Decompressing…

It’s been an interesting couple of days. With so many pros and cons.

Our concert Tuesday night for Santana and Earth, Wind & Fire was wonderful. Carlos’s guitar skills are legendary and he did not disappoint. Cindy Blackman Santana wowed us with her drumming and Ray Greene captured my soul with his vocals.

But it was also 100+ degrees out when we got there and we were in the sun for 90 minutes or so. Lord knows I am not a woman who tolerates heat. Our clothes were soaked through and I later discovered my face had gotten quite flushed. And darn it, it was so challenging trying to dance in the tiny space in front of our seats. I gave up!

Still. Still. I am glad I had the experience of seeing Santana live. And Earth, Wind & Fire. I hadn’t been to a concert like this in years–with my ears ringing and the smell of weed. But I am an old fart now. We got home at midnight and my feet were killing me and the house was so warm that I barely slept.

And the next day at midday was my “Antiques Roadshow” adventure courtesy of a sweet friend who gifted me her tickets. That was also a grand, if uncomfortable experience. There was one hour of stop-and-go traffic for the last mile to the parking lot. And I honestly thought about turning around.

Once you got parked it was a well-oiled machine with everyone just lovely and you moved through areas fairly quickly, but again is was so blasted HOT. And I was so tired from the night before.

In the end I had good news and bad news about the two items I brought. And alas I did not get “my closeup.” I passed by the “green room” on my way out where other folks were being processed for their camera appearance and part of me was a smidge jealous and part just relieved to be heading home.

Here are my two appraisers, photos courtesy of the PBS website–Toys & Games and Asian Arts.

I am glad I brought the items I did. I found out some hard news about my bear stealing a pig bank and I learned a valuable lesson.

I bought it at an antique store for $30 several years ago and when I showed it to my cousin-in-law (who had been in “the biz” for over 30 years) he got real excited and told me a bit about it and what I could likely sell it for. Unfortunately he was wrong. My bank was not the real deal, but a brass reproduction. Old, but not valuable. I had had it originally priced at $500-600, it’s worth under $100. I am so relieved someone didn’t buy it! I’ll redo the listing so it’s accurate.

Lesson Learned: Take what other “experts” tell you with a grain of salt and do your own research. Always.

Now on the plus side, the brass boat thingy was a bit more valuable, though the expert couldn’t tell me much about it. “It’s Southeast Asian, likely Thai. 20th century. Likely made for the tourist trade, but very well executed.” He was surprised at that. While I didn’t get any new information, he did appraise it at $300 to $500. (I had had it originally priced at $148.) I’ll put this on Chairish where I think it will do better.

In the end I was only there 30 minutes. On a different day, one that was not so hot and if I hadn’t been so tired from the night before and my feet weren’t already screaming at me, I would have stayed to look at the gardens. No, I was ready to be home in comfy clothes, a cool libation in hand, my feet propped up and iced!

Now it’s back to real life!

Wishing you happy hunting and a few grand adventures,

Karen