Man, couldn’t we have used the nifty bicycle racks that you see on and being used on so many vehicles on the road these days. Back when we were kids we rode bikes all the time and once in a while when we had to transport a bike or two there was no way to cram them in the back of a car so if you didn’t have a truck or access to a truck you were pretty much out of luck. I remember being able to force one of my bikes in the back of one car and my BFF had to take the back wheel off of hers to fit in her mom’s car, but we did it. A lot of work involved but we got the job done and learned how to take off a tire and put it back on in the process.

A co-worker who is an avid bike rider pulled into the parking lot at work today with his new bike rack for suvs that he got as an early Christmas present from his god-mother. She gave it to him early since the weather has been so wonderful for bike riding and she wanted him to take advantage of this “Indian Summer” (that has come and stayed pretty late in the year this year. Old Man Winter could bang down the door at any given moment and things could get ugly real quick. I wish that I still rode and have thought about buying a used bike at a yard sale or flea market for real cheap, probably for under $50, it’s good exercise and just plain old-fashioned fun. Maybe next spring I’ll start looking when the flea markets open back up and folks start-up with their yard sales.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to drive an hour down to the city and browse through the Flea Market with a few of my friends yesterday. The weather man has been telling us all week what a hot and humid week end was coming up, but I must not have thought things through clearly when I accepted the invite.

All and all I’m glad that I went, it was fun and each of us found several items that we picked up for dirt cheap that we are all very happy about, although most of the items at this particular Flea Market were more upscale than the local Flea Market that we have here in our town. A lot of antiques and collectibles were to be found, rather than a bunch of junk left over from a previously held yard sale and isn’t worth 10 cents and the time to look through. There was live music playing in one corner of the lot and several food vendors selling hamburgers and hot dogs, which we all devoured in the shade of the few trees that were located on the lot, and lots of bottled water was guzzled through out the day, trying to keep ourselves hydrated and cooled down from the 90 degree heat that was bogging everyone down.

I’m so glad that the air conditioning was working good in my car on the way home, sometimes it doesn’t seem to cool the entire car down very well, today it was running very nicely, for the drive home.

I am a $1 store junkie, but an educated one. I can smell a rat withing 5 minutes of entering any store that advertises one dollar sales and once you get in you find that there are some $1 items, but there is also $2, $3, $4, $5 and up, a plenty,  I’ve seen items marked up to $25 in one such store, all of which to me sounds to much like false advertising.

My favorite of all of them is the Dollar Tree, they have great variety in their selected items that we all need and use and they are truly only $1, you will find nothing in that store that is sold for over $1. Now they do at times have items that are 2 for a dollar, but I can’t fuss about that because that is truly a better deal.

The store at our local mall that advertises $1 purchases really doesn’t have anything but a bunch of crap and they have recently started placing things that are more then one dollar and they are losing business aplenty for it. That is the mall for ya though.

And for the past few years at the local Flea Market there has been a group of Asian guys that have been selling like crazy via hundreds of tub and crates full of $1 items and they are making a killing there, and pissing off some of the other vendors in the process.