pound foolish

for decades my mom has collected antiques. gone to garage sales. stood in lines for estate sales. and even has been known to pick a few things off of the curb. a little something she likes to call curbside discounts. or csd for those in the know. i always thought i wouldn't be caught dead doing any of the above. along with being seen with her wearing her olive colored ski jacket from when she was in high school. and riding the dial-a-ride. i mean i would actually shutter at the meer thought of either scenario. sorry uncle ken. it was just a thing i had back then. well times have changed. so when we learned that there was a garage sale the entire length of us 12 the second weekend in august we were on it. plus, it was eggplant season and we couldn't wait to sink our teeth into one those after a long year's wait. after weeks of anticipation the day finally arrives. it's raining. and it's freezing. but we are dedicated. as we travelled west towards new buffalo i wasn't so sure if we were on the right us 12. i mean, there were some sales but nothing that we had invisioned. buzz kill. we did get to the turkeybone factory in three oaks. stopped at a few farmer's markets. and visited this antique store. which was interesting. the guy had really cool stuff. and his favorite number was eight. because all if his prices started with eight. or had an eight or two. or three. or four in them. since the area is rural we thought after we filled the van with all of our garage sale purchases we would find a nice vegetable stand. with an eggplant. well, we were 0 for 6,936 in that department. we did spot one stand with two eggplants. the size of your fist. and my mom refused to pay the asking price of one dollar for them. little did we know. we did find some things. at a sale. that was in edwardsburg. oh well. it's all about the journey. back to the eggplant. now it's sunday and we still can't find a stand with eggplant. finally we see a sign. it's our last hope. we pull into the drive and out comes this guy. my mom walks up. talks to the guy. and heads back to the car with this look on her face. probably the same look i have on my face when i pull into the wal-marts parking lot. she gets in the car. she asked the guy if he had any eggplants. and the guy looks at her and tells her, 'no. we don't have any of the plants.' so, my mom explains that we don't want the plant. we want an eggplant. you know, the part you eat. huh? we think he must have thought eggs grow on plants. and don't even bother asking. it was in indiana. so, after passing up two eggplants for one dollar we spent $45.82 on gas trying to find a cheaper eggplant. well, i found one. at the grocery store. for $2.61. and it was damn good.