grandpa vermon

I have a grandpa Vern.  He looks nothing like this:

He lives in South Lake Tahoe, the previous owner ran the local brothels.  I guess the house attracts "characters."  Anyhoo this weekend he wanted to host a garage sale so I went up with my aunt and mom to help out.  If you saw the pictures I posted in March you may have started to understand that he has more junk than any other person on the planet (hopefully).  Here are some of my favorite pieces:

I sold the hats, $3 for 2 (he wanted $3 each or for me to take them myself) and the picture for $20 (he wanted $25) even better, I sold them to the same person. I hope they display them they same way I did.

 

This African CD stand we didn't sell until day 2 so he dropped the price from $20 to $12, another thing I wish I needed. 

But it wasn't all awe at finding amazing things, here are some other emotions I dealt with...

Bitterness:  My grandpa challenged my pricing one too many times.  Trust me -- there is no way he paid $10 for the tacky umbrella I sold for $1.  

Shock:  So a lot of the garage sale patrons were my grandpa's biggest fans.   He was selling his paintings for $100 and people were walking away bragging that they got an "original" and telling me how lucky I am to have such an amazing grandpa.  I kept thinking of The Emperor's New Clothes.   I could expand but either you understand the analogy or you don't.  Another shocking thing was that he made over $4,000.

Disgust:  The first night on the way in we met him, Ethel (his ex-girlfriend) and two of their friends for dinner at the Lakeside Inn.  I really don't like the Lakeside Inn, or the Smokeside Inn as my aunt likes to call it.  I don't every know what to order there, I think I need to start going with the prime rib special because that is what the old people get and the restaurant definitely caters to old people.  Instead I got what I thought was going to be seafood with a white wine sauce over linguine.  What came out was this flavorless soup with chunks of fish and a side of spaghetti.  It did not go over well with my stomach.  After dinner when we stood up to leave I realized that the lady that I was sitting across from was like 4 feet tall, I mean she stood up and was the same height as she was sitting down.

Awe:  This morning I walked down to the lake.  Some of the houses in his neighborhood are beyond massive and gorgeous.  But then I got to the lake and it is much more massive and much gorgeous than any 5 million dollar home.  A little perspective is good every once in a while.

 Now I will share 3 completely unrelated things:

1) Even though I've been back now for 9-months, my body has not adjusted to the climite.  Henceforth I have really bad dandruff, I feel like I have that gross cradle cap disease that my sister's kids get.

2) This week I am working full time.  8 to 5.  That means I have to leave before I usually wake up.

3) It is raining right now.  Very odd for September.  I head there were thunder storms yesterday, I missed out, I hope they come back, those are something I miss from my former life.