Jaci Dawn

I don’t know how I did it, but I missed the big McLoughlin Neighborhood yard sale event this year! I didn’t know it was happening this weekend and so never ventured down the hill to scope out savings. I found out – too late – when I took my nephew from Minnesota on a mini-historical (pronounced ‘hysterical”) tour of the town I live in. The tour took us right through the winding-down Sunday afternoon version of the yard sale event and Chrystal commented that we’d missed it.

Dang!

But all is not lost. There was this yard sale right around the corner from my house this weekend, and I did stop there even though it didn’t look real interesting from the street.

Oooh! I loved this wrought iron coat hanger! I fingered some Easter decorations, then abruptly changed my mind when I discovered they had the entire hard-bound collection of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The entire collection!

Gosh, I hope at least one of my grand children is an avid reader of books. Someone who loves to turn pages, feel the paper, smell the paper… In the meantime, I am already on Book #2.

I returned to the Easter decorations and settled on the egg collection. Some of these are made for an Easter Egg tree (my Grandmother Melrose always had an Easter Egg tree and it is a tradition I try to keep alive. Grandma loved the Lord, loved her church, and especially loved Easter). Some of these do not hang, but who cares? I love Easter, too.

I was happy with those three finds, but then I saw these:

I *love* Hallowe’en! I know, I know – that is not a Christian holiday, but it doesn’t matter to me. I love decorating, buying candy, dressing up: I’m a great big kid when it comes to the 31st of October. My immediate thought upon seeing these was: “How much?” followed by “They’re all wrong.”

One was $1.00 and the other two were #2.00 each. I have no idea why there was a price difference unless it was because the $1 item has a couple dents in the wood? But the $1.00 item also has a bat attached. I’m going to clean them up and give them a whole new paint job. No ghosts – only headstones with funny sayings on them.

Chrystal says I should make one of the cats into a squirrel just to mess with people’s minds.

There were a couple other Hallowe’en items I liked, but I didn’t like the price, so I loaded up my car. As I did so, one last item seemed to jump out at me.

Really!? A R.O.U.S. in a cage, guarded by a Vulture?? How absolutely perfect! As I walked away with my prize, the woman selling it said, “A little girl was here earlier and she cried when she saw it, it scared her so much.”

“But it’s a R.O.U.S.” I replied.

The husband said, “Inconceivable!”

If I have to explain that to you, you have not watched the world’s best cult film ever.

Princess Bride, silly!

I was sooooo excited about my booty, but decided to wait until today to post this. After all, I might return to that yard sale on Sunday (today) and buy more.

Like plastic cemetery fence and a strange snake/dragon walking staff!

What is not to love about this?

Okay, Okay, don’t tell me. It’s plastic, it’s hokey, it’s Hallowe’en, it’s scary. I’m still going to stick it in the ground with everything else when I decorate for Hallowe’en this year.

The Turkey Vulture was not for sale. It wasn’t even near the yard sale. It circled over our heads at Willamette Falls. But somehow, it fits into this macabre yard sale post.

I am jazzed for Hallowe’en this year!