Saturday, October 20, 2007

Auction Update And Other News

I won't keep you in suspense - we didn't win the auction. Here's the long-story version of how it went:

Carl and I got to the auction site around 9:30. There were already lots of people there - we had to park along the road a fair ways away. Once we got on the property we started looking around. This place has alot of small, old, crummy buildings on it, most of which weren't worth saving. The house itself was, as I said in another blog, uninhabitable, and in my opinion it would be cost prohibitive to try and restore it. But since we weren't interested in saving the house anyway, we decided to stay and give bidding a try. At 10AM sharp they started the auction. The auctioneer first asked if someone would start the bidding at $100,000. No one said a word. Then he asked for $75,ooo. Again, silence. Then the auctioneer asked for someone to call out an opening bid. Just as I opened my mouth to say "$10,000" the guy next to Carl called "$25,000". Then the bidding went back and forth between the $25,000 guy and another guy who was on my side of the yard but a little ways away from me. The bidding went fast, from $25,000 to $80,000 in a matter of seconds. Carl and I had set a top threshold of $60,000 so we never even got to bid. Once the price hit $80,000 the auctioneer conferred with the landowner's family, and they were satisfied with getting at least $80,000. Then the auctioneer asked if anyone would give $81,000, and the bidding went up again, more slowly this time. But the final winner was the guy who initially called out $25,000. He was a younger man, maybe in his early 20's, and there was an older man with him who I assume was his father. Once the bidding on the property closed, the two men went with the auction staff to the trailer where they had to sign the contract and provide proof that they could pay. Since the rest of the stuff up for auction was junk, Carl and I saw no reason to stay, so we went home.

Once home, we picked up the girls and headed for Cedar Falls. Mary's friend Shannon had stayed overnight, so she went along, too. We were supposed to have had Mary's last soccer game today, but it rained alot, so this week's practices and games were postponed. Therefore, that which we were going to do next weekend we did this weekend. Thus, up to Cedar Falls we went, for the primary purpose of getting Mary's ears pierced. Why go all the way to Cedar Falls for that? Well, I have a friend and classmate who has several piercings, and I asked her to recommend a safe, clean place that wouldn't scare a ten year old, and she sent us to the Mohair Pear on "The Hill" a.k.a. Campustown for the University of Northern Iowa. The Mohair Pear sells vintage clothes, wigs, costumes and novelty stuff, and they'll pierce just about any place you like. They pierce with needles instead of a piercing gun, which is what I wanted since I don't trust piercing guns. I had one stuck in my ear when I got my ears pierced, and I didn't want the same thing to happen to Boo. But the guy who does their piercing did a nice job - he was wearing rubber gloves, used prepackaged sterile needles, antiseptics and all the other stuff I thought necessary. He was very patient considering Mary cried and howled so bad that all of The Hill heard her. But now it's done and she's happy. After we got Mary's ears pierced we went to Farm and Fleet, and I got some new jeans, a couple pairs of slacks, and three mock turtleneck tops. I like Farm and Fleet's clothes, but it's hard to find anything in Tall sizes except for jeans. They had some nice wool blazers, but the sleeves were way too short. I suppose that's what Penney's catalog is for.

Later this evening I'll be taking Hannah out to Bloomsbury Farms so we can go through Scream Acres, the haunted cornfield. This is her payment for babysitting Mary and Shannon after school yesterday and then again this morning. It should be fun.

Actually, it should be a scream!

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