Going once, going twice.... TRASH!...

We've all decided one thing- it's way too friggin hot for a garage sale weekend! A few people trickled in, and some just did a drive-by but obviously didn't see what they were looking for. The guys made beer money for the weekend, and that was about it. It really surprised us... I remember in the 80's my parents had a garage sale. People were ringing our doorbell at 5am wanting to buy up all the furniture and large items, and by the end of the weekend had sold almost every little knick-knack we had. This time however, not even the neighbors' furniture sold! Draperies still in their unopened package didn't sell. Our motor scooter didn't sell! It was pityful.

Soooooo, us and the neighbors wound up trading stuff. We started cleaning up and we'd say "Hey do you want this _______" and they'd say "Here take this _____". Heck we should have just done that in the first place... taken all the crap from our attic and given it to them and they give us all their crap. An even swap, move it from one house to another. Then we wouldn't have sat out in the heat for 2 days...

The whole garage cleaning and sale reminded me of this children's poem by Shel Silverstein:

HECTOR THE COLLECTOR

Hector the Collector Collected bits of string,
Collected dolls with broken heads And rusty bells that would not ring.
Pieces out of picture puzzles, Bent-up nails and ice-cream sticks,
Twists of wires, worn-out tires, Paper bags and broken bricks.
Old chipped vases, half shoelaces,
Gatlin' guns that wouldn't shoot, Leaky boats that wouldn't float
And stopped-up horns that wouldn't toot.
Butter knives that had no handles, Copper keys that fit no locks,
Rings that were too small for fingers, Dried-up leaves and patched-up socks.
Worn-out belts that had no buckles, 'Lectric trains that had no tracks,
Airplane models, broken bottles, Three-legged chairs and cups with cracks.
Hector the Collector Loved these things with all his soul.
Loved them more than shining diamonds, Loved them more than glistenin' gold.
Hector called to all the people, "Come and share my treasure trunk!"
And all the silly sightless people Came and looked...and called it junk.

All the decent stuff that we didn't swap we have in a pile for the Kidney Foundation to come pick up... and the rest in the trash. I hate throwing away usable working items, but there's nothing else to do with them but contribute to the waste management piles of the world. Sad.