And now without further ado (adieu?), my current state of affairs: I now own two Minolta SLR cameras, one Canon SLR, and two Canon rangefinder cameras. Oh, and about twenty basic compacts that used to be government property. Fantastic.

I had to return two movies today that were due at noon, but I woke up at a quarter past eleven, so you could imagine the yelling going back and forth this morning. I stayed in bed for fifteen minutes just convinving myself to get up.

When I did, I had to forsake the much needed shower and the wonderfully smelling breakfast just to avoid an eight dollar balance on my Blockbuster account. But I didn't exactly want to hang around to hear my father's complaints about the state of my room and my personal hygiene, so off to the video store I went in an already soured mood.

I dropped off the movies, and said hello to Jill and Ibrahim behind the counter whom I saw last week when I picked up the movies. I turned and left, but as I turned back a few moments later to see what was coming out later that week, I saw a sign the read "Yard Sale two blocks that way on Cuyler <-". I was piqued.

There were some toys, clothes, appliances, and other odds and ends, a very average looking yard sale to me. With only two dollars in my wallet, there wasn't very much there that beckoned to me. Then Tom came out.

"Hello sir, may I help you?"

I responded, "I was just looking around," there wasn't very much that interested me. But then, "Say, you wouldn't by any chance have a camera for sale?"

"A camera?" he thought for a few moments, "well, I may have something..."

He came back with his wife, Fareeha (I hope I spelled it right), and two very nice looking cameras, a Nikon whose model escapes me at the moment, and a Canon model that I recognized being on sale for one hundred and ten dollars on eBay.

"How much are you selling these cameras for?" I asked.

"Well, um, what are you offering?"

"Suppose I were to offer fifty dollars for one of these?"

"Um, I'm going to have to confer with my wife on this."

He went inside with his wife into the stairwell, not realizing that the window was open.

"Tom! You didn't tell me you were going to sell the cameras!"

"Honey, this is a kind of a spur of a moment kind of thing. And besides, I don't need the cameras anymore, I got that digital one now."

"Well, at least don't sell the Nikon," she said, then they both said in unison, "it has sentimental value."

There was a pause for a moment, then I heard their footsteps coming down and then out into the yard. He told me he'll take the fifty dollars for the Canon and it's lens. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I held it and tested its shutter speed and light meter and the aperture of the lens. I got his phone number, and told him to hang onto it for a bit while I talk to my dad and get the money.

And my dad, as always, had to make things difficult for me.

I'm going to finish telling this tomorrow.

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