Another pleasant day, in which much is done, but little is accomplished*

"Spiral" sherberts by Hocking in green, circa 1928-30

I had horrible nightmares last night, courtesy of the Friday night Ambien. I was back up at 3:30am, and after messing around for a while, I had a very early breakfast and went back to bed around 6. I slept until 10, and when I woke up, I decided I might meander over to White Horse road, with the vague idea of buying some fruit. I figured I had used up all my glass luck yesterday, and I had only $10 in my wallet.

Of course, since I was broke, I found more glass. But the kind of collecting I did today is what makes it so exhilarating for me. I was just out with no expectations and no book. I found a mixed lot of 5 pieces of glass on a table that I could tell were the right color and the right era, but I didn't know what they were. There was a pair of sherberts, a little dessert dish, a salt shaker with no lid, and an ashtray. The ashtray is really what caught my eye. It had a raised well in the middle of it to stub your cigarettes out in, and a really cool pattern on the bottom that kind of looked like deco peacock feathers. I noticed there was an old glass eye-wash next to the group. I have been wanting one, but although there were many made, everyone seems to think they are extraordinarily valuable. Like most things, some are and some aren't, but they all seem to be priced as treasures.

Anyway, the guy told me he would take $5 for the lot, so I bought it, not really knowing what any of it was. I was really excited about the salt shaker - some of them are really valuable - but it is apparently just an old Anchor Hocking shaker, and doesn't go with a pattern I could find in my book. They eye wash I just wanted to use. The ashtray turned out to be a Sunflower pattern ashtray - interesting because that is by far the most attractive piece of Sunflower, which is a pattern I don't really care for. It is worth about $12.50. The two sherberts, which I didn't expect were anything identifiable (the bottoms were unpatterned, and usually that just means generic depression-era glass) turned out to be Spiral pattern. Worth only $2 each, but still. The little dessert bowl turned out to be sick glass with mineral deposits on it when I washed it. But I couldn't find a pattern it matched anyway, so no big deal. I'm tickled with that ashtray.

I saw another etched yellow bowl on my way out that they guy only wanted $4 for, but by that time I had spent all but a dollar of my money. I wish I had bought it. I think it was an undocumented piece of a rare pattern, and as such it could have been worth a lot of money, but by the time I kind of figured out what I thought it was, got the money, and went back, it was gone. I have so much it was hard to be upset about it, and I don't know for sure if it was what I thought it was anyway.

I got home, rested a bit, and ate some lunch. I then decided to clean out closets. I tried very hard to be Ruthless With My Discards, as you are supposed to do. I am unfortunately a prisoner of optimism at times, but I got rid of a bunch of stuff yesterday that I will just never be small enough to wear again. By the time I got done, I had pulled 4 30-gallon garbage bags of clothes out of my closet. And I haven't even been through the stuff in the attic yet.

I checked in with Billy and Russ, got cleaned up, and met them along with Ben and James for dinner, taking Billy's pickles and two of the bags of clothes I thought Billy might want to go through.

We had Chinese buffet at the coconut shrimp place, which maddeningly had everything EXCEPT the coconut shrimp stocked. That pissed both me and Russ off. We watched part of the women's gymnastic event of the Olympics while we ate - they had a couple of big screen TVs at the restaurant - and then went back to Billy and Russ's house for a visit. They went through the clothes, and Russ told me about a consignment-type place that is supposedly buying old clothes. I may take the rest of them by there to see if they'll buy any of them. We talked and smoked and visited until late. It was really good to see everyone. James, in particular, went out of his way to be nice to me. He is a sweet guy. It was really good to get my Sunday night visit in rather than just staying home to get ready for work the next day.