NL 20

Dec 98

Folks!

      Surprise!  We're still here!  Boy have we got a lot of catching up to do.  I have been receiving numerous requests to update on where we are at in our mid life adventure.  And many concerned that they were dropped from the list. 

Well!  No such luck!  It seems that we just clam up while wintering in Louisiana with family.  But boy have we been through a lot.  Now we are getting ready to hit the road again.

When last I wrote, we were going to winter in Mexico.  Well due to the "climate" there we decided against it.  The climate I refer to is the crime warnings and the stories we hear about the Mexican Police stopping RVs and going through them and taking whatever they want!  Hey!  I don't really know if that's true but we have heard it from too many sources to discount it.  Even though I speak pretty fluent Spanish (Lived in Columbia for a year when I was six), it is against my religion to take chances with my life or my wife.  You see I am a devout, practicing, coward!  LOL!  Just kidding!  So we have been here since

October 31st till now.

We told you some earlier about the yard sales we had at the start of this adventure.  Well, we also put 7,000 pounds of stuff we couldn't part with in storage.  You know the silver, china, antiques, records, pictures, and all of our collectibles and art.  As well all my DJ gear was in storage and our 1500 plus CD collection.  See the Air Force will store your stuff for a year while you try to find where you want to retire. 

Then they ship it as your last move.  Well, we put all the stuff we couldn't part with in storage and never expected to still be doing this at that time.  So we found our time expired on Jan 31st 1999!  And we had no place to put it all.  It sure wouldn't fit in the RV! 

So we had to face expensive storage or get rid of most of it.  Our kids agreed to store a few small things, and My wife's parents agreed to the large antiques and her Hummel collection.  But we had to have a place to receive the rather large shipment!  Well, here an old bud came to the rescue.  Seems Steve had a house that had been on the market for a year that was vacant and the realtors kept telling him why it wouldn't sell instead of selling it! 

It was a 2400 sq. foot plus house in a very good neighborhood.  He suggested that we have our sale there as the contract with the realtor (that hadn't done  squat!) expired at the end of January!  In return we would try to sell the house at the estate sale. 

When the realtor found out that the contract was about to be canceled, they showed it for the first time the weekend before the Estate sale and  . . . . . wonder of wonders . . . sold it.  Steve had told them that since we had our shipment coming that the closing would be after our estate sale.  Thanks Steve! 

But the real nice thing was that when the realtors realized that we would sell it in this sellers market here, they got off their duffs and sold it.  So it worked out well for both of us. 

Now to backtrack a little.  We didn't want our stuff to be sold at pennies on the dollar at a yard sale, so looked into Estate sale companies.  Now this is really cool.  They come in and do all the work, pricing, displaying, researching values on art, antiques, collectibles, and advertising, for 25% of the "TAKE". 

The guy we hired had a whole crew and boy did they earn their money!  I was anticipating getting rid of all of our stuff and was working with the crew to get it all priced right.  Now the other side of the coin is that at Estate sales it is customary to open the second day at 25% off all marked prices, and at noon of the second day 50% off.  Whoa!  We had some really expensive stuff in it so we excepted the things we'd rather give to our kids, sell outright, or keep, rather than take 50%. 

Also at the end he had a person that would take all the leftover stuff at a very low price.  So with that in mind we proceeded down the path of getting rid of the last of the "stuff". 

I set up my high end DJ system and was on hand to demo it and answer any questions.  It is a $10k plus very high-end complete system.  I was asking 3k for it!  A give away! 

Well to make a long story short it didn't sell!  Wrong part of the country for good stuff.  So it is still in my possession (well in my son's garage) and in the papers. 

Anyway we were there the whole two days and got rid of most of what we had collected all over the world, at bargain prices!  We kept Lynn's Hummels and her few antiques from England. 

But we had two items we wished we'd kept.  We had a new china set from Royal Daulton in England, service for twelve, all the accessories, that we paid 3k for in England!  It went for 600.00  It had the soup tureens, coffee and tea services, and was their cobalt blue and gold set.  The other was our Hermann Brud print "Mozart" that went for gallery price.  Other than that it was a really easy experience. 

There were two people that stood out from the sale I need to mention.

Estate sale: Two stories.

On the second day of our sale, we came in 15 min late, and someone parked in my driveway space. My big one-ton diesel dually truck was too big for the curb and I went in to ask the person to move their car. A well-dressed young attractive woman said it was her car and she would move it. Then she began to walk . . .

kind of.

She could barely walk! Obviously crippled badly, she slowly followed me as I began to wish I'd just kept quiet about moving the car. Instead of being upset, she was smiling broadly and after slowly hobbling out the back door I said that I'd be happy to move her car for her. She smiled and said thanks, but I'll get it!

I told her that I wouldn't have asked, had I known she would have so much difficulty walking. She faced me, and held my attention with her smiling eyes and said "I was in a car wreck and broke my neck and my back. The doctors said I would never walk again! But here I am, walking, and getting stronger everyday.

I don't mind walking to move the car. I'm grateful to walk at all. And every step I walk, and exercise, makes me even stronger. So I appreciate the excuse to get a little more."

Her smile wasn't just genuine, it beamed at me with the joy of life. I told her that I was grateful too. I thanked her for sharing her special path with me.

Inspired, stunned, I stood there watching the tallest, straightest, soul I'd encountered in quite awhile, as she hobbled away. I didn't even get her name, but I will never forget her.

Second story:

Included in the sale was my complete Mobile Disc Jockey system, ready to plug and play.  Four Bose speakers, top of the line high end Amps, rack travel cases, DJ board, with all the extras and mikes.  $15k of excellent equipment for $5k.  I expected a young DJ or a DJ company to snap it up.  It was set up and playing to show to prospective buyers.  I was on hand to insure it was not mishandled and to answer questions. 

All weekend many had asked and said they'd buy it but didn't have the cash on hand.  About midway through the last day of the sale, an older gent (I'm 46) walked in the room it was set up in and began to ask some questions about it.  He had a white beard at least 12 inches long and was anywhere from 60-75. Put him in a red suit and he'd look like the perfect Santa!

I thought he was just passing the time, or thinking of buying it for a grandchild or something.  He asked if I was willing to go on the buyer's first gig to show how I do my show and set up and use the equipment.  I said "yes, I would be happy to do that for the buyer." 

I asked him if he was thinking of it for himself or someone else.  For the second time that day I was faced with smiling eyes and another story. 

He told me that he had always wanted to be a DJ.  Even had auditioned years ago for a radio station but they never called him back.  He said with an amazing intensity that he wanted to do it, before it was too late.  But he'd have to talk it over with his wife to gradually get her used to the idea.  Caught up in his dream we then talked in depth of how to do a real show like mine, the earnings potential etc. 

He left deep in thought and I thought he'd really come back and get it.  I was so excited at the prospect of helping him make a dream come true.  My wife had been talking to his wife and later told me that his wife had said that he was just passing the time. 

I told Lynn that there was a lot more going on than passing the time.  I told her we'd hear from him again as I gave him our number.  The system didn't sell at the sale and I forgot about him, until last night Thurs., 5 days after the sale was over.  He called me and asked if it was still available, and if I still would provide one night of training. 

I told him "of course I would!"  I am involved in making a lifetime dream come true!  Although he said that he'd get back with me next week, and I said that it has to go to the first one that comes up with the money, both of us were excited. 

Life is so short, and so many people lose their will to live their dreams.  While in the Air Force I taught leadership, mentoring, and specialized in aligning personal and professional goals into one unit. 

But first I had to teach them to find out what they really wanted!  Most folks say they want this or that, material or achievements, but never even try to do them. 

I first had to show them that when they give a long list of reasons why they can't do their dream, that they really don't want it.  Once they establish what they truly want, obstacles seemed to disappear, and they'd "just do it"! 

Joel Barker, in speaking of the power of dreams said that "A dream without action is just a dream.  Action with out a dream is just passing the time. 

Dreams with action can change the world!"

I hope that the system is still here next week and my dreamer gets it.  It really makes no difference if he is a commercial success or not.  He will have achieved one lifelong dream, by adding action to the dream.  If he does it for one night only, and decides it is not for him, he will still have the deep satisfaction of having realized another of his dreams come true.

Much more coming folks.  We had a lot of repairs and lessons learned this winter about our rig that came out pretty good!  Those G.A.s (Guardian Angels for you newcomers) are still working overtime!  See ya next week!

dg