The Great Glebe Garage Sale, 2009 Version...

[fajrdrako]

Every year around this time: the Great Glebe Garage Sale. A huge number of households sell their... stuff. Kids sell lemonade and cookies. There are street singers and house musicians. Stores have sidewalk sales. Dog-owners are taken for walks, browsing, while tail-wagging pooches sniff.

Most years I wonder and buy treasures, and remark on the extreme ugliness of other people's unwanted lamps and souvenirs of Acapulco. Last year I couldn't wander because of my broken ankle, so I sat and sold my own stuff. This year... I had a wonderful time.

Prize for the ugliest item this year: A pink glass lamp with light bulbs in the interior, sha;ed like old running shoes.

Overheard conversations:

Man: Here's a book by Lois McMaster Bujold. I've heard of her.
Woman: Buy it! All her books are good. All of them.
Man: Doesn't she write the Miles, um...
Other friend: Yes, the Miles books.

As I was paying for my purchase (two Dick Francis novels and an Andre Norton for a friend) I asked the seller where he got all the books. He said he had a friend with an online bookstore who had donated them. Turns out it was a good cause - The Company of Fools, a local group who does Shakespeare in parks throughout the city in the summer. They are very, very good. They're doing my favourite Shakespeare comedy this summer: Much Ado About Nothing.

Wandering Third Avenue:



String Quartet on Fifth Avenue:



A Violinist on Third Avenue:



Crossing the schoolyard, to all the people selling on Fourth Avenue:



Browsing Third Avenue, with Yellow Balloons:



Other overheard snatches of conversation:

• Girl: I guarantee, I can vomit on demand any time. No problem. [I wondered how often she gets the request.]
  
  
• A father: Okay, I've sold you to this woman, Janey. You're a slave now.
  Janey (with great dignity): I don't want to be a slave.
  
  
• Man: So you wanted to be a superhero?
  Other man: Well, no, I, um... Yeah, a superhero.

Speaking of superheroes, someone was selling a really nice Spider-Man floor mat that I got to one minute too late - a man was buying it for his grandson. I hope the kid appreciates its beauty.

Altogether I think I spent about $30. My swag:

• A black computer keyboard with USB port connection.
  
• A lovely tiny porcelain vase with irises painted on it.
  
• A blue class cannister with airtight top for storing brown sugar. (I mean, that's my intended purpose for it: It could be used for other things. I have a fondness for blue glass.)
  
• Celtic-style earrings with a piral/triskelion design in silver and blue. Made me think of the Isle of Man.
  
• Winter-weight gloves (brown)
  
• A flower-pressing kit
  
• A pile of comics books in good condition: an issue of Transmetropolitan. an Iron Man miniseries by Joe Casey, Wolverine #32 by Mark Millar, and a DC miniseries which will be a birthday present for a friend. This is from a household on O'Connor street where, as far as I can sell, the comic books reader who lives there sells off whatever he's bought during the preceding year.
  
• A coffee mug with Egyptian design on the outside and an eye of Horus inside, with "Luxor Las Vegas" on the bottom.
  
• A queen-size duvet cover, green
  
• Six wooden napkin rings
  
• Two sets of four coasters, both very pretty
  
• Two heat resistant table mats showing Victorian etchings of "The Cathedral, Montreal" and "Fish Market, Toronto". (free items)
  
• CD: 1962 - Les Plus Belles Chansons Françaises
  
• A coffee machine
  
• A white teapot
  
• A handbag with an African motif - just like one Tasia owns, that I've admired for ages. She was with me when I bought it - carrying her own.
  
• A little purse with a Chinese design
  
• Books:
  • Fodor's Up Close: France
    
  • Medieval Women Writers, ed. by Katharina M. Wilson
    
  • Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner
    
  • The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (yes, I already have a copy)
    
  • The Women Troubadours by Meg Bogin
    
  • Fabliaux: Ribald Tales from the Old French by Robert Hellman and RIchard O'Gorman
    
  • Women Writers of the Middle Ages by Peter Dronke
    
  • The Women Troubadours by Meg Bogin
    
  • Grammaire Française by Jacqueline Ollivier
    
  • The Ultimate French Review and Practice by David M. Stillman. Yes, I have this one already, but two days ago maaseru asked me to get a copy for her. The only difference: this one isn't the edition with a CD. maaseru can have my edition with the CD.
    
  • A Canadian Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker
    
  • Words by Paul Dickson
    
  • The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles by Sheree Bykofsky
    
  • Good Bye to Guilt by Patricia Hopkins (this was free, like the one above)
    
  • Second Wind and Knock Down by Dick Francis (which I've read, but didn't own)
    
  • Prince of Ayodhya by Ashok K. Banker
    
  • Slim Wok Cookery by Ceil Dyer
    
  
  Now my feet are incredibly tired from wandering and browsing for several hours.