Auction Addiction

I have written in the past about how my buddy Mills and I have auction addictions.  We enable each other, and not in a good way.  And now that good ol’ roughneck auctions are online…oh my.  I just burned five hours emptying some stranger’s basement (Mills had to “teach” a “class” at “the last minute”) (riiiiiight…).  Based on what we saw online, I thought I was picking up four – maybe five – boxes of things.  Um.  Mills’ Dodge Ram full-size box stacked wall-to-wall.

Details?  Maybe in a book someday.  Will say we can now build our dream home…entirely from used produce crates.

I did finally – finally – get the shop vise of my dreams.

A few produce boxes?  And a vice?  That’s not enough to fill a truck box, you say?  Funny, my wife adopted a similar line of inquiry…

At least I didn’t buy a tractor by accident.  As I wrote back in 2006:

Went to an auction yesterday.  One of those happy/sad days.  Sad because the auction signaled the end of an era, as auctions often do.  Folks at whose table I have dined and yapped many a time.  But happy because I got to wander around in the mud shootin’ the breeze with many Nobbern neighbors.  And I bought my wife a bench grinder.  Yessir.  You think I’m joking.

Been awhile since I’d auctioned, and I had to hone my bid nod.  Buddy of mine says you’re shootin’ for about a 12 degree tilt.  There are other issues: At one point I was about to outbid the feller across the wagon when I snuck a peek and realized it was my Dad.  Y’gotta pay attention.

Best story of the day since it didn’t happen to me: My brother accidentally bought a tractor.  Yes.  Accidentally.  Bought a tractor.  He was standin’ there kinda kickin’ the dirt and someone said how you gonna explain that to your wife?  And he said, “I don’t know, I’ve never had to do that before!”

It’s the morning after.  I just called him.  Let’s just say he’s got a strong and patient wife.  His shop floor is heated, but he didn’t have to sleep on it.

Video version of the tractor story here (at least I think I talk about the tractor).