The Great Glebe Garage Sale

[fajrdrako]

The Great Glebe Garage Sale was yesterday. It happens every year at the end of May; the whole neighbourhood participates and the streets are crowded with people browsing and walking. Sausage vendors set up on the street corners and musicians find places to play - it's a fairground atmosphere, and I always love it. It's fun to browse people's old junk even when I'm not buying; I'm nosy that way. (Me and Kinsey Milhone.) When I find things I need but couldn't otherwise afford to buy, it's even better. I noticed that all the really good deals I found were found before 9.30 a.m. I browsed for at least another hour, and it was mostly junk.

But this is the one time of the year I get to hunt for what I need, a real shopping spree, and can afford what I found. I got the following:

• A laster printer. that's the exciting thing. I haven't hooked it up yet, though.


• A keyboard and mouse. My old keyboard was fine, but the letters were wearing off. This one has some differences which I will have to get used to. My mouse was fine, but one came with the keyboard.


• A casserole dish. Not white, like I hoped for, but an interesting crockery-bown colour. With a lid.


• some Batman and Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD comics from the 1980s.


• two cooking pans (one lid). Got one like this last year for $6, and wished I'd got more. These were $2.


• a round-topped folding table


• two padded chairs, suitable for using at my computer


• a Panasonic portable cassette player


• a Technics portable CD player


• a cordless telephone


• books:
  
  
  • Winterlands by Barbara Hambly
  
  
  • Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality by Matthew Fox. Now, I seldom by Christian books, not being Christian myself, but Meister Eckhart is a favourite of mine, as is Matthew Fox, for the same reasons
  
  
  • Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones. Good condition hardcover, too.
  
  
  • Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
  
  
  • a biography of William Marshall - now, this is amazing; nobody puts twelfth-century history books for sale in yard sales. It's a first! It's one I haven't read, either. I've read the Old French original L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale, and I've read the rather poor Stephen Painter bio from the 1960s, but this was new to me.
  
  
  • Dancing With Dragons by D.J. Conway. It looks hokey but I like the concept of dragon-magic

Everything I've tested so far works fine, though of course the laser printer is the significant factor. It was the expensive item - it cost $25.00, and if it works I don't have to agonize over saving $200-300 to get one from Staples, as I was planning. I figure it's worth the gamble. It has a half-used toner cartridge in it, too. lmondegreen and josanpq got laser printers and were very happy with their capacity for printing out stories. I am happy enough with my Lexmark printer/scanner, which does colour too, but the ink is to expensive to replace at about $40 per cartridge - and they don't last long. I want to print out fanfic.

My full cost for everything was about $60.

I noticed that within a block of my apartment building, three different places had a copy of The Piano Man's Daughter by Timothy Findlay for sale. This made me chuckle - the book that everyone bought, but no one wanted to keep? I chuckled again when this morning I saw an ad for a TV adaptation of the book coming up next week. My only familiarity with Timothy Findlay's writing is his play The Stillborn Lover, which we did a few years ago at the Ottawa Little Theatre. It was good, and it's the only instance I know of where we have ever had a naked man on our stage.

Comments

[widget-alley.livejournal.com]

I've read the Old French original L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale...

You pwn the world. Twice.

(Smallville tomorrow. Whee.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wish I could get my hands on L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale, or find it online. Last time I tried to get it from Interlibrary Loan they made me read it in the library, and there was no way I could read all 19,000 lines (let alone make more notes on it) under the given circumstances. I can read Anglo-Norman well enough, but I can't read it quickly.

Gad, how I love that book. The only other copy I know of is in King's College, London.

[widget-alley.livejournal.com]

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::sound of jaw hitting floor::

Will you adopt me?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I would be happy to adopt you. Are you planning to bribe me with a copy of the book? As far as I know it has never been reprinted since the Paris edition in 1884 or whatever it was. This seems wrong to me. Where are people's priorities?

[widget-alley.livejournal.com]

That is wrong. I may not be able to bribe you with a copy, persay, but I can get on WorldCat and see where else it is.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Good thought! There must be other copies. Maybe many other copies. (Dare I hope?)

[blackbyrde.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's some good shopping. :) I never have the patience to look through garage sales. My in-laws were pros at it. Some of the kitchen stuff we still have is from garage sales and given to hubby for university.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I find that most garage sales don't offer enough to be worth the effort, but the GGGS is on such a large scale that it's a lot of fun. This may just be the side-effect of always having to do it on foot. Most of what I bought, I bought within a block or so of my apartment.