"I Survived the Garage Sale With Frank"

Frank has been so helpful and generous with trying to help me out while I am looking for work. He has made several trips down here to bring stuff for the garage sale and he helped out with the signs and he always brings food for me and something for Guy.

I hate to be ungrateful and maybe it's my pride that is getting the better of me because I feel like I owe him something when he does all these favors for me. I just can't hide anymore how annoyed I am by him. He makes bad judgment calls and he is always so wound up on Rockstars that he makes me tired just listening to him. Every piece of junk he pulled off his truck he wanted tell tell me it's history and describe how it should be repaired or polished to be made good as new, then he would try to convince me that I needed it.

Besides that he does not listen to me. I told him I was planning to start the garage sale Friday afternoon. He made plans to be here from 6 to 9. As we were setting up on Friday morning, he realizes that I want to start at noon, and explains that he has plans because he thought I wanted to start later. "When you said afternoon, I didn't know you meant one minute after." He tried to excuse himself. I suppose he thought that by saying "after noon" I meant 6 hours after.

Rather than setting up his stuff on Friday, he takes off to the hardware store to pick up some paint to begin making signs. he had about 15 boards that he planned to make signs of and scatter around the neighborhood. He wanted to bring them in from the freeway! I hate to be the one to always rain on his parade, but good grief!

I was on my own for Friday, but I gave him the money for anything of his that I sold. I made about $150 that afternoon and a funky sun burn on my ankles from my capris and on my arms from my t shirt.

Saturday morning we were to begin at 8. I was up awake at 7, up at 7:30. Frank knocked on the door at 8:05. When I opened the door he motioned to look at his watch, as if to say, "Why aren't the signs out yet and why are you still in the house? The party started 5 minutes ago!" Great, he's started with the Rockstars already.

He finished the signs he was making. He made sure to put our address on each one of them to that when the policeman found the signs all over the city (because he didn't collect them as he took off, like I asked him to) he would know just who to make the ticket out to for $35 per sign.
I about croaked when I came home from my interview on Monday and saw the neon Yard Sale sign he made from a For Sale sign, stuck right in the lawn of the city library! Who knew that Pleasant Grove has a city ordinance that requires the residents to register with the city to get permission to hold a yard sale and hang signs.

All day Saturday, I think he thought we were having a competition to see who's junk was more valuable than the other person's junk. He wasn't too happy when I told him I sold his bike trailer for $10. He planned to ask $150 for it. Oops, it never would have sold at that price, but he says he would have rather kept it.

He was quick to tell me to let it go when I realized that when I sold my hat and the box to a lady for $1! She asked what I wanted for the hat box. I told her $1 and I asked if she saw that there was a hat in it. She asked if it was ok. I figured she was wondering if was ok that she took the box without the hat, so I said yeah. It was my fault for not double checking, I must have been distracted by some one else that I didn't make sure she left the hat. *sigh* oh well. I had held on to it for long enough.

I began to wrap it up at 1pm. I could feel my arms burning again under the sun. I told Frank that I would be taking anything that he didn't want to try to sell at his sister's house in a couple weeks in a load to DI. So I asked him to tell me what he wants saved. He mentioned a few things, then gave me permission to do with the rest as I saw fit.

He called an hour later, after already trying to reach me 3 times since he left. He wanted to know exactly what I had taken and what I had saved. I was so irritated. Then he began about how I have been treating him. He trys to analyze my behavior, but the truth is I am simply annoyed by him. I am always anxious to get off the phone with him after listening to his long winded lectures and memoirs. And when I do hear my phone ring with the Pinapple Rag that I set, I want to kill my phone....He called at least four more times within the following hour or two.