I tuned into my car's eBay auction with fifteen minutes left. The auction went through a last minute "sniping" fury, with a fair number of bids in the last few moments. The "leading" bidder had bid high enough to withstand the snipe, though, and ended up purchasing the car at four hundred fifty dollars, far more than I believed it would realize on auction. He's already sent me the funds via Paypal, and made arrangements to come pick up the car. This transaction has been quite satisfying, thus far. I loved that sense of hitting the "refresh" buttons and seeing the auction price jump, until time ran out and the canned message said "Congratulations!".
My parents heard from a man in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, who wrote the book about the Crater of Diamonds mine. He and his wife have a gorgeous home right on the river there, which they built themselves.
Now they're going to sell their home at an auction. I'd love to have a home on a river in the deep woods, but I don't think I'll bid. Four hours' commute would be a bit much for me. The fellow's a plumber by trade, who no doubt realized that in lightly populated areas, there are fewer pipes to fix. I wonder if a home auction will achieve anything close to the market value of the home. It's a fun idea, though--to sell one's home in a simple Saturday bidding process.
I was thinking of several goals I'd like to set for the short to mid term, in addition to working hard at work and getting things done there, if I am so fortunate as to have the time to achieve them:
a. learn enough Spanish to be able to understand mariachi songs on the radio;
b. learn fifty songs on the dulcimer so well that I can play free gigs at nursing homes and the local coffee shop;
c. get my novel self-edited and self-published;
d. get my mail poetry documentation out--it's been nearly a year;
e. write another book of chess poems and sell it on eBay;
f. launch an internet radio station, and perhaps a netlabel;
g. Put together a booklet with a cool topic, about something like fire ants or pond protozoa;
h. volunteer more time at legal clinics
i. learn to use my digital camera properly
j. write more letters
k. take a weekend trip to a lake or ocean resort
l. hike the ten mile round trip from Brockdale Park to Collin Park on Trinity Trail
m. Make a CD of recorded drumming with superball mallets on remote bridges and girders;
n. auction the extra electric football field I have on eBay;
o. get new batteries for my shortwave, and try to listen to twelve different countries' programs in a single weekend;
p. support independent musicians, writers and artists by seeking out self-and-small-press publications I might enjoy;
q. finish that chess tournament director's examination and run more chess tournaments;
r. set up a non-profit company into which to channel various notions of good works;
s. drive to the Oklahoma mountains and hike in the crisp Fall air;
t. send out a little more mail art in response to mail art calls;
u. write more poetry to submit for publication;
v. write lyrics for the folk song album my friend Scott and I wish to do;
w. go to a planetarium show;
x. spend a day at the local park, just watching the birds and butterflies;
y. cook home-made tamales in my crockpot;
z. set up a livejournal as a kind of museum.