Sunday, March 1, 2009

When it rains... it pours.

It is kind of a joke amongst the Hill family that something can't be simple... it just can't... it ends up going to the point of being laughable at the end.

THURSDAY:
This weekend a yard sale for us has been planned and we were going to have it Friday and Saturday. We started setting up and organizing on Thursday.. my mom took the day off and her and me and the boys were outside organizing and it was going good. J took his lunch break to run to McDonald's (G's totally fav place to eat) to get us all lunch.

The we heard a crash and a scream from D we have never heard before.

Well, we have a Gorilla ladder. If you have one, you know it is heavy as hell.

Apparently, D decided it was a good idea to pull it down off the wall, BUT not to let go. His hand was crushed underneath it. When I looked at his hand the middle knuckle was already bruised and swollen and the middle finger looked stiff and deformed. I couldn't tell if the deformity was from swelling (yea, it swelled up that fast) or from a broken finger.

We ended up talking to the pedi who said "don't bring him here.. we need xrays".. so off to the hospital J and D went... left at 12 to return after 5... but we won't go into that.

While the boys were at the hospital and me and mom was working with the stuff for the next two days, the answering service called and they want to show the house... from 4-5... Garage sale is ending at 3. It will be fine.. show the house.

Thank God the xrays looked great.. he was just swollen really bad. And by the time they got home tons of the swelling had gone down. Now it just looks like a black finger.


Mom and I finished up organizing and went to bed... 5am comes early.

Thunderstorms rolled in before we went to bed.. Great.


Friday:
Rain stopped about 6am so that is when me and mom started putting the stuff out.

Traffic was pretty steady all day til about noon... about then is when I got J to get the boys and both dogs out and to mom's house so I can clean and let my mom deal with the garage sale stuff. We figured putting stuff in the garage around 3 would give plenty of time for us to be gone by 4. When traffic was slow, mom would come in and help pick up while I scrubbed...

About 3 mom started putting things away outside...

A customer came right then... lets called her BBR for Big Booty Reseller. (you know, those people who talk you down so they can gather stuff to resell it.)
She kept my mom running until 3:45 with this and that and just "OMG LEAVE ALREADY".

When she left my mom did great and by 3:55 had everything in the garage...

The another customer came... they had their eye on only one item thank goodness but was taking time trying to get my mother down on price...

At 3:56 I yelled out the door "Every needs to be off these premises in 4 minutes.. including us."

I took a quick look at gmail before putting up the laptop and boom.. and email..

"they are doing the virtual tour of your house on Saturday between 12-1."
DAMMIT.

They got the hint and bought their item and left.. my mom walked in the house at 3:58...
We didn't get out of the house until 4:12. (Oops).

We went to moms, got a shower, played with the kids... and convinced J, the boys, my dad and the dogs that it would prolly be best for everyone to stay at my parents until after the virtual tour tomorrow...
They agreed, we ate dinner.. and mom and I went back to my house to sleep.

Right before we fell asleep, thunderstorms rolled in. Double great.


SATURDAY:
It had quit raining by 6 so mom and I set everything up.. it was little slower this time around because 1) we were a little sorer, and 2) it was a lot colder.
But it got done...
A few customers came.
We started getting hungry, so before I went to McDonald's for breakfast, I put up more signs around the neighborhood and all the main entrances to our neighborhood, because the previous ones had gotten good and soaked from the past rain.
Last one I put up was a Canada Road... then headed to breakfast...

When I returned on the same route.. I noticed signs were gone...
DAMN HOODLUMS!! I thought.

I got back and my poor mom was SWAMPED with customers.. Lesson here: signs are good.

Things slowed and we began to eat.. right as we did a man walked up and he wasn't looking at everything so we thought he was looking for something in particular...

He was...

Me.
Apparently it was against Lakeland city ordinance to put any signs up anywhere besides your own yard.

He was nice enough to rip them all down for me. And he was nice enough to escort the lady who was there out to the county road because she said she could not find her way out without those signs.

About 11:30 I straighten the mess mom and I had made in the house awaiting the lady to do the virtual tour.. and we were freezing.

She showed around 12:55 and liked to talk.

About 2:15 mom came in the house and said she was closing up everything because it was raining... I figured, sounds about right.

She was still taking pictures at 2:27 when I got the call that they are again wanting to show the house today between 3-5.

I went out to let mom know the plan and saw she was an ice cube.. that rain was actually sleet.

We finally got the virtual tour lady out of the house at like 2:55, we got everything staged and we were out... great timing..
Sleet was coming down and I had talked to J and everyone there was napping...

We were orphans.. can't go to my house, can't go to mom's house... We went to Glenda's...

We were there for like 30 minutes when we looked outside and the sleet was bigger and badder than ever... and decided we needed to just go back to mom's house...
that is normally just a 15 minute drive on back roads... within that 15 minutes, it went from sleet to blinding snow.

We were debating whether or not it would be best to just stay at mom's over night... but J decided he needed to get on the road to Nashville to catch a flight to Baltimore.... he ended up leaving this morning and hit the road at exactly 5am.

He has yet to make it the 60 miles to Jackson at 8:30. His flight is at 11.

Upside:
We made quite a bit for the weather for a garage sale
Showing a house 3 times in the first 2 weeks on the market in this economy is good.
and
the snow is gorgeous.

1 comment:

Emmilu said...

Wow you guys are busy!! Must be nice to have all the help from your mom!
The snow is pretty isn't it!!