yesterday, the mrs & i were making our usual Friday consignment shop rounds, beginning of course at Table To Teapots. i went in and looked at the bargain rack: nothing. then, nearby, i see this enormous white desk.
white desk, i think, i don't want a white desk. but it was pretty nice -- huge like a piano (with carved legs and everything) and it was topped with a giant sheet of furniture glass. i had to go over and look.
on closer inspection, it's only white because someone slapped on a fast coat of white paint; underneath, it's a dark wood. the price? $49. forty-nine dollars! i remove the price sticker (the way of laying claim to a large item), just in case i might be interested.
i walk away. start back at the asian & antiques end of the store, closer to the entrance. do i really need a desk? the desks we have are enough, aren't they?
but a few minutes later, i'm back at the desk; it's too good of a price to ignore. now i'm opening the extra-long drawers of this gargantua. small drawers on the left, and some large drawer/slide thing on the right inside the right side is a metal tag: Property of / RAYTHEON / MFG Co / 16207.
it's a Raytheon desk! whoo hoo!
figuring out the spring mechanism, i pull out the giant drawer; and it suddenly slides up and locks into place as a right-angle extension on the right side of the desk.
my wife, also looking at this and that, sees i'm clearly smitten. "We have to buy that, you know," she says, smiling. (not that we really have any room for it in our basement offices; but we'll make room.) now we just have to get it home.
then a man comes up to me; he's been looking at some antique-looking wash-stand (a hoosier, my wife tells me, a free-standing kitchen cabinet). "Do you work here?" he asks.
no, i answer; and then he tell me that his wife has him picking up the cabinet he's been looking for. i know that the consignment store staff aren't supposed to help people move furniture, so i offer to help him move the piece out to his car.
my wife comes back; she's made a call with a friend who can maybe help us in a few days. a store worker comes up and asks if we're going to buy the desk; my wife says yes.
the guy i'm helping looks at the giant desk and says, "Where do you guys live?" we say nearby, and he offers to give us a ride in the panel van he's rented. he says his name is Paul.
instant salvation! i love this town!
as we load the stuff into his van, my wife goes across the street and buys a box of yummy pastries for a thank you gift. we make the trip across town, and he even helps me carry the desk down the bulkhead stairs.
thank you Paul!
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[next post: how i got the darned thing into our basement]
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