What happens in Big Rapids

We spent the next two weeks in a single-minded pursuit: getting Jack's stuff sorted and ready for the auction. We sorted into essentially 6 categories: sell at auction, take to Tucson, take to Indian Dr, take to Michele's, donate, or recycle/garbage. The job was huge, but we took it one object at a time-- deciding, and then on to the next. The difficult thing was in coming up with places to put the various piles. With so many things, we were both in an extended state of stuff-overload much of the time.

For three weeks this continued, with just one or two days off. But the day came, and with some great help from a few of Jack's men's group friends, we got a large truck taken to the metal scrapper, a large truck taken to the dump, many boxes of stuff taken to recycling, a few boxes packed for Michele and Tom, a few things chosen for Indian Drive, a few boxes packed for Tucson, and a yard- and driveway- full of things to be sold.

Saturday, the day before the auction, was the real biggie. That is when the men were all there, tables were set up, and things were mostly hauled out. The weather reports were calling for strong storms with damaging winds and hail for that night, so we did our best to cover everything with tarps. I kept all of the items of fabric, paper, and wood inside for now. And we crossed our fingers that the tables would at least be standing on Sunday morning.

Sunday we awoke to the startling reality that it had rained only about 5 drops at the Valley Dr house! We missed church, instead opting to worship at the altar of commerce. LoL. We worked, pulling the rest of the things out of the house -- bedding, pillows, lamps, furniture, books, and most of the rest of the tools out of the garage. By noon, we were set to go, our auctioneers were there, and people were showing up.

The atmosphere was a festive one, as the proceedings got underway. We had rented a portalet, and there was a food cart, from which people could buy sandwiches and snacks. Many of our friends were there, along with 300 others we didn't know.

They ran two rings, with two auctioneers working steadily for four hours. And everything was gone at the end of the day. People were universally happy with their treasures, and we and the auctioneers were pleased with the money that changed hands. Of course, some things went very inexpensively, but other things made up the shortfall.

Location : 22, Tucson, AZ 85710,