Paving Paradise

What an absolutely gorgeous day – it's 70 outside, sunny, and a light breeze blowing. The daffodils are blooming, and we saw our first blossoming forsythia yesterday. The tulip tree just outside our building is fully budded. We were happy that yesterday's weather was pretty close to what we have today....it warmed up more than predicted. We had a few clouds, but no threat of rain. It was a pretty good day for our auction.

Neither of us ever had an auction before, so we really didn't know what to expect. We were surprised to head to the house half an hour before start time and see quite a few cars lining the street. It was a little hard for me to watch the house sell. Other than the farmhouse I grew up in, this house had been the only place I've lived that I could call home – not only in how it felt, but also in ownership. But, it did sell – more than likely it's going to be torn down and made into a parking lot. Which is why I can't get Joni Mitchell's “Big Yellow Taxi” out of my head..........you know the song......”they paved paradise and put in a parking lot”!

We didn't think we had a lot of stuff to sell, until we saw it spread out across the lawn (both front and back), in the driveway and through the carport. There were also appliances, area rugs and the piano in the house. And in a testament to our auctioneer, everything sold except the sofa. It was sitting in a sad shape on three legs. Hubby and I hadn't been able to carry it to the trash pick-up, so it was still in the living room. We didn't care, we would have been much more surprised if someone had bought it.

When the sale ended, people carrying their prizes to their vehicles reminded me of watching a hill of ants working. Pickups backed up as close as they could get on both sides of the auction trailer. As I watched the stuff being carted off, I did a double take and started laughing. Mom asked me what was funny and I told her – hubby and I had forgot to run back to the house last week and put the rest of our trash out........and the auctioneer had sold it!

My laughing was caused by seeing someone carry off a small totes container that I had kept under the bed.....and it was full of the old shoes I intended to throw out with the container. Someone bought the two rusty TV trays, we saw the old hula hoop (that the grandkids never use) go out. And some unsuspecting person bought our trash cans with the last of our trash in them! I think most of the cans were empty, but there was one that probably looked like a treasure trove of “stuff” with a straw hat and a couple of other items on top. Little did they know they would find an actual bag of trash in the bottom.

My cousin was there and bought an old wash tub for her niece, who collects them. When I realized what she had, I told her there was a second one in the back yard and she might as well take it as well. So she left through the back yard, pulled up the partially sunk washtub that I had planted flowers in, and took it for her niece. Who knew you could find a two-for-the-price-of-one sale at an auction.

When the auction was over, we finished signing all the papers on the house. We gathered up Mom and went to Dari Maid to relax and refresh. It was nice to just sit there and chat for awhile. And now it's almost done. In one month the title search will be over and we'll exchange our keys for a check.

And with that, another chapter begins in the book of our life.