Uh-oh

Today, after a particularly successful hunt of the region’s garage sales with my imaginary friend Dave (The Lovely One, having not yet met Dave, insists he doesn’t really exist), I came home with:

2 high-quality Serratus saddlebags ($12)

a bunch of records and a Chinese-style embroidery for TLO ($7.50)

A whole lotta Atari 2600 cartridges ($2)

3 bikes from three different sales ($30)

That last one prompted some bemused remarks from my mother-in-law.

Imaginary Dave got a very nice Olympus rangefinder camera, the bar bag that goes with the saddlebags, and I don’t remember what else.

I resisted buying Command and Conquer for $1, and we narrowly avoided purchasing Simcity 2000 for OS/2. I also decided not to bargain with the kid who wanted $7 for two NES cartridges, instead just giving up on them.

The bikes were all interesting.

First find was a remarkably good-looking folder, an “Auto-Mini” from Austria. Singlespeed, but I think it will become the nucleus for a very fast folder shortly. BMX wheels were included with the purchase, and will be added on shortly. $10, can’t go wrong.

The second to be assimilated was a BMX bike I bought for $5 because I wanted the wheels, mainly as the rear had a 5-speed freewheel, well-suited to my plans for the Auto-Mini.

The last was spotted late in the day, when we looked over an interesting “Skykomish” bike, some sort of mid-range steel mountain bike, probably a Washington-state design by the name. Decent components (LX derailleur, 7-speed rear wheel) were why I picked it up, and in a fit of brutal bargaining, I extracted the bike and a BLT lighting system (sans charger) from the vendor for $15.

Meat for the grinder!