All In and All Done

Last Saturday was the big estate auction.

My husband's cousins were liquidating their parents' household items.

It was a rather chilly and somewhat gray day, but lots of folks turned out.

Aunt Ginny had a lot of nice things, but this is what I was most interested in.

I did not have a nice set of china. In 2002, when James' daddy and Aunt Ginny had the estate sale for Grandma, I lost the bid on her rose china and have kicked myself since. However, I won the bid for Aunt Ginny's china.

Aunt Ginny collected a lot of antiques and had many nice things.

The auction went on until well after dark.

People stood around and sat around, waiting on specific items.

This is Alan, one of the cousins.

I saw many neighbors and friends.

I would have liked to have purchased one of these paintings, but I did not.

I imagine my house full of stuff would look like this if yanked outside.

That's Ken the auctioneer. People are bidding on that little blue glass basket.

Some things sold for thousands of dollars. Others, not so much.

 

One of the cousins' wives in the corner of this photo.

There was a lot of furniture to be sold, too.

The line of parked vehicles went for a very long way.

Aunt Nancy came in from Georgia just for the sale. She bought several things, including a quilt rack that her husband, Uncle Courtney, now deceased, had made for Aunt Ginny. I could understand why she would want that.

Another cousin, Ann Ashley, drove up from Raleigh.

My husband stayed for the entire auction, except for when he came home to eat dinner.

Aunt Nancy and my mother-in-law.

Another shot of all of the vehicles that were lining the driveway and the road.

In the end, we bought that set of china, a chainsaw, and a bucket of hammers. Aunt Ginny and Uncle Bill had nice things but we are trying to downsize, not add stuff. As it is I have nowhere to put this china, but I didn't really want to see it go out of the family. Plus I need to have something with which to entertain the President of the United States when SHE comes to tea.

If nothing else, maybe I will pass it along to one of the nephews one day. Or maybe I will buy a china cabinet and display it and enjoy it.

(Oh, and in case you have never been to an auction, "all in and all done" is what the auctioneer says when he is closing out a bid on an item.)

Thursday Thirteen #315

The other day a friend posted on Facebook that she was picking the last of her peppers, which led to a little tongue twisting amongst her sister and I, you know, with the "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?" sort of thing.

So I thought I'd see if I could come up with 13 tongue twisters for the modern age. I am making these up, so we'll see how I do.


1. Tom texted twice to Tim to tell Tammy to tattle on Tina.

2. Adam's ap on his Apple ate his AP article.

3. Carl's computer conked 'cause Kelly kicked the cord.

4. Shelly's cell called Shirley while Shelly sang in the shower.

5. Bo beat Barney's Xbox band by banging the bass better.

6. Obama orated outside only to outrage the orthodoxy.

7. Chris Christie crowed callously and called catcalls to critics.  

8. A pox on paper, posted Paul from his PC.

9. Fred's Facebook flap failed to find falsehoods in the fringe fellow's fallacies.

10. Tabitha's Twitter tweets trained toddlers to taste tomatoes.

11. Windows warped the witch's wand when water wet the wiring.

12. Gulliver googled "giggle" and gasped greatly given the gangly, ghostly engraving Google googled up.

13. Pete's printer printed pictures Picasso painted perfectly.


How'd I do? Did any of these tongue twisters twist your tongue? Can you think of any?



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 315th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Vultures

Little black specs in the air.

Flying, circling.

Do I need to check the cows? No, they are on the other side of the farm.

But this is the dance of the dead things.

The waltz of the meat eaters as they smell out the carrion.

A dead deer along the road, not hit by a car but shot, we find.

 

Left for the vultures to take what they may.

 

Leaving us to watch the specs in the sky.

This is Not A Fire

For a couple of days last week, during that time of the government shut-down, I saw plumes of what looked like smoke wafting through the sky from the direction of the cement plant. I took these shots on October 14 around 3:15 p.m.

At first I thought someone was burning brush, but if so it was an odd fire. The white clouds would rise and fall, rise and fall. After my husband and I drove down Catawba Road, we saw that the local industry appeared to be preparing a section of land for blasting. They even had a sign up that said "Caution: Blasting 10-17-2013 1 p.m. - 2 p.m." We thought that was a pretty good indicator of what they might be doing.

My better half surmised that the smoke was actually dust created by machines cutting into rocks. Some kind of rock drilling.

That made sense since the white stuff would magically die away come quitting time. A fire would have smoldered, wouldn't it?

I spent Thursday evening going over my furniture to rid my house of the fine gray film of dust that - along with extra hits on my asthma inhaler - often indicates to me that the local industry has been busy.

It's the reason we run two air purifiers in the house and my light bill is $100 a month higher than it should be.

I waited until Thursday to clean because that was the date on the blasting sign, and I hoped the dust would settle after that.

Dust to dust. Ashes to ashes. Who cares what goes on in between, right?

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

I Am Genuine and Sincere

From Sunday Stealing

My Random Randomness Meme, part 3

1) What room are you in?

A. The room we call my office, which is the front of the house. It originally was a bedroom.  It has two windows, parquet flooring, three clocks, my diplomas on the wall, and many books, tons of paper, and my computer.

2) Can you solve a rubix cube?

A. Yes.

3) Are you psychic in any way?

A. Yes. You know yes or no questions are boring, right? I knew you were going to nod your head!

4) What star sign are you?

A. Gemini. The Twins. An air sign, it's ruled by Mercury and is the sign of communicators. Gemini people are known for their wit, their ability to think, and attention to detail. Famous Gemini include Marilyn Monroe, Anne Frank, Andy Griffith, John F. Kennedy, Maeve Binchy, and many others.

5) What's your favorite color?

A. Blue. This link offers an interesting take on personality based on what liking the color blue means. It says I am genuine and sincere and I take my responsibilities seriously. That sounds about right.

6) What's your lucky number?

A. Eight (8).

7) Do you have any chores that should be done now?

A. There are always chores. If you life your life doing everything you should, then it would be boring and unfulfilled. Who wants to work when there are silly questions to answer?

8) Did you have a cherished childhood teddy bear or other toy?

A. I had Blue Dog. Blue Dog was, well, a blue dog.

9) What was the last thing you bought from a vending machine?

A. Probably a bottled water, since that is all I ever get from vending machines.

10) What shoe size are you?

A. A Women's size 7W, generally. But it depends on the shoe.

11) How many pairs of shoes do you own?

A. More than 10.

12) If you were prime minister/ruler of the world what laws would you make?

A. Those that would make the world more equitable, because I believe everyone deserves, not just a chance, but to have their basic needs met, such as food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, and education. I would create a baseline. I think there will always be poverty and always wealthy people, but I think the disparity between those two divisions needs to be less, not greater. There is simply no reason for some people to live in slums while a few live in magnificence. It's just wrong. It should be something like Okay and better than Okay, but never Terrible and Fantastic. And certainly it should never be 99 percent live in Terrible and 1 percent live in Fantastic. It should be something like 1 percent lives in Terrible, 98 percent live in Great, and 1 percent live in Fantastic. Or something like that. I wish it could be 100 percent live in Great but I don't think that will ever happen.

13) If you were a super hero what powers would you have?

A. Invisibility, keen intelligence, speed, strength, and stamina.

14) and what would your hero name be?

A. Librarian Lady.


15) and what outfit would you wear?

A. Black. Black shirt, black long pants, black boots. Black gloves, black mask around the eyes. No cape.

16) What was your last dream about?

A. I dreamed about my doctor. I saw her at an event and she asked me how I was, and I told her I was dying. She told me she wasn't going to let that happen, and gave me a hug. (To my knowledge I am not dying in reality.)

17) What would you do if you won the lottery?

A. While it depends on the amount, if it is a vast sum, I would do the following: first, I would set half of it aside to use for charitable purposes, some of which would include building a local library, establishing a scholarship at my alma mater, and setting up a foundation to help people in need. For personal use, I would buy some land, build a new house, buy a new car, pay off my nephews (in the plural) student loans, assist other family members as necessary, and things like that. Whatever was left would go back to the charitable purpose half.

18) Would you like to build/design your own house?

A. I already did that. If I did it again, I would change a few things. After you've lived in a house you figure out what works and what doesn't.

19) Which form of public transport do you prefer?

A. I drive a car. I have been on a plane occasionally, and never on a bus as an adult. I can't say that I prefer any public transportation.

21) Can you juggle?

A. I can juggle a lot of different tasks at one time, as I am fairly good at multi-tasking, but I cannot juggle in the sense of tossing many things up in the air and then catching them.

Wild Turkeys

Pumpkin Beauty

I shot these photos at Ikenberry Orchards earlier this week, using my Nikon Coolpix L22, a small camera I keep in the car. This is one of my favorite stops in Botetourt.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen websites I visited in a single day:

1. Weight Watchers. I'm an online member and since mid-June I have lost 22 pounds.

2. Mayo Clinic. I have a health problem.

3. Aol.com. I have an Aol email address that I've had for 20 years.

4. New York Times. Gotta have my news.

5. WDBJ 7 (local CBS affiliate). Gotta have the local news, too.

6. The Roanoke Times (local newspaper).

7. Medline Plus (which had a big red banner on it saying it might not be up-to-date because of the government shut down)

8. WebMD. More on that health problem.

9. Huffington Post. Keeping current, dontcha know.

10. Bing (I stopped using google as a search engine some time ago, all I get are ads and irrelevant phony sites)

11. Lots of blogs, including Diane Cayton Hakey, Word Trix, Looseleaf Notes, Around Roanoke, Peevish Pen, MsElaneous Rants, Shenandoah Gateway Farm, Sunnybrook Farm, and others. While I often comment, there are days when I just read and don't say much.  

12. Business Insider. I am not sure why, I was probably reading something about the government shut down.

13. Wikipedia. Because there is always more stuff to know.



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 314th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Game Camera Photos

I find it interesting the way photos taken with something like a game camera look. They have strange perspectives to them, and look "off" to me. I think it is the lack of a human behind the camera, though why that matters is beyond me. But they look otherworldly.

So far we haven't captured anything interesting this year, just does and a few small bucks. Nothing that makes you go "wow," anyway.

The Upcoming Auction

On Saturday, my husband's cousins will be having an auction of their parents' estate. Their house is adjacent to the farm, so this is a big deal for these here parts.

Both Uncle Bill and Aunt Jenny passed away in recent years, Bill in January and Aunt Jenny in 2011. They were fine people who welcomed me into the family so very long ago.

If you're local and you want a look at some of the stuff they are selling, you can find it here at this link.

Aunt Jenny collected antiques and I know there are some nice pieces that will be in the sale. I am planning to go, and I think Aunt Jenny's sister is visiting from out of town just for this auction.

I hope to be able to stay and bid on a few items, but that will depend on several factors. Those factors are the weather, how many people are smoking, and how I feel. How I feel can change depending on the first two items, too. If a lot of folks are smoking around me I will have to leave.

One of the interesting things about local auctions is seeing folks you don't see often. I enjoy that. Sometimes you see people you haven't seen in years.

Another thing about an auction is people-watching. I like to see how folks react to bids, winning or losing. For some it's a game, and they are die-hard players. It is really fun when the bidding gets intense over an item that unexpectedly sells for a great deal of money.

When James' father held an auction after Grandma F. died, we watched in amazement as an old frying pan created a bidding war. Unbeknownst to us, the pan was a rare Griswold cast iron frying pan. The dealers there knew it, though, and the bidding war began.

In the end, someone paid $800 for the frying pan. My husband and I stood there with our mouths open, looking at one another. Who knew? Obviously not us!

I also came across an old slide projector and slides that had family images on them. I rescued those for $1. Might there be a similar find in Saturday's sale?

So it is fun to see what might happen. You just never know what kind of gem someone might find at an auction.

Bear on the Farm

My nephew was bow hunting Saturday evening and found himself treed by a couple of bears.

A big bear came out and then later he saw two cubs. He took this photo of one of the cubs with his cell phone. He gave me permission to put it on my blog.

I was very jealous because I've been wanting to see a bear. I will have to settle for the photo  - for now. (He did not shoot the bears.)

Some Interesting Misadventures

From Sunday Stealing

My Random Randomness Meme, part 2


1. What was your first alcoholic drink?

A. I don't remember, probably a sip of my father's Jack Daniels. I know in high school I tended to favor Mad Dog 2020. We didn't have wine coolers and such back then.

2. What was your first job?

A. Babysitting. Taking care of the farm when my parents weren't home. And then I worked as a file clerk, all before I was 16.

3. What was your first car?

A. A Datsun. A wagon that was some kind of awful burnt orange color. I had me some interesting misadventures in that car, yes I did.

4. What was your first mobile phone?

A. A Nokia. All you could do was talk on it, too.

5. What is your first proper memory?

A. My mother fainting onto the floor in front of me.

6. Who was your first teacher?

A. The first real teacher I remember was Mrs. Zircle, my first grade teacher. She made me cry.

7. Which fictional character do you wish was real?

A. Intelligence Woman, who goes around saving stupid people from themselves.

8. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane?

A. Spain. Although I think we had a stopover in England, and I didn't get to see anything but the airport.

9. Who was your first best friend?

A. I had an imaginary friend named Jamie who was my first best friend. My first real best friend that I remember was Chris.

10. What was your first detention for?

A. Ha. I only had one detention and that was for skipping band class.

11. What's your strongest sense?

A. Smell. I can smell stuff no one else can, including snakes and mold.

12. Who was your first kiss?

A. Interestingly enough, his name was Jamie, too. And I married a James. I sense a theme.

13. What was the first film you remember seeing at the cinema?

A. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I was five years old.

14. What's the largest amount of money you've ever won?

A. Probably about $5 bucks. I'm not very lucky that way.

15. What's the largest amount of money you've spent in one spree?

A. Probably about $150. I'm very thrifty, and I don't count big purchases like refrigerators or computers as "sprees."

16. If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

A. Do Not Cross.

17. Have you ever got sweet revenge on anyone?

A. No, I can't say that I have.

18. Have you ever been to a live concert?

A. Yes. I've seen Loretta Lynn, Neil Diamond, Styz, Linda Rondstadt, Elton John, Conway Twitty, The Commodores, Juice Newton, Mannheim Steamroller, and probably a few others that I can't remember in concert. When I was a teenager, Lakeside Amusement Park (which no longer exists) used to have a summer concert series and they brought in a lot of big names or up-and-coming names. Me and my Datsun went to many of those concerts once I was old enough to drive.
 
19. Have you ever been to see stand up comedy?

A. Yes. I've seen Bill Cosby and Jeff Dunham.

20. Have you ever needed stitches?

A. Not for a deep cut, but I have needed them for surgery. I've got lines all over me.

Books: Lirael

Lirael
By Garth Nix
Copyright 2001
464 pages

This is the second book in the Abhorsen trilogy.

Lirael is raised by Clayr, which is a group of mostly women who have the ability to see the future. But Lirael never receives her "calling" and she is ashamed that she does not have the "sight."

Sam is the prince of the Old Kingdom, and he is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting. However, he doesn't want the job. He's kind of a schmuck, actually.

The reader follows these two characters and learns about them and the ways of the Old Kingdom, which is full of magic, good and bad. Necromancers practice bad magic, and it is the job of the Abhorsen to fix what the necromancers do, which is make the dead rise up and do their bidding.

I enjoyed this book up until the end, mostly because it just sort of ends and it obviously leads into the third book. I prefer my stories to be a little better rounded and to have an obvious and satisfying ending. This ends with a revelation about Lirael that I had figured out in the first pages, so perhaps that is why I did not find the ending quite satisfying and anti-climatic.

The book does end in an obvious place for a cut-off, though. I suppose the book had to end or it would have been a very fat book indeed.

I look forward to reading the third installment and seeing how things ultimately end.

Books: Chasing Fire

Chasing Fire
By Nora Roberts
Copyright 2011
Performed by Rebecca Lowman
15 hours


Rowan Tripp is a fire jumper. She leaps from planes into the mouth of a burning inferno and then, with her close-knit crew, she puts the fire out. She is tough and she doesn't fall in love.

But then the new crop of rookie jumpers come in, and she's drawn to Gulliver Curry. He's got fast feet and good talk and she breaks her own rules when it comes to him.

She also has nightmares because one of her buddies died in a fire the previous year, and she can't get him out of her mind.

Add in a mystery - who is the father of the fire base cook's baby - and even more mystery - who wants Rowan dead - and you have a pretty good story for the wife of a firefighter to listen to.

It's so good, in fact, that her fire-fighting husband will be listening to it next.

To be honest, I can't believe how good this story is. It is about as perfect a piece of work as I have read (or listened to) in quite a while. Nora Roberts uses lots of vivid imagery and great story telling to draw the reader in.

I guess now I am a Nora Roberts fan.