Garage Sale: $500 +

So. We had another garage sale. This is the second big one we've had (another one in between was mostly other people's items), so you may be wondering where we get all this stuff to sell. Well, it isn't easy dragging it all in from clearance sales, garage sales, estate sales, and the occasional flea market. But I have managed--can I help it if I have an eye for "the diamond in the rough"? Add to that, twenty years in the same house and three kids.  We had been collecting stuff from our house and attic for this garage sale for about a year, putting it all in unused rooms as we cleaned through other rooms. I'd say we had about two rooms full of stuff. I got rid of over half the clothes in my closet; some things I'd had since I was in college--no, wait--I kept that! ;) The closet is still full, but at least it is not stuffed. There are actually open spaces.

Anyway we made $450 off the garage sale itself. We sold a large armoire on Craigslist the week before for $125.00 (we had bought it several years ago on Craigslist for $200, and it was just too big for our space) and some antique chairs in poor condition from our earlier life for $25. We got about $60 cash from our hundreds of books sent to McKays Used Bookstore and another $50 or so in McKays cash. The books McKays doesn't buy get returned to you or dumped in the free bin outside the store. On my last trip to McKays I managed to bring back a partial box of books I decided I couldn't part with after all, along with another 6 or 7 from the free bin.

When our garage sale was all over and we were looking with dismay at the pretty much unadulterated junk still left, I remembered seeing offers on Craigslist to buy leftover garage sale stuff, so I posted what wasn't bought for $75.00. It sold immediately. I probably could have got twice that much. But we were thrilled we didn't have to load it all up in multiple trips and take it to Goodwill. The people who bought it seemed pretty thrilled as well. It took two full truck loads for them to cart it off to a town about an hour north of here. So that makes a total take of over $700.00.

The pictures you see are at the end of the garage sale, we were so busy hauling things out of the garage onto the driveway and dealing with a steady stream of customers, that I forgot to take a picture. But at the beginning there was so much stuff on the driveway, you could hardly maneuver. The tables in the garage were so loaded with boxes and things you couldn't even see it all until midway into the morning. I didn't expect to make much money because we didn't really have any big ticket items, just mostly junk: kitchen stuff, decorative items, rugs, pictures, games, puzzles, clothes, blankets, pillows, vases, Barbies (Barbies are not wanted much by the way, nor are Beanie Babies; we were lucky to sell a box of 10 Barbies and clothes for $8; our Beanie Babies are still in the attic ;)--the grandchildren will no doubt be thrilled with them?) etc, so I was thinking if we made $100 it would be worthwhile. We were so sick of seeing that junk in our house, we were considering just hauling it off to Goodwill without a sale.

What also helped is that we happened on a beautiful warm day in February, the 18th, and all the garage sale folks were pretty much in withdrawal and were needing a good West Knox garage sale fix.  There are very few garage sales in winter. I only advertised ours on Craigslist the night before at 10 p.m. and put a sign on the main street outside our subdivision. We had a steady stream of people starting at 7:30 a.m. One guy upon seeing all our hoard said he was going to call his wife to come over. (Several people told me that I took first prize for helpful directing signs to the sale.)

Who comes to garage sales? Well I'd say the first 10 people were men looking for tools, electronics and sporting things, or they were picking up stuff for their own second-hand shops I suppose; one guy came in and swooped up the "paint ball gun stuff" we had mentioned on the Craigslist ad for $20--no doubt a steal. But like I said, I just wanted it all GONE.  Then there were the older couples who garage sale for their Saturday entertainment; sometimes one or the other collects watches or vinyl records or dishes-- they don't buy much, just enjoy rummaging through junk and chatting. I can't take Russel with me to a garage sale because he always suggests that I get whatever I want (except please NOT large furniture items--which I am prone to want because they would fix up so cool!)--he doesn't understand that a mild hoarding tendency like mine can never be filled.

Jewelry is a big draw--people come looking for gold among the junk, and no doubt they find it from time to time. I'm pretty sure they found none at my sale, though I had several bags of jewelry. (Joyanna and Elizabeth had already gone through my jewelry and taken what interested them. They had a great time doing it, so I was happy. Joyanna loved some of the wild earrings I had bought for Mary; they were definitely not Mary's style, but very much Joyanna. Apparently I had been channeling Joyanna all those years I kept trying to convince Mary to wear the huge sparkly earrings I bought and loved.) Then there are the kids and their families that come to garage sales, a lot of Hispanic families. My neighbor with a hoarding problem came over and bought some clothes and dishes and wanted to buy the 30-year-old ratty rattan bookshelves, but her husband came over very kindly and told us that he was buying metal shelving for the new storage shed they just built; the rattan shelves just wouldn't hold up. A number of our friends in the neighborhood dropped by to say hi and buy an item or two. The last person to come was a slender blonde in 6 inch heels and a black dress. Russel and I were a bit dazed by her beauty as we stood there amidst our leftover junk looking like middle-aged homeless folk. She was a lawyer who lives in our neighborhood with her soon to be husband; she picked up a few wedding items.

So all and all we had a pretty good time. The truth is we could still probably have another small garage sale with more things from the attic and things hidden here and there. I read an article about hoarding that said it was hereditary and sometimes the tendencies don't show until middle or old age. I suppose there is some truth to that, but I'm not overly persuaded. On the other hand, sometimes I think everything about our personalities is inherited.

Book list part V

Book List part V

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougal. This is such an interesting book! Who knew there were really 100 mile runs! I didn’t! Now I would love to go to Leadville Colorado and see the race. Don’t think that’s because I’m interested in doing anything so crazy. No, if I can continue to make the 5 mile in Mantua, that will be a feat.  This is a definite must read if just to hear the sordid tale of Nike or was it Adida? As well as the evidence for barefoot running.

Since I got the book on Kindle I can’t flip back through and remind myself of the interesting facts. I don’t like electronic books, but when you have tons of books already living at your house, you begin to see the beauty in at least the idea of the Kindle. (We recently packed up about 200 more books to take in to McKays used book store.)

Anyway, since I don’t have the hard copy to peruse, here is a quote from Amazon:

An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?

Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run. 

A must read.

Letters: a compilation of letters from Leon Leishman Hall while serving in the military from 1942-1944, compiled by Stephanie Winzler. This was certainly an eye-opening, humorous, and revealing compilation. The quote:

So Dad, I guess you have the house started on by now, no doubt? Or is it the same old story? Oh just wait till we get this or that and we can’t do this just yet because of that . . . why the hell don’t you start so you could have something to work for, why worry about the financial part of building, it’s the principle of the thing that really counts. Or what other excuse have you now, or you haven’t by chance actually started construction have you? I didn’t think so. Beats Me?

So many stories we don’t know; so many stories people don’t tell--perhaps all for the better, perhaps not. I remember talking with Grandma Hall one day when I was at Aunt Verda’s house, Grandma told me how unhappy she had been being married to grandpa all those years and that she would have left him except for the children. It was a revelation to me, and one I could tell that Aunt Verda didn’t appreciate much. And while I’m sure everyone knew but me, it wasn’t until grandpa was dying and in the hospital that I found out he smoked (and drank coffee).

It was nice to read about Dad’s physical prowess in so many areas, which I knew, but I enjoyed reading his stats as did Mary--also nice that his abilities have continued down the generations.

Book list part IV

Book list part IV

Chi Running: A Revolutionary approach to effortless, injury-free running by Danny Dreyer. Okay, so I read this book thinking I would smoke all the runners in that dam race. Didn’t quite work out that way, but it was helpful in teaching me correct form. I didn’t find the inspirational chapters at the beginning that helpful, but I thought the chapters on form to be very good. And Chapter 3 with the four chi-skills was pretty good too. Basically if you don’t know what you’re supposed to look like when you run, this is a good book for you. And I certainly didn’t. Just fyi you should lean forward from the ankles but maintain straight posture.

“This changes your foot strike to the midfoot and allows your legs to extend as your feet leave the ground, radically reducing the amount of impact on your knees.”

Another invaluable piece of advice is about picking up your feet.

“Pushing off with your toes creates too much up-and-down motion and overworks your lower legs, a main cause of shin splints. Picking up your feet allows your body to run smoothly without bouncing. This will ensure that you’re moving horizontally forward toward your goal, instead of bouncing along like you’re on a pogo stick, fighting gravity with each step.

When you pick up your feet, you’ll avoid many common injuries, including shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and knee injuries.”

"Every movement in T’ai Chi is balanced by a movement in the opposite direction. The same holds true for ChiRunning. The principle of Balance says that if a part of your body is moving forward another part of your body must move to the read to balance it. Since your upper body is tilting forward, your lower body is responsible for the necessary counterbalance. Let your stride open up behind you, not in front of you."

Well I didn’t intend to quote all this, but as I looked over the book, I realized I needed to revisit my form. And I just got some ideas for my Dam Race inspirational missives!

Love Wins: A book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived by Rob Bell. This is a very controversial book in some circles. The first week it came out on Amazon there were over 300 reviews, now there are over 600. I pre ordered the book because I was so excited to get it. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s kind of like reading poetry, and like reading thoughts or ideas you had or questions you asked about life when you were much younger and didn’t know everything. But Bell revisits the questions and makes it all make sense, in a way. Obviously the things of God can never be made sense of in a clinical way. And so, as Bell would say, the long quote:

“I believe the discussion itself is divine. Abraham does his best to bargain with God, most of the book of Job consists of arguments by Job and his friends about the deepest questions of human suffering, God is practically on trial in the poems of Lamentations, and Jesus responds to almost every question he’s asked with . . . a question.

“What do you think? How do you read it?” he asks, again and again and again.

The ancient sages said the words of the sacred text were black letters on a white page—there’s all that white space, waiting to be filled with our responses and discussions and debates and opinions and longings and desires and wisdom and insights. We read the words, and then enter into the discussion that has been going on for thousands of years across cultures and continents.

My hope is that this frees you. There is no question that Jesus cannot handle, no discussion too volatile, no issue too dangerous. At the same time, some issues aren’t as big as people have made them. Much blood has been spilled in church splits, heresy trials, and raging debates over issues that are, in the end, not that essential. Sometimes what we are witnessing is simply a massive exercise in missing the point. Jesus frees us to call things what they are.

 . . .

If this book, then, does nothing more than introduce you to the ancient, ongoing discussion surrounding the resurrected Jesus in all its vibrant, diverse, messy multivoiced complexity—well, I’d be thrilled.”

So, anyway, this is a wonderful book. A book that sees with fresh eyes.

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church  by N. T. Wright. This is another fascinating book. But unlike Bell’s book--that you can just pick up and dive right in, this book takes a bit more struggling. Wright has written too many books and thought too many thoughts, which is great, but it does leave you thinking you will never really understand, and definitely never catch up. But that’s okay, and I definitely recommend this book. (N. T. Wright is one of the world’s top biblical scholars, a prolific author and the Bishop of Durham for the Church of England.) And so the quotes:

“First, what is the ultimate Christian hope? Second what hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present? And the main answer can be put like this. As long as we see Christian hope in terms of “going to heaven,” of salvation that is essentially away from this world, the two questions are bound to appear as unrelated.”

“From Plato to Hegel and beyond, some of the greatest philosophers declared that what you think about death, and life beyond it, is the key to thinking seriously about everything else.”

In the early chapters Wright does a review of hymns and poems to reveal that Christians don’t really know what they believe about life after death. Mostly they believe that heaven is “essentially away from this world.” In chapter three Wright covers 7 modifications of early Jewish belief made by the early Christians; these modifications give evidence of the literal resurrection since these changes in thought would not have occurred without some very real and startling occurrence. (Some scholars believe Christ’s divinity was made up hundreds of years later. Not so, says Wright, and he gives the 7 interesting variations to common Jewish thought of the era.) I don’t have time to cover these, except maybe the 7^th: “Nobody in Judaism had expected the Messiah to die, and therefore naturally nobody had imagined the Messiah rising from the dead.” Well, it’s hard to explain this, you’ll just have to read it.

However, I do want to move on to one point in Chapter 4 that I quite enjoyed. Wright points out “four strange features shared by the accounts in the four canonical gospels. These features, [Wright] suggests, compel us to take them seriously as very early accounts, not as often suggested, later inventions.”  These features are all interesting, but I will mention only the second:

“the presence of the women as the principal witnesses. Whether we like it or not, women were not regarded as credible witnesses in the ancient world. When the tradition had time to sort itself out and acquire the fixed form we already find in Paul’s quotation of it in I Corinthians 15, the women were quietly dropped; they were apologetically embarrassing. But there they are in all four gospel stories, front and center, the first witnesses, the first apostles. Nobody would have made them up.”

Ah Paul!  Anyway all four of the strange features are interesting. But you’ll have to read them for yourself! The whole book is excellent.


pics: Christmas dinner 2011; appetizers are put in shot glasses that have been partially filled with ranch dressing! Very cool. Mary taught us this from her gala events at Harvard.

2011 Book List part III

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. This is the second book by Hillenbrand; her first was the best seller Seabiscuit which I haven’t read (nor have I seen the movie) but plan to because she is such an amazingly interesting writer. Horse stories don’t particularly interest me, nor do World War II stories. The book is about Louis Zamperini, an “incorrigible delinquent . . a teenager who channeled his defiance into running, a brother who cared enough to save him, and his life as an airman on a doomed flight.” If you haven’t heard anything about Laura Hillenbrand, you should read her story about suffering from debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome while writing these books. Unbroken is a book probably everybody should read, if you can take it. (By the way Random House accepted her first book the first time she submitted it. Unlike the author of The Help who had to submit her book 62 times.)

I also read The Help by Kathryn Stockett. But by now everyone has at least seen the movie. I thought it was a pretty good book, aside from some scenes I’m sure some stupid editor suggested she stick in—and she was desperate to publish. I read this for a book club, and the woman who led the discussion, complete with her southern drawl from Alabama, said the book was a very accurate description of how she grew up.

Finding God Beyond Harvard by Kelly Monroe Kullberg, the editor of Finding God at Harvard. Kullberg wrote this book a number of years after she started the now-famous (in some circles) Veritas Forums throughout the country. She never set out to do such a thing, the forums just evolved through her activities while at Harvard. I like this book better than Finding God—perhaps because I never finished those essays, but also because it is her autobiography, not just a compilation of essays, good though they may be. Kullberg is a bit too conservative for my taste, though that didn’t come through too much, and I was amazed at how godless those Harvard folks are ;). I found her a very compelling individual and thought the story of her failed romance heartbreaking. What are some people thinking? The University of Tennessee is one of the schools that adopted the Veritas Forums, and we have had some quite interesting forums.

Peak Performance Principles for High Achievers by John R. Noe. I picked up this book in the throw-away bin outside McKays used book store. It’s one of the positive thinking kinda books with an endorsement from Og Mandino author of The Greatest Salesman in the World. It was short, and I pick up so many free books in the throw-away bin I thought I ought to at least read one. Noe uses his experiences in mountain climbing and running to build his advice for high achievers. I’d say if you are needing a little help setting goals and getting inspired, this would be a good read: “You don’t conquer fears by saying little clichés to yourself. You act. You take the first step toward your most immediate goal. In doing so, you make the crucial move from the position of fear into the arena of conflict.” Not a fantastically new idea, and in fact, that idea of acting without waiting for the perfect plan of attack, is one of the things I relearned in 2011. All in all he does a good job of re-inspiring you in whatever quest you have set before yourself.

Book List part II

Book List part II

When Helping Hurts: How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor and yourself by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert. I probably read this book in 2010, but who knows. I think I taught it in SS in 2011 plus I got to hear a seminar by one of the authors, Steve Corbett—an interesting and genuine guy. So basically I read it again. This is a definite recommend.

I found so much of this very very valuable that I will mostly just recommend it to you. I will mention the beauty of the asset based approach vs the needs based approach to solving poverty. Instead of going to a person or community and asking what is needed, you ask what are the assets here that can be developed. Really a key difference in empowering people or enabling. “What is right with you? What gifts has God given you that you can use to improve your life and that of your neighbors?” Also the authors take great pains to explain why Jesus came to earth, which gets quite confused in many conservative Christian’s minds. (Keep this asset approach in mind as you make New Year's resolutions.)

The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? The Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World by Richard Stearns. I can’t find my copy of the book, so I’ll just paste the blurb from Amazon. I will say reading Stern’s autobiography intertwined with the mission of World Vision was fascinating. Definitively recommend it. (This book has a similar philosophy to When Helping Hurts.) I wish I had the book to paste in some of my favorite quotes. When I find it, I will come back and edit! And now, from Amazon:

Stearns, the CEO of World Vision, says Christians have a huge hole in their lives, an emptiness that comes from ignoring the plight of the poor. He details his own quest to fill this hole by leaving Lenox Inc., where he was CEO, to run a not-for-profit that helps feed, clothe, and educate children worldwide. Unlike many evangelical Christians, Stearns believes poverty is explained by something more than choices, and lifting cultures from the systemic causes of poverty requires a multi-pronged approach. This accessible book will make it into the hands of evangelical Christians who may not pick up one of the many ABA books on issues of hunger, access to clean water, malaria and AIDS. Readers of Rick Warren, Jim Wallis and N.T. Wright will find Stearns synthesizing thoughts from them as well as from economists and missionaries. This is a passionate and motivating magnum opus from the leader of one of the most recognized aid organizations in the world. The book is a surprisingly no-holds-barred prophetic voice in the wilderness crying out to rich Americans, "Repent and help your world neighbors."

The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This is such an interesting book!! Definitely recommend it. Of course the part about athletes and January birthdays was particularly interesting to me because Russ and Mary have January birthdays and both got beaucoup scholarship offers. The gift and the drive have to be there—still the birthday is an interesting factor. But really the whole thing about where, when, and how people grow up, who becomes successful and who doesn’t is really really interesting. From Bill Gates to the Beatles and the 10,000 hours of practice, to the frightening crashes of Korean Air, it’s a fascinating book.

(Yes, I am aware that very very and really really are not good stylistic choices. And that the overuse of words like interesting and fascinating eventually have a net negative effect. USUALLY. (And that usually all caps is a no no).

Mountains Beyond Mountains and Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder. Since everyone who had any interest has already read Mountains Beyond Mountains, the book about Paul Farmer’s amazing life and mission, I will just say that Strength in What Remains (a beautiful title, and you realize how fitting it is at the end of the book) is the amazing journey of a young man from Burundi who miraculously survives the massacres and makes it to the underbelly of New York City; he miraculously survives that eye-opening experience as well. A must read! ;)

Reviewing all these great books, makes me want to read them all over again!

Book List Part III coming soon.


pics: Mantua in October

2011 Book List, part one

2011 Book List

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and the Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. I ordered all three of these books on Amazon at once—why? Because I had heard so much about them, and I thought the name of the first book was very cool. I read the first one and didn’t like it much, and didn’t plan on reading the others. Then, found myself with nothing to read (my stacks and stacks of books must have been covered with clothes) and so I started the second one--also, a good friend had read the books, and she seemed to think they were pretty good--plus I had spent all that money buying them! Turns out the second and third were pretty good. Still I would not recommend these books. Cool titles though. I have not seen the movie.

The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith. I got this in a garage sale for $1 and (again) I have friends who read these, so I gave it a shot. Some interesting writing, some interesting plot. But not enough to earn a recommendation from me.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Picked this up also at a garage sale. Saw it right after hearing an interview with, I think, Bill Clinton, who said he had read it several times and was currently rereading it. So I started it and realized I had read it years and years ago, but went ahead and read it again. An interesting tale about faith, listening, and the soul of the world. I would recommend it. Here are a few quotes.

All things are the manifestation of one thing only.

They were men who had dedicated their entire lives to the purification of metals in their laboratories; they believed that, if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the Soul of the World

I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things. I learned that many alchemists realized their Personal Legends, and wound up discovering the Soul of the World, the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Elixir of Life.

But, above all, I learned that these things are all so simple that they could be written on the surface of an emerald.

If I have to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other.

Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and wind up forgetting the Language of the World.

The Soul of the World can hear the screams of battle. No one fails to suffer the consequences of everything under the sun.

Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality by J. Philip Newell. I bought this book from Amazon—no, I don’t get all my books at garage sales. The title of the book is worth the price—so beautiful. (It was inspired by the picture of John laying his head against Jesus at the Last Supper.) This book is about, sort of, the conflict of philosophies between Pelagius and Augustine. (Augustine won the day obviously.) Pelagius was more of a spiritualist, whatever that is, believed that all God’s creations were worthy of our love. Even believed in teaching women how to read scripture—a shocking and sinful act!  Here’s a quote from Pelagius:

You will realize that doctrines are inventions of the human mind, as it tries to penetrate the mystery of God. You will realize that Scripture itself is the work of human minds, recording the example and teaching of Jesus. Thus it is not what you believe that matters; it is how you respond with your heart and your actions. It is not believing in Christ that matters; it is becoming like him.

I know, radical stuff. More quotes from the book:

Augustine believed that from conception and birth we lack the image of God until it is restored in the sacrament of baptism, and that conception involves us in the sinfulness of nature, sexual intercourse being associated with lustful desire. The perspective conveyed by Pelagius, on the other hand, is that to look into the face of a newborn is to look at the image of God; he maintained that creation is essentially good and that the sexual dimension of procreation is God-given. The emphasis that would increasingly be developed in the Celtic tradition was that in the birth of a child God is giving birth to his image on earth.

The church becomes liberator rather than custodian of salvation.

This is a wonderful book for meditation, and only 100 pages.

I will continue my book list tomorrow.