Big Weekend

For the past two weeks The Wife and I have not seen much of each other. She goes to work while I'm still sleeping and y the time I get home from work she is asleep. Plus she has to work every other weekend so that doesn't help much. We had not seen much of each other fro two weeks so with both of us off this weekend we decided to have a kind of "date day."

It started out with us running errands, but we ate a little Mexican, watched Spiderman 3, went to a downtown Wake Forest fair and ended the day at an auction. The auction is where the day got a little interesting. Wake Forest has Hoy Auction Company and they hold estate auctions every other week. We have been once before so we kind of knew what you can find. There is a lot of old stuff we would never want, old stuff that we know we could not afford to bid on and then there is stuff in our price range. Most of the items that we can afford, we don't want, but the fun part is wondering how much the antiques that we would like will sell.

We look around before the auction and find a few things we like, The Wife finds a lamp, a chest, and a couple of china hutches. I see some milk glass items (my family has a small collection) and a few mechanical banks, except for the hutches, nothing that will break the bank. The bidding starts, some items are very old and go for over $500. That's when our day changed, The Wife sees a china hutch that see wants. Ever since we returned from our honeymoon she has wanted a china hutch. Why? I have no idea, but she always lights up when talking about them.

The bidding starts at $500, with auctions they start high and slowly drop the price till someone bids. The price finally dropped to $50. With a look of excitement she wants me to bid. By the time I raise my number it's up to $75. I'm fine with that, it looks old and I know we would pay at least $400 or more if we bought it at a store. We continue to bid; $95, $115, $135, $150 and that's when I start to think I need to back out. The other guy hedges for a second and we decide to go no higher than $175. It's now at $175 with his big, we look at each other with the look of lets stop. "You will not find a finer piece this cheap any where else." The auctioneer informs me. I raise it to $185. It looks like we have it, then he raises and now it to me for $205. We back out that second. We really can't afford $185, we would have to put it on the credit card.

We bid on a few things, The Wife won a lamp for $15, I get the 3 Mild glass pieces for $18 and the bank for $17. Then another hutch comes up. It's a very low standing one with some beveled glass, very nice. It starts at $1000, crap! that's a lot. It some how drops to $50 and we and the same guy starts bidding again. It gets to $185 again and I bid, I thought we had it again, but he pushes it to $200. "I have not seen a piece like this come in here in two years." says the auctioneer. The Wife looks at me and says no. I raise the card and now it's $225. What have we done! Then, at the last second I am out bid. At this point in time I feel like we have spent over $1000, but actually it's still near $50. We kept getting out bid, but in my mind those numbers are still there and I keep thinking we have to pay. I know irrational, but that's how my mind works.

Nearly two hours later most of the big stuff is gone and some of the "regulars" are done bidding. The Wife had been eyeing a hutch on the side wall and they were inching over towards there. "How much do you want to go for that one." I ask thinking she will say $200. "I don't know, lets keep it under $185." The bidding gets down to $50 and the bidding starts. The high rollers are a little tired I thing and don't care any more so it's between me and another guy with his wife. It gets to $125 and the other guy has it. I look at The Wife and we bid one more time. "We have $150 do I hear $175." spews the auction er in his fast taking ways. Sold to number 113. We got it.

Truthfully we did not need it, but she wanted one and May is our anniversary month so this became her gift, and then I decided it was mine as well. I truthfully do not need anything and we can use the money for something else. So happy anniversary baby.

We get the hutch home on Sunday and move things around. It's a six foot tall dark colored wood hutch with a glass front and draws underneath. We clean off all the cob webs and give it a good dusting and cleaning and an amazing thing happened to our living room. It actually looks like adults live in this house. I've always had Pez and other collectibles in my living room. She has had similar things and with the hutch we moved a glass case and her collectibles to the guest room and my items to the office. It only took 31 years, but now we look mature. Of course everyone that knows us will know better, but when we bring new people over we can full them until I do something stupid.