Getting ready for a Garage Sale

I spent the past week sorting through things and with my family deciding on what to put in a garage sale.

Beside the usual things like baby clothes and unused kitchen items there is the usual kitsch that we seem to find our self with. You know those things we stand back and ask our self  "What were we thinking?" stuff that a lot of times are still in their packages. Total impulse buying.

How could we resist the bright shiny packages. What can I say but Sucker!.

One of the advantages of having limited mobility if that is an advantage. Is that it makes me think about what I buying.

Because I can't stand too long or walk too far at any one time, i reflect on what it is that I am buying to see if it is worth the trouble and pain.  Therefore a whole lot less window shopping and a lot less impulse buying,.

You would think that with this economy that we would see less impulse buying and more thought into our purchases. But, it doesn't appear so based on all of the info and commercials on TV and in magazines  urging us to buy the latest and greatest gizmo.

I have written elsewhere in this blog that it dawned on me that a lot of things I buy at my age is probably the last one I will buy in this life. The garage sale has made me realize more than ever that I don't want to leave behind a house full of junk, some still in packages, for my kids to have to contend with in the ultimate garage sale known as the estate sale.

Therefore I am promising myself that I will not buy on impulse again. That in the future my purchase will be based on need and utility. Not because of it's bright and shiny package.

Projects, Tools, and Google Sketchup

I had started to work up the drawings for the entertainment center/bookshelf, with pen and paper as usual, and realize that the scale and balance of the project would not work for a TV and have opted out of the ladder shelf. But the Woodcraft magazine came out with a Arts and Crafts style TV stand that I have to build.


Anyway I think I am going to give it a whirl instead.

For additional shelving I think I will incorporate into bookcases some of those design elements to use with the TV stand. Which leads me to my next comment.

Yesterday my youngest son Jim came over and walked me through Google Sketchup by showing me how to make component and then connect them together. H e did this with a simple bookcase. He makes it look so easy. But it remains to be seen if this old goat can wrap his mind around it. But I am diffidently going to give it a whirl.

What I thought was so neat was the opportunity to use Sketchup library of items to use for scale in compassion to what you are making. Putting a TV on a table or a 6 ft man standing beside a bookcase. It was really neat.

Between Jim setting up my desktop view of Sketchup and explaining how to make components I am hoping that it will lead to some interesting working drawings.

Reading and Movies

I ahve not as of yet completed "The Girl who Kicked Over the Hornet Nest" by Stieg Larsson.  The guy was totally into dialog which fills the book and slow down the reading. If it wasn't a matter of principal with me I would put the book away. But having read the first one on his series of three and knowing once you get past 2/3 of the book the last section is pretty good.

So as the Chief said in the movie "Josey Wales" I shall endeavor to perserver.

Last night my wife and I watched the DVD of "Jonah Hex". Surprising it was pretty good. Great bad guys and villains. taken from the graphic novel. But to really enjoy it suspend your common sense and just sit back and enjoy.



Enough for now.