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Yard Sale #2 P.S. and a Subdivision Meeting
Yesterday started at 6 a.m. And if you read my two previous yardsale posts, then you know how that all turned out. What you don't know is that when I left late in the afternoon to remove the 16 signs I had put up, I stopped by the other neighbor who also had stuff out. I was apologizing that things hadn't done better, and she said that she only sold 3.00 less than the week before. I asked how much she had made and she said $28.00 (remember last week I sold 31.50, she sold 31.00, but I had spent $30.00 getting it all set up.). This week I made $3.00. No upfront money this time on my part. I had two people stop by. She had 7! Why those other 5 people didn't make it back to my house is unclear. She says she told them. I had signs at the top of my driveway, I had a sign at the bottom of my driveway pointing to the back of my house and I was listening, listening, listening! So bizarre!!!!!
So by the time I got the signs down, came back and cleaned up after supper, then it was time to get ready for our subdivision meeting which was going to be at our house. I have been President for a little over two years. In some ways I make a great President, I am a peacemaker by nature and there was a lot of anger floating around between some of the officers and some in the subdivision. I was a new face, took a different tack, and things started to ease up and people became more friendly.
However, sometimes people don't pay their road maintenance and I was having trouble with the confrontation that occasionally is necessary. Sooooo... I talked a new neighbor into taking over the President spot and I have dropped back to secretary which I am excellently suited for. I have already typed up last night's meeting minutes and have them in envelopes with labels on them. The couple that had been secretary for a year took over the treasurer slot as the gal who has been treasurer has done it for years and years and was tired of it. So we have a new slate of officers and everyone else was happy that we came up with a plan since no one likes to ever volunteer (but they are happy to fuss at the volunteers).
We did have a bit of explosion of right of way difficulties. We have a neighbor who wants to treat his right of way like it is his property and prevent others from accessing it. This is due to some erosion problems he is having on his property. As we tried to sort through this and come up with a solution that would work for everyone, another neighbor who has some personal issues with this neighbor started speaking up and a tense, but working situation, fell off the tightrope and the yelling ensued. One neighbor had brought her granddaughter, she got her and they left. Another woman went outside. Finally the unhappy neighbor left despite our pleas for him to stay and get things worked out. We continued addressing the problem and we came up with a potential solution which we hope will fix his problem and keep the right of way open at the same time.
Sometimes, even when you try to keep things low key and even keel, you just can't calm those emotions. I actually had my hand on the other neighbor's arm, trying to get her to calm down...what a mess!
The rest of the meeting went well and I am glad not to be Mrs. President anymore.
