Lis and I had the most lovely time in Monticello today. It was mostly uneventful in the way one would imagine a leisurely stroll through antique and thrift stores to be except for one incident which occurred that was absolutely an event.
More on that later.
We stopped in first at Wag the Dog, the thrift store for the local animal shelter. It seemed to me that things have gone up in price there but it's still a reasonable place to shop and one never, ever knows what one will come across. That fine beaver in the picture above, for instance, is part of an entire diorama involving dirt, fake plants, a long wooden platform, and an otter. It's the sort of thing that I absolutely and shamefully adore but I did not buy it. And mostly I don't regret that decision. But wouldn't the grandchildren love it?
I think so.
After Wag we went into a new store in town (or new-ish) in an old building that someone has put a ton of work and money into. They had some very nice things in that store and the prices were not bad. Still, we bought nothing. My favorite part of that whole experience was going upstairs to see more things and wandering into some rooms that have not yet been redone. I found them eerily beautiful, even though they'd been tagged and worked over by graffiti artists when the building was standing vacant, I guess. I took a few photos.
I'm just pondering. I showed the pictures to Mr. Moon and he did not immediately jump for joy and shout, "Hallelujah! We must buy it!" which is what I had rather hoped his reaction would be.
Although I knew it would not.
But going to the Rev is still fun and we sat outside and even though the temperature was in the high nineties, it was breezy and quite comfortable with a ceiling fan overhead. Also the server brought us fresh glasses of delicious iced tea full of their excellent ice when our glasses were running low. So we sat and talked and laughed and looked at the traffic going by and at the County Court House which is such a beauty.
You know, it takes a minute for things like that to register.
No. I did not run over to the scene to offer assistance. We watched as people stopped and got out of their cars and before five minutes had elapsed, the police were there and then the fire truck and ambulance. We never saw anyone get stretchered onto the ambulance and we assume that there were no mortal injuries. Before we'd finished our lunch a tow truck had come to pull the car away.
So THAT was the incident which had been an event. As we drove by the site later we saw that the car had driven over a grass median and straight into the curb and steps leading up to the courthouse yard. We could only imagine that someone had blacked out for a moment but who knows?
You know, it's funny. Lis and I used to be, if not magpies, then definite acquirers of things we admired. We each have different things that we fall for- Lis adores china, I am a bowl lover. And we saw some beautiful things today. But we're both at the point in our lives where we really just feel the need to get rid of things, not get more of them. We saw a few things that once upon a time we would have bought without a doubt. But today...well, we just did not.
I wish I'd bought more. I may well go back soon and do that. I mean- if you're going to buy things you don't really know what you'll do with, at least get the good stuff.