Posted by Times like this, times of crisis, bring out the best and worst in people. I think we all have seen or heard examples. Well two days ago I experienced both.
Here’s the story….
I received an email with the city of my birth in the subject line, but the sender was unknown to me. Still I was curious thinking perhaps it was someone I’d gone to high school with so I opened it. The sender indicated they knew my password and everything about me and had been monitoring all my online activity for the past 151 days (gosh, how boring and tedious) and had access to everything…including my sex videos (my sex videos???!!). And they would send them to seven random people on my contact list unless I gave them $2000 in bitcoin. There was an awkwardly worded threat if I didn’t comply: “I will make sure you live out of guilt for the rest of your life span.”
Gosh, it was a blackmail email. It was laughable, but also head-shakingly sad and messed up. Why do people do this? There was only one way to respond…I reported it.
Now onto a good story. A heart warmer. My church is helping gather food and supplies to donate to vulnerable folks in our area, many of whom have temporarily lost their jobs. So I posted on Nextdoor.com to see who in my neighborhood might want to help in this effort. And bless them, people have been dropping off bags of food at my house. Most are strangers. A lot of people are thanking me for doing this while I am thanking them for helping out! (One lady brought me a lily.) I think people just want to feel useful, to help in some small way.
People have brought way more than I can fit in my Mini, so my husband’s going to help me and we’ll load up his Jeep to deliver it all in a few days.
There’s a T.S. Eliot line in “The Waste Land” that “April is the cruellest month…”, but in my vintage biz April’s been a darn kind month. Orders and revenue are both up. Feels strange given the current situation in the U.S. and world, but I’m not complaining. I’m hoping it will motivate me to list more as it’s still a struggle these days.
Haven’t been buying much but I was pleased with my two small antique aquatints that arrived yesterday from a shopgoodwill auction. Both are Scottish landmarks and quite charming. I’ve been researching these and they are not wildly valuable, but were still worth buying.
I also bought a bracelet with delicate sterling silver Japanese-style charms, circa 1930-1950, on eBay.
I hate to take apart this bracelet, but I can make more money selling the charms individually or in small groups. I love the movable abacus and the wooden bucket. I’ll list each of these for $34 with free shipping.
I’ll close for now. Hope you are all doing well and keeping sane!
Day 33 done.
P.S. The mailboxes at the top belong to a neighbor some blocks away. I love how he uses the sides for messages.
Hunting for Vintage 