Saturday morning, no "on call" duties this weekend and just a few chores to work on.

Life, these past few months has been mainly routine and boring, just like so many other days, weeks and months of my life. This past week though, had a nice little twist to it. This past Monday, I attended my first, (of hopefully many), County property surplus auctions here in Orlando. Its a two day event and quite enjoyable. Monday, day one, was the auction for surplussed county vehicles, which was why I attended. To start with, I've usually been one to own two vehicles at the same time. I've always liked the idea of having a backup vehicle in case of one breaking down, as its always good to have a backup plan! I had my spending limit, ($1200), and figured A vehicle would run me at least $800. Friday, May 30, was the day people could view the vehicles, start them up and check them out at the two locations they are stored at. After checking most of the 150 or so vehicles they had, I narrowed my list to a possible 6 or 7 that were what I was looking for. A few of the County workers there that know me from work said I looked like a kid in a candy store that day and truthfully, I felt like one too! Armed with spiral notebook, I made notes on the vehicles that interested me and that didn't seem to be in total disrepair. The weekend was spent working on projects around the house by day and pouring over my notes at night. Mondays auction started at 9 and went pretty quickly. All sorts of vehicles were auctioned that day, from cranes, spray trucks, mowers, (both riding and walk behind), jon boats, a bass boat w/trailer, which went for $600, 150 or so cars and trucks, shop tools, pressure washers, large commercial refrigerators, outboard boat motors and other various misc items. All were auctioned off within four hours. A lot of the vehicles I was interested in shot up past my spending limit fairly quickly, leaving me wondering if I'd succeed in getting me the backup vehicle I desired. As the last vehicle I had interest in came up on the block, I made a last ditch effort. I started the bid at $200 and two other people joined in the bidding. I raised my card when the auctioneer said, "I have a bid of $750, do I hear $800?" He called out, "I have a bid for $800, do I hear $850?", no answers, "I have a bid for $800, do I hear $825?". Once again, no answers. "Going once, going twice, SOLD to bidder #108!", (thats me!). In addition to having taken Friday and Monday off, I also had Tuesday off in case I needed to get tags for a new, (kinda/sorta - new to me), vehicle and happily I had one. I then ran into a situation I've never faced before. While registering my newish vehicle, I found out that I had a $100 credit with the tag office! (Are you kidding me?) Seems so! Apparently, last year when I sold a mini-van I owned, it created the $100 credit to my account! Happy days! As of yesterday, I've put about 150 miles on this truck and am getting ready to go to the auto parts store and buy plugs and stuff to give the truck a tune-up. She runs really well as it is, but I like working on vehicles and I'll be enjoying myself here soon today.

The second day of the auction consisted of pallets of computer towers, monitors, laptops, printers, large office type copiers and equipment like that being auctioned off. According to my friend D, who runs the auctions, everything sold this time around. Win-win situation for all!

I'm including a couple pics I've taken of my old/new truck, (taken after I had a chance to wash and clean it up a little bit.





Have a great weekend and enjoy yourselves!

Later gators!