The War on Drugs Clock.

We took it a bit more leisurely this morning and didn't arrive in Davis till a little past 8. The early birds weren't as early, and it wasn't as confusing as yesterday. However, I never managed to get all the clothing out this time. We sold the newest VCR. One of the neighbors took two turntables home to see if either worked, and bought one. The mailman had taken a turntable yesterday and it turned out to work, and he was thrilled.

Rich was not pleased with one of the early people who wanted the ham stuff, but who tried to walk off with a lot more for the one price. I made a silly mistake... we had about 10 locks all with the same keys, all together. I knew this, but yet I sold two of them with the keys. I got the right price, but that was all the keys, and so the other 8 locks were just metal recycling. Stupid, because I knew this.

The first people there lost some sunglasses. Since no one else was there, I was pretty sure her Raybans hadn't been stolen, but she was really suspicious, thinking we'd taken them ourselves, I think. After a good 20-minute panic, she went into the car, and found her glasses.

One of the neighbors, who had known Gerhard from Sac State, came to help today. She was great to talk to. She's having some trouble with bad supervisors at work, but listening to her talk about that, and about her ex-husband, my main impression is you don't want to piss this woman off! She says she thinks of herself as mild-mannered, easy to get along with, and I was thinking right, you're very Sept. 10th till you have your personal 9/11. She has inventive ways of getting even.

She's also a good salesperson. She would point things out, come up with ideas, and get people really excited about some awful junk. Not that the goldfish bowl one girl got was junk, but I had no idea it had all this potential! This gal was neat...she'd started out in the morning with $20 and gone garage saling. She'd gotten a beautiful black dress, some knickknacks and a small table, and a lamp, maybe. Anyway, she was about tapped out, but she was thrilled with the goldfish bowl!

A man came with his little boy, who was toddling around. I gave Anthony a watch we'd found, without its battery, which was in the free box. Meanwhile, Rich was dealing with a small foreign girl who really liked the trampoline, and whose parents didn't have $5 for it. She asked if we'd take $4, and she got it for that. Someone wanted just the bike panniers, so we sold them for $6. And the Gerhard surprise of the day was a doozy. I was handed a box and asked Rich if he'd priced it... it was a brand new (or only slightly used, still in the box, with the instructions) Minox B Camera. They'd found it in one room, I guess after the furniture guy moved out the desk. Again, I suspect my friend came by and played a little trick on us. We've promised it to his friend in Reno if the guy finds the Tree.

A guy came and bought the radio and wanted to see if the microwave worked. Now, it had popped and snapped the first time I tried it months ago, when I was cleaning wax out of a couple of dishes, but then it had settled down. I kept pushing buttons, and it wouldn't go and wouldn't go. Finally I realized the door wasn't shut tight. Idiot. So then I started it, and yes it worked. The guy was happy to take it.

Some BBS friends came by, and one of them bought one of the suits. They also took a lot of the olde computer stuff, the floppy disks, and some of the games and other things. They got the Star Trek plate, too.

By 3 o'clock it was pretty well bought out. The people missed some good things. There's a spy mirror that lets you peer around corners, that I want, now, as well as the Hallowe'en spider. But most of the good stuff went. Our next step is to have a thrift shop check what's left. There's one who sent a letter, I guess from the newspaper ad, and the SPCA shop in town.

Back at the house, the guy who bought the PDP8 rack back in the fall came to fetch it from our house and left me a nifty little candle log for my patience.

Then we had a party at the Zoo for its 75th birthday. They gave out nifty pins, and unfortunately, I may have lost mine. Sulk. Barbeque and a good meal, including Sloughhouse corn. (During the week, after we were through with our S. corn, we had KFC and their corn was just awful. Insipid.) The tiger was drinking at the pond. The cerval was being really cute. The jaguar was also having a drink. We watched some of the kid's show, which was cute. Then we went to the new thick-billed parrot habitat and listened to the curator, who is the head of the thick-billed parrot program in the U.S. Sacramento is looking for roadrunners to put into the exhibit with the eight parrots. (There is room for more, and since Sacramento Zoo has had 50-something babies in last 23 years, there will be more.)

Back home, and collapsing in exhaustion.

This is one of the other reasons I don't plan to go to JournalCon. (Besides it being too soon after ConJose, and the mess they (some of the same people) are making of ConJose.) I link some more stories on my blog.

AlQaeda's Fantasies.

Finally, fudge to the West Nile Virus. Seven people have died... one was 76, one 94. At that age, almost anything will kill you. Meningitis kills more. Let's not panic, people.