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Garage Sales 2010 - Week 8
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2096
They are every where.
Dozens of pages in Kijiji and on Craigslist. The Calgary Herald even has a few, in between the hundreds of spam ads posted by ShopLocal (Their website has been flooded with spam for over a year, and is next to useless. Clicking on an ad brings you to a screen that tells you how often it's been viewed, but no expanded details. Now you could imagine the site being broken for a couple of days, a week even, but this has been broken for over a year.).
(Above: Screenshot of the Calgary Herald's idea of a Garage Sale. I wish I were making this up.)
So I pick a neighborhood, Wildwood, North of Bow Trail between 37 St and Sarcee Trail. There's a parade there, over 80 in one neighborhood, it's close, only a single bus away.
The weather, it rains a bit and then clears up. The garage sales, they're there, but there's a dearth of treasures. A couple of Wii games for the girl, a few X-Box 360 games for the boy, and that's pretty much it. By 11:00 in the morning I've walked 5 miles, visited perhaps half the sales and filled only a single small bag.
And then the bus home, time to get ready for work. Not a total bust, but nothing exciting or worth writing about.
On the way home, dozens of other garage sales. This was the big day of the year, and I look sadly at the signs all pointing to the better sales that I missed, the sales where there were vintage Rolexes, 5 for a dollar, vintage jewelry, rare books, antiques, none of which I discovered today.
I need a car. Garage sale season, to all intents and purposes, is pretty much done this year, but next year I'd better have a car.
Package #2
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1980
Predictable, really, that they're all arriving the same week.
This one, from Belgium, small enough to fit in an envelope...I thought I must be mistaken, but, no, it was exactly what was ordered.
What was I thinking?
But small enough that they won't take up a lot of room, already in the printing trays above the bookshelf.
Bloop
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1563
A very loud, low frequency sound detected in the oceans on multiple occasions. It's audio profile supposedly resembles that of a living creature, however due to the intensity, duration and frequency it would have to be much, much larger than any known animals that exist in the ocean.
Further Reading: Wiki on the Bloop.
Package #1
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2413
Day off (call and confirmed), been busy the last couple days and so it was a little in doubt...
A large list of errands that included thrift shops, picking up a Wii and some accessories for my daughter's 9th birthday (the grotesque spoiling of children by the absent parent, most single parents can relate...), then a quick peruse of the transit map of Calgary and a bus up to collect my package from eBay.
Now it's perfect, I don't want to open it, perfectly wrapped, small, lightweight, and after I pick it up and get it home I put it on the desk without opening it. All the way from Tibet, although the postmarks all read China.
I have to open it, I've had messages from the vendor on eBay, he wants to know if I've received it, he wants his feedback...
But I nap, briefly, first, a pleasant medley of dreams interrupted finally by a call from 403-310-2255. Unknown number. More on that later.
Unpack the thrift shop finds, a Beanie for the daughter as well, she already has it, but bought it full price for $10, mine was a dollar and so I bought it to illustrate the financial benefits of recycling, a copy of the 1970's version of the "Lord of the Rings" on DVD for a colleague at work, other small trifles.
Then I open it. I'd leave it in the package for a week or two yet, were it up to me, but I have to inspect it for damage, leave feedback.
It's perfect, exactly as described, better even, for the price a bargain and I want to message the seller now and order a dozen more (if he can round them up at the price I won it at...). I've found a small spot on a wall and hung it up - it's perfect.
I'd take a picture so you could see, but it's better you take my word. It's perfect.
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