July 2, 2003
Dear Everyone:
This week’s Letter is a day early because this
Friday is a
Mother is happily back in her own home. She was “sprung” from the skilled nursing facility yesterday. She’s taking extreme care to make sure she doesn’t have to go back there again anytime soon. Mother just doesn’t have the temperament to lie back and be waited on hand and foot.
The Silent Auction I mentioned last week was a rousing success. Everyone had fun and went home with something. I was a little surprised at some of the winning bids.
For instance, the pearl earrings that I (representing Company) donated. I made a point of not bidding on these since I believe I outbid everyone else the last time. Besides, I already have a pair of pearl earrings (though not as expensive as these were). But I expected more people to be interested in them. Only a few people bid on them and the City Clerk of Dublin walked away with them for only a few hundred “Diablo Dollars”. ($100 would be the least anyone could bid, since that’s the smallest denomination we print.)
I also thought the pair of crystal photo frames would be a hot item. But again, only a few people were interested. I wasn’t interested myself because the frames would require dusting all the time.
Nor was I particularly interested in the many
lovely things that our Chapter president had brought back with him from
his frequent trips to
So I placed a few bids, confident that my accumulated $11,700 in “Diablo Dollars” would buy me anything I wanted. No one else liked Kincade, so I got the screensaver for about $100. Only a few people tried to get the calendar/clock away from me.
But that CD case!
A couple bid on it. I
topped them with $1500. They
topped me with $2000. I
kicked it up to $3000, then it was time to sit down to dinner.
After dinner, I checked back and my competitors had jumped me
with a bid of $8500. I could
have outbid them, but it would have meant giving up either the
screensaver or the calendar/clock.
Besides, if they were willing to bid their entire wad on this one
thing, I figured, “Let them have it.
I can look for a better one before we leave for
It turned out to be the highest bid of the evening. Later, when I was arranging the receipts to be reimbursed for the purchases I had made for the Chapter, I realized that the silly thing had cost $8.99, not including tax. I guess there’s no accounting for taste. I hope they enjoy it.
As for the leftover “Diablo Dollars”: Since you can’t carry over from one fiscal year to the next, I threw them all away. Easy come, easy go.
In other news…
“Jeannie” and I tried to take in a movie last week, but the only one we could agree on turned out to be only showing in the evenings. So instead, we went out and bought her a tiny (no bigger than a breadbox) combo TV and VCR player and a DVD player. The idea is that she’s going to set them up in her office and watch movies while working out on a treadmill. We also got a line on a treadmill, but the shop owner was away that weekend; and she needs to negotiate with him about delivery.
It will probably have to wait until after we get
back from
We expect to see five plays Thursday through Saturday, returning home on Sunday. So no Letter next week.
Love, as always
Pete
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