Clovers In The Atmosphere

So after ridiculous mike, my cougar-trapping roommate moved out and took all the furniture, blue truck, the internet, and I have conspired to refurnish the place better than ever. this is exhausting as it all takes place during the hours after work. but the project is going well. particularly well given that instead of craigslist, the preferred sales site here is usedwinnipeg.ca (this is not nearly as sexually explicit as it sounds).

I purchased a barbecue given as a wedding present to a couple who met on the internet on september 11 after which she moved from the US to Winnipeg to marry the guy. I feel a little silly given the cultural associations of grill ownership and hollow false suburban masculinity, but it is a very nice grill and embarrassingly cheap. it is a shame I won't be able to take it back to canada.

my dining room table came from a older couple. neither man nor wife was taller than 5'2". It was very strange for me to be around them. they had just sold their cottage on lake winnipeg, and were moving the furniture out so thier house was chocked full of duplicate furniture. These tiny people bustling about thier overstuffed house made me feel like I had stumbled into a fairy tale.

My bed came from a mixed Argentine/canadian couple. The husband had finally prevailed and was moving the family back to his homeland. it was thier guest bed I was buying; therefore, they could part with it before they moved.

pots and pans are from value village. their stuff is solid, but they don't give it away. if you sift, you can get good quality used stuff for about the same price as low-quality wal-mart new stuff. I prefer it, but there is very little magic here. only solid buys.

My couch came from using the truck to move chintzy leather furniture into the house of a nigerian minister in my department. he was going to throw out his pink, plush loveseat, so I offered to take it.

my creamsicle-colored chest of drawers came from a yardsale as did the lamps, microwave, toaster, and plates. (6 yardsales in all. One of those sales also yielded unused hockey skates for $10 and a copy of 'appetite for destruction for $0.10'.

There is definite yardsale season here, like duck hunting or berry picking. it is localized temporally and very intense. you can tell a lot about people by what they sell and how they price it. there are those who simply want it gone (wholesale underpricers--the best kind). those who mistake their junk for something better (overpricers--run), those who are selling only used baby items (run), and people selling mostly nick-knacks (It is worth sifting through these sales in the hopes of finding a hipster treasure or something that is more valuable than the owners know, but don't expect much--low yield on effort).