Yard Sale Score

It was a gorgeous day for a farm market run. It was in the mid-60s today, maybe a tad warm for this time of year but not too bad, breezy and sunny. It was warm enough that I just wore my Cape May heavy hooded sweatshirt while doing today's Farm Market/Yard Sale errand run and was perfectly fine.

I checked out some yard sales first. An indoor yard sale at Harding Avenue near the Oaklyn School was a bust, just knick-knacks, but I hit paydirt at a big two-family sale near the entrance to the park on East Bettlewood. I found a 16-inch Laugh-A-Lot Bear, a Winnie the Pooh Valentine's special...and an absolutely gorgeous antique roll-top desk for $10. I looked at it and debated it for several minutes. I don't usually buy large furniture from yard sales. I can't fit most pieces, and I obviously can't take them home on the bike. I just bought the bear and the video and moved on.

My next stop was the Collingswood Farm Market. It's in its last two weeks of operation for the year. The craft booths are starting to outnumber the food booths. This had its virtues. A wool-selling booth at the very end near the Perkins Center for the Arts displayed two adorable Llamas along with everything you can make from their wool. (I may buy the yarn I saw if they're there next week.) I got food, too - honey, Brussels sprouts, cranberries, spinach, carrots, apples, and plums, bananas, and the first grapefruit of the season from the wholesaler.

I rode around and looked for more yard sales in Collingswood for a while, but I couldn't get my mind off that cool desk. I finally decided to ride back to East Bettlewood and see if it was still there. It was. I talked to the owners; the man said he'd be more than happy to drive it over in about a half-hour. I gave him my 10 dollars and headed out.

Had enough time on my way home to check out something going on a few doors down. The Baptist Church on the end of Bettlewood near the Post Office was holding a small craft fair and bazaar. I didn't end up buying any crafts, but I did get a Cinnamon Strusel Muffin Top from their bake sale.

I got home just in time. The man was pulling up to the house even as I was. He carried the desk upstairs. After he left, I moved the old desk and pushed the new one into place. It's perfect. It's one of those old roll-top desks with cubbyholes that have a spot for everything. Mailing items, Sam's clothes patterns, and a folder that had once been in the old heart paper-holder now went in a drawer. My thesarus, Pocket Guide to Correct Grammar, and French dictionary went into cubbyholes, along with envelopes, index cards, the Zip drive, and my stapler. The Writer's Reference, dictionary, and box of stationary items went on top with my modem, a pile of stuffed animals, Maiden Curly Crown, and Sakura, the little Card Captors figure.

I just love this desk. It's by far my favorite yard sale find ever. It's just the right length and height for the apartment. It's even the right color. It's only a slightly darker shade of reddish-tan than the walls in most of the rooms. The roll-top even works, with no sticking. It has a few dings and scratches, and there's a small streak of what looks like white paint and at least one drink ring on top. The stuffed animals hide the ring and the paint. Like Lauren said when I told her about it tonight, the rest give it character.

I got the old computer desk from the Big Lots in North Cape May in 2003, shortly after it opened. I desperately needed a real computer desk that wasn't a bunch of crates and an old piece of heavy wood. It was kind of ugly, with a light ash-colored Formica top and wobbly, curved metal legs, but it was also only 45 dollars and the last computer desk Big Lots had that I could afford then. It had a lip under the desk for the detached keyboard; alas, that lip jammed early on and hasn't really been functional in at least five years.

The old desk had other problems, too. It didn't have nearly enough storage space for everything that went with the computer and in my desks in college. I found a huge, heavy wooden paper divider/drawer with heart-shaped cut outs on either end at a junk shop a block from me in Wildwood. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of that. It's too big to use in the living area and is no longer necessary in the bedroom, so I moved it to the back room. It's now used to store all the pamphlets and brochures I've picked up during my various travels.

There wasn't really anything I could do with the old desk, though. It wouldn't fit in the back room. I somehow managed to drag it down the steps and over to the curb. I taped a sign that said "Free - Take It!" to the top of the desk. We get a lot of scavengers around here, people who come from time to time with trucks or vans, looking for interesting junk left in scrap piles. They're welcome to it.

Spent the next hour or so editing the Bowery Boys NaNoWrite novel we're doing. We're about half-way through it - look for it by Thanksgiving!

I had enough time to have leftover chicken legs, Golden Beet Soup, and carrots for lunch and head to work without rushing. Perhaps due to the gorgeous day (and us being between holidays again), work was steady for most of the day but not crazy-busy. It won't get really busy until people start stocking up for Thanksgiving by the end of next week.