Howdy folks... I've been listing on Craigs List, so I thought I'd drop by and see what everybody was up to. 

We list a few items a week on CL for the flea market, so that we can get out of town customers in... Not only from Dallas, but we've had people come in from Louisiana... It's good PR for the stores, and people like CL for some reason. 

Here's what's in my stall that is listed...

Well, I like to have funky things in my booth.  And elephants are really popular...

note... pic was added on December 9th, because I realized the craigs list link was now dead and I really really really hate posts that are talking about pics & links and things that aren't there anymore...

Black Friday

I don't take part in Black Friday. 

I find the whole concept appalling. 

Probably because of things like THIS.

Now, before I continue... this video is a Wal-mart riot depicting people risking life and limb for the right to spend $2 on a waffle iron.  And, to be quite blunt, most of the people in that video would do well to lay off the waffles... there aren't many that I'd exactly call slender.  But that's beside the point I suppose.

You see, I was raised to believe that Christmas was a celebration of the birth of Christ.  Unfortunately, it seems to have devolved into some sort of Capitalist Pig-out.  (Don't worry... I'm not going to go off on a Jesus is the Reason for the season rant.)

Now, I'll always admit that there was a certain desperation about gifts.  Especially for children.  But I don't recall anybody risking injury to get any gifts.  This year I have, through facebook, read stories and seen videos of people getting maced, trampled and even a few stories about gun-fire. 

Come on people.

So... I'm going to announce now... DON'T BUY ME ANY PRESENTS.  The mere thought of somebody risking serious bodily injury for the sake of purchasing somthing for me makes me cringe.

I don't want anything.  If you absolutely have to get me something, then make it, or bake cookies or something.  There are a few gifts that I have to give, and I'm making them. 

You see, when I was a youngster, I developed a case of mononucleosis.  This was back in the day when the treatment for mono demanded complete bed rest.  I think it was 6 weeks... but to a 8 year old it felt like half a life time.  As I lay there, perishing of sheer unadulterated boredom, my Grandmother took it upon herself to sit with me.  Consequently, I learned how to knit, crochet and tat.  My close friends are recieving hand made scarves.  I may send out a few cards.  That's gonna be about it.

Now, kids probably need something storebought.  Fortunately, I don't have any kids to buy for.  If you do, you have my pity.  But the rest of you people are full grown adults and if you're one of those people who have an internal calculator that keeps tally of the cost of every present you recieve... grow up or get the hell out of my house, because you're gonna be bitterly disapointed.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Howdy folks... and Happy Thanksgiving. 

Just a quick note before I head out... I'm on my way to a friends house to have a Thanksgiving lunch and then on my way to my nieces to have a Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm going to get really really fat today. 

But of course, it's difficult to get really really fat all at once, so I'm taking my own tupperware. 

Silent Auction Update

Howdy! 

First, I said I would update ya'all on the benefit where I provided a vase for the silent auction.  I dropped by event thinking I would have a couple of drinks, maybe bid on a few things... little did I know...

The organizer of the event saw me and said... "Good!  You're here!"  and set me to work... I spent most of the evening working the room selling raffle tickets.  I personally raised about 140 bucks before I had to leave to get sleep... it was a Thursday and I have to work on Friday morning.   So, being slightly obnoxious and having some PR experience does come in handy.

 Also featured at the event were a few of the local Drag Performers who were also working the room.  If you've never been to a drag show, generally the 'girls' get up, talk, fling some tude around, then lip sych a song while collecting tips from the crowd... on the night in question, all the tips went into a bucket and were donated to the cause. 

I don't know exactly how much my vase brought in... but the total for the event was $2040 towards the food pantry.  And the food pantry people are very good and ensuring that each and every dollar donated is stretched to the max.  They'll be repeating this event quarterly, and they've asked if I can help do some PR for it.  I have every intention of doing so...

Started work yesterday with a drive out job... here's the difference.  A direct job is when I pick something up here and deliver it 130 miles.  A drive out is when I drive 130 miles to pick up something and then drive it back... so, yesterday morning I drove to Wichita Falls to get something that was terribly important and bring it back. 

Now, as a courier, I don't always know exactly what's in those boxes.  There's very good reason for this... unless it's haz mat or dangerous, it really doesn't matter.  I get the box, I take it where it goes.  No big deal.  Also... there's security reasons... for instance, if I'm picking up a lockbox full of cash, jewelry, etc... and they're only paying me 25 bucks to deliver it... well... they'd just rather not let me know about it for some reason...  Eyeballs they'll tell me about, simply because there's very little chance a driver is going to disappear with them.  And I'm sure they like to watch some drivers turn green. 

So I ran up to Wichita Falls, get to the pick up and watched them pack the box.  Two cans of paint thinner.  Which prompts the response... "REALLY?"  I mean... are they honestly going to tell me there's no paint thinner in Dallas/ Fort Worth?  Did anybody think to check with the local Home Depot?  Lowes?  Wal-Mart for Christ's sake?  I mean, for the amount your paying me... I'd be perfectly willing to drop by any of those places, buy the blasted paint thinner and you can pay me back when I get there.

On the other hand... if you wanna pay me a decent sum of cash to drive your paint thinner all over the state of Texas, I guess I can do it... I've certainly done sillier things in my life. 

Regardless... I used enough gas that I had to call dispatch and arrange for an advance on the paycheck, since I used up my gas budget for the next two days... 

And as grateful as I am that I have a job... I soooooo want a new one...

Rainbows and Eyeballs...

Well, the title probably sounds far more interesting than it was when it happened... basically, I had a really bad day at work.  Only 4 deliveries all day... I'm used to doing a dozen.  True, they were good deliveries in that they paid well, but still, there weren't enough of them. 

As for the eyeballs... well, I delivered eyes today.  There's a vision lab here in the metroplex, if I said the name you'd probably all recognise it, but I'm not comfortable giving out client information... anyway, at various times I have had to deliver eyes to them.  Sometimes they're pig eyes from the abattoir where the pigs are butchered... I understand that they extract the corneas and prepare them for human implant.  Last week I delivered a box of 70 to them.  I have also picked up human eyes from the airport and ran them out there... It's not really as creepy as it sounds.  Well, maybe it is, but I'm just over it... anyway... today I went to the lab and picked up a few eyes to deliver to one of the local medical schools. 

I'm pretty sure they were swine again, as if you are shipping human parts there are usually haz mat certificates and such... Don't know why human eyes would be haz mat and pig eyes wouldn't, but then I've learned to just go with the flow and not worry about it too much...

So... as I'm driving down the road on what was really a dingy kind of day, with a box of disembodied eyeballs in the seat beside me, lo and behold, I see a rainbow in front of me... hence... eyeballs and rainbows. 

And in many ways... that seems to be how my life has been lately... kinda gorey and weird with strange rays of light shining through. 

I work very hard at being grateful.  I know I shouldn't gripe about my job when unemployment is reaching record numbers and yes I know I'm struggling financially, but here in my county of Texas, approximately 17% of the population is on food stamps... which is a record number.  And, according to the news tonight, a large group of the food stamp people are employed, but due to pay cuts and such, they just aren't able to make ends meet anymore.  It's depressing if I think about it too much. 

So I have a little sign I made to put on my dashboard that says simply... "Be Grateful"   The strange thing is... it works.  It keeps my mood up.  When I pull up to a delivery, I look at it, I am grateful, and I enjoy my customers more.  It seems to be changing my attitude.  I'm being a little more cheerful, and that makes the customers easier to deal with. 

Really, I'm just babbling along here. 

Don't know what my point is. 

So... no sooner was I ready to get a new blog started (for the flea market) than my computer developed scizophrenia and by the time that was figured out, I couldn't get on the internet... UGH...

Anyway, it seems to be all right now.  But six days without the internet is not something I wanna go through again. 

Regardless, I'm putting off the Flea Market blog for the moment.  There's a very good reason for this... I'm being actively recruited to manage another flea market... and there's another job offer too... things are starting to look up around here.  Not sure about anything yet though. 

Well, the flea market is talking to me about maybe starting a blog for them... It wouldn't be too extensive, probably a weekly post on what's new at the store, maybe pics of the Christmas parties and such... What y'all think? 

Just for clarification...

I apologised for the political rant because I just don't do them... It's been my experience that a Republican and a Democrat can argue all day every day for a solid week, and neither will ever change their mind about anything, despite logic, fisticuffs and tornadoes... (I know this because I've seen them do it, and I still don't know how that tornado was the democrats fault, but there's somebody out there who swears that's the case.)  So, in my opionion, political rants are pretty much useless.

Everybody is convinced they are correct and everybody else is wrong. We seem to come to our views as a result of our individual life experience. And that's OK.


When I made this blog it was about some of my things at the flea market. 

Then it segued  into cactus with the occasional gripe about whatever had crawled up my nose that day... or whatever I happened to see on the road when I was driving that I decided was interesting enough to talk about. 

I have, or rather had, an unwritten rule about talking about politics and religion in that these discussions are divisive and, for the reasons stated above, largely useless.  And the blogs I read about politics primarily seem to be some schmuck stringing together a few "facts" that are dubious at best to prove their point so they can say... "told you so, na na na na nah na"  Not all of them, but a large amount of them.  There's some good ones too...

But... I guess the political rant can come under the heading of whatever crawled up my nose that day, so I guess I can allow myself the occasional tantrum. 

One thing I do feel very strongly about, both by politics and religion, is that we are all here to help each other.  That's why, when I heard that they were having a silent auction to support the AIDS Outreach Nutrition Center, I grabbed this from the flea market stall and donated it...

It's Royal Haegar by Royal Hickman... (BTW... Royal Hickman was one of the designers for Haegar Pottery, and that's where the "Royal" in "Royal Haegar" pottery came from... it's basically a line of better pieces)  These vases were produced from 1938 to 1944 and the picture does not do the piece justice... There is no way a photograph can capture the colors... Actually, they've never been able to adequately reproduce Mr. Hickmans glazes.  Retail price for the vase is in the 100 dollar range, but no matter what it brings in the auction, it will go to feed men, women and children who are struggling.  Most of them are struggling because their medications, without which they'd die, cost about 1200 a month, and insurance companies are often discontinuing their coverage. 

I'll give an update on how much it brought it after the auction on November 17th.