Why didn’t you write a blog today?

Ella asked me this on Monday, and my reply was that I didn’t have anything to write about. Oh, I can write about almost anything, but I have a hard time putting pen to paper, figuratively, when I don’t think it’s germane to the spirit of this column and/or at least moderately interesting to all three of my loyal readers.

To help alleviate my writer’s block, so to speak, Ella suggested a couple of interesting weekend topics that might make good reading, so here goes.

We attended a book sale/flea market on Saturday, and I got five boxes of good sellable books.  While I perused the stacks of books, Ella swept into the flea market area looking for quality stuff.  An annoying volunteer was keeping up a running narration on a loud speaker, and mentioned that several of the Star Wars items from the flea market had already been snatched up.  I figured it had to be Ella in possession of the Force-related items, and I was right.  Good girl.

After that sale, we attended another fall-festival type event, and I had my first ever professional massage that lasted a whole seven minutes.  A massage therapist, complete with chair and table, was among the vendors, and was offering her services for $1 per minute.  Since my fall in August, I have been suffering from self-diagnosed sciatica (a royal pain in my butt that extends down my left leg to my ankle), and I was already hurting from bending and stooping at the book sale.

Somehow, though, she convinced me to hop up on the table, and she proceeded to perform a compression massage on my back and leg.  Despite believing that her healing hands would put me in the hospital, and being somewhat embarrassed that she was working me over in full view of everyone else at the festival, some of whom made comments as they walked by, it didn’t hurt (much), and actually felt pretty good.  When I finally stood up, the pain in my leg was gone.  I gladly paid her the $7, complimented her on her technique, and walked around, without limping, for the rest of the festival.

Unfortunately, when I got back in the truck, and sat on an apparent pressure point, the pain returned.  Oh, well, back to popping Ibuprofen.

The other topic that Ella suggested was mentioning our brushes with wildlife after the auction on Saturday night.  On the way home, we saw a fox cross the street onto our land.  We’ve seen deer, squirrels, turtles, chipmunks, and snakes, but this was the first fox.   We left the boxes acquired at the auction in the truck until yesterday, when Ella decided to unload them.  Late in the morning, I received a frantic call from her regarding a small rodent in one of the boxes.   She wasn’t going to touch any more of the boxes until I came home and eliminated the pest.  So, on my lunch hour, I went home only to find no mouse in the box.  I suppose the little guy is now snake food in our woods.

Since it’s Wednesday, I guess it’s time to start thinking about the weekend.  Two large sales are on the calendar for Saturday, with one starting at 7 a.m., and one starting at 8 a.m.  I figure we can spend 30 minutes at the first sale, which will give us just enough time to drive to the other one.  The 8 a.m. sale has a preview party, with barbecue dinner, on Friday night, but I have a hard time paying $25 each for the privilege of shopping early, even with the lure of pulled pork.

I would talk about sales, but I don’t like talking about non-existent things.

I will throw out one BOLO, though.  I sold a book, Magnificent Marriage: 10 Beacons Show the Way to Marriage Happiness, for $41 in August.  I just received a message from the customer asking for another copy.  There are only two copies on Amazon right now, and both are selling for $600.  Over on Alibris, the cheapest copy is $95.  Ebay has it for $99.  So, if you see it, grab it.

Have a great rest of the week, and a productive weekend.