Flashback - The Last Half Of January, 2020

Well...there are no new estate saling adventures on which to report but I'm sure you figured that out. The coronavirus is still wreaking habit on the world and we remain at Ground Zero. It will still be at least a few months before estate sales are live again and we're prepared to wait it out. In the meantime, we're catching up on the six month period during which our blog was on hiatus. This post will recap the second half of January, 2020. 

The third weekend in January was a weekend without any estate sales of interest to us. There were no sales but there was snow. That should not seem unusual for winter in New York but it was in 2020. This storm brought us 3.5 inches of snow. We had no other snow the entire month. Spoiler alert: We did not get any snow in February or March, 2020 at all! 

The following Friday, we had a concert and, for once, it was local. China Crisis was playing in a converted movie theater located just fifteen minutes from our house. We last saw them in 2013 when they played an acoustic set and they were great that night! 

They were great again in 2020 and we had great seats from which to enjoy the show! 

After the show, The two founding members, Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon, did a surprise meet and greet. These postcards are reproductions of Gary Daly's artwork.

Gary signed one for each of us! 

Eddie and Gary also posed for a picture with us. They are really nice guys and their performances are excellent! 

On Saturday, we had only one sale and it was in our town. It wasn't run by an estate sales company. It was the family trying to empty the decedent's house. It was worth a drive to see what there might be. We were there a few moments before they opened and we knew there wouldn't be a lot of competition here.

There was a box of Christmas stuff downstairs and, while most of it was new, there were a couple of things for us inside the box.

The basement had several boxes which we searched looking for hidden gems. 

This old outdoor chair for two would have been great if we had the room for it. 

This pole lamp was great but we didn't take it home that day. Spoiler alert: You will see it again in a future flashback post.

Monica posed behind what was once a basement bar. We didn't find a lot here but we did not leave empty handed. Pictures to follow.

That Saturday was Chinese New Year and we went to Doc Lee Lau to celebrate. It has been around since the 1970's. A few years ago, they updated their decor (which would not have been our decision) but their food is as good as always and they still offer tiki drinks in tiki mugs though we did not have one this night.

This room divider remains from the original Doc Lee Lau. It is always fun to celebrate Chinese New Year here together even if the rest of the restaurant has been modernized.

We had Sunday to do our housework, shopping and other chores and we also had a chance to look at what we found on Sunday. This is what we saw:

A couple of paperback books

An old plastic Jack O'Lantern decoration

Some old tiki mugs (all marked Japan), vintage Las Vegas salt and pepper shakers, an old box of Christmas ornament hangers and a vintage musician bottle opener

A vintage Christmas tree skirt

Here's a closeup of the design on the tree skirt

On Sunday night, we celebrated Monica's dad's birthday (a day early). Monica's dad always chooses donuts instead of birthday cake but that doesn't mean that we don't need a birthday candle! 

Monica, Monica's sister, Monica's brother and Monica's dad at the birthday celebration! 

Sweety, of course, was ready to party! 

On Tuesday, we went to a book signing at a book store near us. MIke Eruzione wrote a book and he was signing copies. 

IN case you don't know who Mike Eruzione is, he was the captain of the USA gold medal winning hockey team at the 1980 Olympics. He was also the one who scored the winning goal against the highly favored Russian team in the semifinal game. 

Here we are with Mike Eruzione! 

Mike Eruzione's new book

The title page of our book signed by Mike Eruzione

We may not have had many sales during those last two weeks in January but those weeks weren't lacking for fun and adventure and what always makes that most special is that those adventures were made together!