It
is no secret, and I 'm not quiet about the fact, that I am a lucky guy
who leads a good life in his old age. Oh sure I would love to have a
car, a new computer, or at least a new large monitor, and a new digital
camera but those are things I want, don't need. Well the car could fit
into the need category but having Jill's car this week and Allen always
ready to give me a ride it doesn't seem like a necessity right now.

Though I would like to win the lottery, powerball,
fantasy 5 or any of the other games I still find delight in discovering
other sums of money even if smaller. A few years ago I sold a lot of
'things' on eBay and did very well money wise but I had 2 items I didn't know what to do with.

In the Fall of 1972  I went to an art sale show in the Jewish Community Center in Germantown just East of Memphis where I lived. Being a lover of modern art, along the lines of Dali and Tchelachew,
I came across these two 3.5 x 4.5 paintings by Jorge N. Sanchez and
bought them on the spur of the moment, not knowing anything about the
artist, for $25 each.

When
I got home I noticed a long folded piece of paper attached to the back
of the paintings and opening it up I found that the artist had paintings
in museums around the world and was in many private collections.

For
36 years I enjoyed looking at them and never gave the 'worth'  of them a
second thought but then I got into that 'get rid of things' mode and
decided to sell them. I did a lot of searching on the Internet but the
only information I could find was the exact same information I had on
the back of the paintings. I did, eventually, find a gallery in New York
City that had 2 very large paintings by Sanchez that were priced to
sell for thousands of dollars. I contacted them and they didn't know
whether the artist was still alive as they got the paintings they had at
an estate sale. They knew just what I knew.

Making
a long story short I sent them the 2 paintings on consignment. They
asked me to set a price and picking a figure out of air I said $500
each.  A year later they didn't have even a bite so 3 weeks ago I told
them to drop the price to $300 each or both for $500. This past Monday
the owner of the gallery called me and said he really didn't think they
would sell but he was willing to buy the both of them for $300. After
thinking about it for, maybe 30 seconds, I agreed only on the condition
that if he sold them for a million dollars I didn't want to hear about
it.

I don't know whether I did the smart
thing or not but I need/want the money and the paintings were just
being stored in a warehouse in Long Island and a 'bird in the hand is
worth two in the bush'.

For those
who know me I have already spent the $300 though I haven't gotten the
check yet! I bought the blender yesterday and have been pricing 18-20"
monitors--hey, I can always have the paintings as a screensaver---and also have been looking at digital cameras.

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Tomorrow
being Friday, and my having Jill's car, I plan to drive out to Allen's
place, instead of his picking me up, and we will go see Robert DeNiro in "Stone" and then to Cheddar's for a bite to eat. Yes I am a lucky and happy guy!

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"LIVING WELL, AND HAVING REAL FRIENDS, IS THE BEST REVENGE."