The Auction

ACK! Slept until almost two pm....and I didn't even work last night! Just got hit with that summer time heat wave type of laziness.

Yesterday, we went to Goliad, Tx to an old-time house auction. It was mostly equipment. They were auctioning off the life-time of a couple, the mister had died, don't know if missus was sent to a nursing home or merely was selling to move closer to kids. The place was beautiful. Huge beautifully maintained home, yard, outbuildings and probably about 100 acres of mature trees and hay fields. I heard that the place sold for 2 and 1/2 million dollars....I can't even fathom that much money!

 I suspect the mister was ex-military, in that every nut and bolt was pretty much categorized, and in a container with listings of what was in the container.... literally hundreds of small containers. Old coffee can's all painted gray with white lettering, neatly organized. HUGE workshop ...and I do mean HUGE, you could have put 4-6 gigantic tractors in there and still have room to work around then! There was also what looked to be a fairly new addition to the side that even had a pully system so a motor could be lifted out to work on. The entire thing looked pretty professional. I wish Dave could be so organized...we spend hours looking for stuff, just to find it where we over-looked it the first time!

In the house everything is prestine. One reason I think the missus is probably still alive is that there are no personal photo's or anything personal except some old clothing and shoes in the ladies closet. She was quite a sewer. There are finished stuffed animals and things here and there. Her sewing room, well it's about as organized as mine, with draws stuffed with odds and ends. There is no fabric stashes and no sewing machine. That tells me, as a seamstress and a hoarder of all things fabric, that the lady is alive and well and stuffing more animals for grandchildren somewhere.

The auctioneer was trying to whip up a buying frenzy, which was going quite well, seeing as it was over 100 degrees in the correlated steel workshop. People were paying new prices for old stuff....shop fans, ladders, you name it...this dude had two of everything, just in case the first one failed!

There was a little old lady there that was bent over with arthritis. She was leaning against a work-table and looked ready to collapse. She was just watching everything. I struck up a conversation. Within in 30 minutes I had pretty much her medical history, knew her daughter  could sew up anything without a pattern, her only son had died in a helicopter crash, she gave me a cookie receipe …..she was quite charming and lonely. I never saw one person come in to check on her....she was probably around 80 years old. My hubby was fetching some water from the cooler, he gave her a bottle and she was so surprised! I eventually had to wonder away, because the heat was getting to me...but she was still there even when we finally left. The only thing I bid on was a garden tractor wagon....that had an extended tongue welded on, perfect for me cleaning the yard! I felt like a winner though, because I got to meet someone and hear their story....it was really a great day.