I did decide yesterday after having a bad taste in my mouth and coughing up little chunks, which turned out to be called tonsil stones, that I needed to have my tonsils out. I haven't backed up that conclusion with any member of the medical establishment other than mayoclinic.com.
I didn't want to go anywhere yesterday and we were expecting a handyman to come fix our faulty drainage tube for the HVAC. (Should I take a potshot at Sears? I have not been happy with Sears vis a vis our HVAC installation. Not even a little bit. So there.)
This conspiracy of forces (HVAC, sickness, Norma Shearer) coincided with a little craigslist focus in our house. Last weekend, I had a fit of pique wherein I decided my customary chair was no longer the least bit comfortable and that I wanted another one. After going to some unholy number of furniture stores, I had come to the conclusion that the only chair that might do as a replacement was an Ekornes Stressless recliner.
The problem? They're a little spendy. The Ekornes recliners.
Then I had a thought; why not check craigslist? Sure enough, there was one listed for 1/4 of retail in Bell. In case you're not wildly familiar with Southern California, Bell isn't exactly a vacation destination. Currently in the news for wildly inflated salaries of civic employees, it's down off the I-5 in an area near, well, Commerce. And Downey. Yep. That's the LA everyone knows and loves.
Nevertheless, down to Bell we go last Sunday night and I procure the chair. The ever versatile GTI accepted it willingly into the hatch and we headed home.
(Not that there weren't any subsequent moments of concern. I did have a near panic attack the next day that it was a fake. Also my bank was pretty sure someone had stolen my ATM card because I kept going to the ATM to try to get money, not knowing what my daily limit was).
The chair was duly installed in the place of its predecessor, which now lives on campus at the Women's Center. As my friend and co-worker who helped me get it over to the Women's Center noted, "they won't know it's not comfortable any more. For them, that's how comfortable it's always been."
So, this weekend, what with the cold and the handyman, we decided to list some stuff for sale on craigslist ourselves.
On offer:
1) Two of our six bicycles. We don't need six. We probably don't need four. But we certainly don't need six.
(That's the one of mine we're selling).
2) One of my Timbuk2 bags (I admit that the pile of them in the front closet seems to consitute a collection at miniumum and an obsession if honesty is in my heart).
I have two sort of like this, briefcasey with a laptop compartment and I like the other one better.
3) My Tony Little Gazelle Elite.
4) What Honey calls my barbie motorcycle helmet. That "calling" goes sort of like, "it's a barbie helmet, barbie, barbie helmet."
I bought it online and didn't think it would be so, um, well, barbie.
Nice, huh?
So, we pop these things up on craigslist. (Or should I quote "Your Mama" The Real Estalker and say we "heaved" them up on craigslist)
Honey starts getting e-mails about her bike right away. The ratio of annoying to not was about 2/1.
I get an e-mail about the gazelle. Could he come tonight? He has lots of questions.
Now, it's time to tell you how much I was asking for the gazelle. $25. Yep. And he was offering $20. Which I said was fine. But still, he had lots of questions. I answered and tried to be nice. He said he'd call and come get it in the morning.
He did not.
So, I listed it in the free section. Which prompted an hysterical e-mail from a woman asking that I hold it for her. She also called it an elliptical. Um, no, not an elliptical. Something you stand on and swing your legs in the air on.
Anyway, I went out to check to see if it was still there, though I was not inclined to hold it for her. That mf was so hard to move that my shins got bruised just looking at it. It was gone. Probably for scrap metal.
No e-mails whatever on my bike. It's now on ebay. We'll see.
The Timbuk2 bag has gone back with its friends in the closet.
The barbie helmet is bound for Goodwill next time Honey goes. (That will be this week, I'm sure).
On the upside, she does have interest in her bike, and not just from the guy who didn't want to raid his daughter's "colleg" fund. I think she'll sell it soon.
Here are some lesson I learned:
1) My panic aside, people don't counterfeit Norwegian chairs and then try to sell them one at a time from their living room in Bell;
2) No one feel responsible for following up on their e-mails. Civility and the social contract don't really exist on craigslist;
3) No one much uses full sentences, proper grammar, or punctuation in e-mails. They don't even make a pretense at doing so;
4) Modelling grammar, civility, etc. for people in your communication with them will not result in their reciprocating;
5) People are way too willing to give out their cell phone numbers;
6) Teresa has better "taste" in bicycles than I do;
7) Gazelles are played;
8) Everyone has better taste than I do/did in motorcycle helmets;
9) Everyone wants a bargain. Perceptions of bargains are not shared across brains.
I'm glad our time with craigslist is coming to a close. I won't miss it.
I did like the generosity of the woman who offered the fat from cooking her cats' dinner to anyone who wanted it, but wasn't sure she'd have any takers.
I suppose I can glance through that window into modern American Internet humanity now and again. There's certainly something to learn. Perhaps a bargain to be found.
Still and all, why do I think it's safer over at Etsy?
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