Home Sweat Home!

We got home last night around 7. It was still around 90 degrees. We left the U.P. at 9:30 in the morning-it was a lonnnng day of driving (again). We made a few stops along the way-the first stop was to see my grandpa in Cheboygan at his assisted living apartment. He just turned 90 on May 23 and he's doing really well. He gets around in a little scooter-type wheelchair.

He took us outside to show us the gardens he has been planting. He's always been a garden man, and some of them have been quite huge. He sure is proud of his new gardens-even if they are tiny in comparison to what he used to plant! I think the gardens give him a reason to get up in the morning.

After we visited with him for a while, we headed to Kevin's mom's house in Lewiston. She lives with her husband on Tee Lake, just across the street (sorta) from the Garland Golf Course. It was weird to pull in their driveway and see a for sale sign in the yard. They are hoping to sell by fall so they can move to Florida permanently.

Once they sell, we are going to be really busy doing an estate sale for them. We had a nice visit with them for a few hours and then headed for home. Did I mention that our car was packed to the gills? It was soo packed that we had to leave some of my Yooper treasures at my parent's house! We had both dogs, our luggage, cooler, and my parent's old dishwasher!

My parent's just remodeled their kitchen and put in all stainless appliances. Even though the dishwasher is older, it still works great...something ours decided to stop doing while we were up north! Kevin's step-dad used to be an avid golfer and he worked many years at the Garland for all the free golfing he could do. Now that his parkinson's has advanced, he can't golf any more-so he passed a ton of clubs on to our boys while we were there. We had to cram them into the car, but we got them in!

We stopped at a couple garage sales along the way from their house to the expressway and I had to keep my finds at my feet-good thing I didn't find anything big!!! About a half mile from where we got on the expressway, we pulled off at a rest area. As we were walking back to the car, I heard woman yell, "Are you OK? Are you OK?" I turned around and saw a man on the ground next to his car by the front driver's side wheel.

I yelled to Kevin, who was a few feet ahead of me, and he ran over to help. He got the man up on his feet, and sent me running for his medical bag. He always keeps a giant bag in our cars filled with all kinds of first aid stuff-just for emergencies. The older man had scraped up his shin, the top of his foot and his elbow and it was bleeding like crazy!!

His wife came out of the restrooms as Kevin was cleaning it up. We were worried that the guy might have had a stroke or been diabetic and having low blood sugar, because he was slurring all of his words and wasn't quick with the conversation. His wife said, "Jim has been sober for 6 years, and he just fell off the wagon." He was drunk!

I thought he was driving, but she was the driver, he stumbled once he got up on the sidewalk and when he fell he listed over and off the curb and ended up on the driver side. Since he was on blood thinners, he really bled! Kevin did a great job! He had all the things he needed and got the guy patched up and back into the car and his wife was able to continue on with driving home.

I think it was really cool that Kevin was able to help him, because in May when his mom and step-dad were coming home from Florida, his step-dad lost his balance and fell at a rest area and some good Samaritans came to his rescue and cleaned him all up and bandaged him all up and sent him on his way too. It's kind of like Kevin was able to give back to someone else, the kindness that was paid to his step-dad.

After all that excitement, we finally made it home. Home sweat home! Man is it HOT here!!! It was hot in the U.P. upper 80's and even low 90's, but here it's been around 100 for almost a week! We almost came home to no air conditioning-we got a call on the 4th from the boys that our air conditioner had died. Fortunately, they found a repairman who came out a few hours before we got home to fix it. The storm the day before shorted it out with a power surge.

This morning, I slept in and took my time getting out and about. I did stop at 3 sales. Two of them were HUGE!! One was an estate sale, but it was advertised in the paper as a garage sale. I've never seen so much glassware!!! I got there around 10:30 and there wasn't even a dent made! There was 3 full sets of primary Pyrex mixing bowls, some jadeite, tons of EAPG, tons of salt and pepper shakers...basically TONS of everything!

The problem? Prices were waaaayyy too high! A lot of the prices were higher than what I've seen in antique malls! People were buying stuff, just not very much. I found several things that I was interested in, but once I asked (yeah, most of it wasn't priced-I hate that!), I only bought one thing-a vintage tablecloth. It has some stains on it, so they didn't value it and priced it really, really low.

I couldn't wait to get out to my car, there wasn't any air conditioning in the house and just walking around I could feel the sweat dripping down my back! I felt bad for all the workers stuck in that house all day!!

The next sale was big, but not a lot of stuff that I look for. I did get this clown bank thing it is marked 1958 on the bottom, and I got a few old yard sticks. I'm hoping to get a bunch of these to cover a table with. I just can't seem to find them very cheap. Most places are asking $3-$10 each. I'm looking for them for $1 each or less.

The last sale was two card tables and a weedwacker! By the time I got some groceries, and did a few errands-it was 100 degrees and time to head home. I've been sitting in the dark in the bedroom trying to kick a migraine ever since I've been home-must be the humidity!

Here is what I picked up today...

 A 1958 clown bank-never used-the only way to get the coins out is to break it.

 The only affordable thing at the estate sale!

 A rusty, crusty fruit cake tin.

 Three yard sticks with a burlap mushroom holder.

These things came for me while I was gone...

 Yay!! I'm soo excited for these Federal bowls!!! I hope I can find the rest some day!!!

This is what I found on the way home...

This was from my Yooper treasure hunt-I just forgot it in the car...

This was in a nice little box waiting for me when I got home! I just need one more mini fridgie in the aqua color and I will have a whole set!!

These were from the Salvation Army in Cheboygan.