Garage Sale Weekend

Lyndsey assured me that it was time to start getting rid of some of the extra junk we have been accumulating and moving around with us. For example three window AC units that we brought out from Texas. We are in San Diego, by the beach, we do not need the those any more. Plus we had allot of extra junk we have collected from our stores and offices over the past 8 years.

We decided to ask our front neighbor if we could have the sale in his yard because we live in an alley house. We knew that we would get more traffic if we were on a street. He was fine with that so we got an early start. Lyndsey had everything ready to go at around 6:30 am. This is important because you get allot of your migrant shoppers first thing in the morning. At around 8 am you start to get some neighbor shoppers then around 10 am you start to get some younger family shoppers. We wrapped up the event at around noon, and afterward continued on with the rest our Saturday chores ie. going to the beach and relaxing.

Overall it was a success as we got to unload some of our junk to our neighbors around our community and south of the border. It was pretty funny to us that we actually got a couple of complaints from our patrons. People would actually complain about what you had and didn't have to sale to them. It reminded us of an old quote that we read in a retail book about people called "Why We Buy" by Paco Underhill. It said that 1 out of 5 people are natural complainers. They will complain about everything, even when there is no reason to complain. The book went on to say that if you are not getting one out of five patrons complaining about your prices then your prices are to low. In retail that is good to know, during a garage sale you just have to laugh quietly to yourself . Having worked in the service industry for a number of years I can agree with this statement. Spoiled kids grow into spoiled adolescents that grow into spoiled adults. I remember seeing grown men in their 30's act like un-diciplined 5 year olds for no other reason then to get their way. This reminds me of the truth found in an Hebrew Proverb, "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child." Our Garage Sale complainers were not so bad, just a couple of old dudes in cars so full of junk that you couldn't tell where the vehicle ended and the junk began. They informed Lyndsey that this was a girly garage sell, one even called it a foo foo sell. They probably felt that way because of all the old books and jewelry she was selling and lack of tools and hardware I was holding onto. She told them AC units were pretty manly and so were our old
computer cords and accessories. I think that they were taken away by her determination because she actually managed to sell something to both of them.

Captains Log :2: First Voyage

Yesterday was the day we moved our boat to its new home. It was still at Driscoll Boat yard and we needed to sail it out of Mission bay, around Point Loma, and into it's slip at Marina Cortez in San Diego Harbor. Everything worked fine, which was quite a relief.

The red line plots the course of our first voyage together as a family. We left the dock in Mission Bay around 9am and got to our new slip around 2pm. The winds were a light SE 10k wind. Which made for smooth sailing. The sky was overcast with a coastal Eddie till around 12pm. The total voyage took around 5 hours. It was just Lyndsey and I and we had a very nice time.

This is a view from the ocean of the beach town we live in, Ocean Beach. That is OB Pier and Point Loma in the back ground. Notice the seals on the buoy. This is pretty common. I like to think of them as the marina guardians, but most probably think of them as the harbor scavengers. If you leave a boat sitting to long by itself in the harbor. They might take it over.

This is a view of the Pinnacle, where Cabrillo National Monument and the Light House are on Point Loma.

And this is where the boats new home is at slip H49 in Marna Cortez.

OB Parrots

So we live by an airport, and planes fly by. You actually get use to it, the loud sound of the planes and all. You just learn to stop your conversations, or turn up the volume on your ipod and wait for it to pass. We have another loud shrieking sound that we hear as well, but this is not from a plane or a man made 747. These screeches come from what the locals call the OB Parrots.

Rumor has it many years ago someone released five parrot's into the wild. Well, years went by and they advanced their kind, now there is well over 100 of them. They, like many other creatures have made Ocean Beach San Diego their home.

They are pretty birds, with distinct green and red feathers, but most people can't stand them. That is when they post up on the telephone wires outside your house at 6:30 AM and like a military regiment call start screeching away at full boar. I personally get a kick out of it because I am already up and running or working, but I get the feeling that most of the laid back neighbors may not.

They always travel in pairs or groups. This guy and his gal were hitting up the sunflowers early.