park by Balfour, nothing of interest.
***
Sunday, up, return to the sale - if the prices have dropped I'll clean up on the camera lenses - perfect for mixed media. Most of them are sold, but they've laid out a few new treasures for me:
Plumb bob and Camera lens, the only one remaining, they were too good to leave, somebody scooped me on my indecision. Fair enough.
Antique/Vintage #4 Redwing Pot. Great for plants...
Fly fishing rod. I'll be needing this.
And a chop-saw, $10, at another sale in Balfour, I tried to dicker them down, "Make us an offer" they said, but there's no reasonable offer you can make on a chop saw that isn't double or triple the price they were selling it at...
***
Monday, in town for happy hour, pop into a couple of thrift shops. And I find this:
A Pelikan Drafting set, perfect. Not a deal, market price, but a unique thing and I can't wait to try it out...
All in all, an excellent weekend's garage sales...