Garage Sale Saturday

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For the past four years, this was the weekend I joined hundreds of others on the 16-mile train run from Oceanside to Solana Beach. But this year it also was a Grad Nite Work Crew weekend, so I instead ran 12 miles around my hilly section of the city before reporting for paint duty. I was amazed at how much traffic there was for 7 on a Saturday morning, with cars darting in and out in front and behind me as I meandered up and down residential streets. Then I realized it was Garage Sale Saturday.

Twice a year a local real estate agency sponsors a communitywide garage sale, in which anyone can neatly organize their cast-offs in the front yard for a few hours and make a few bucks. Schools get into it too, turning their campuses into Hand-Me-Downs Central. What isn’t sold can then be donated to charity or scrapped at next weekend’s Spring Clean Day. My suburb’s Garage Sale Saturday draws people from as far away as Mexico. It’s also been known to include some celebrity residents.

(Speaking of celebrities, The Today Show’s Al Roker will be broadcasting Monday from La Jolla Cove, which also is the finish for next Sunday’s half marathon.)

The best part of Saturday’s run was watching this one runner for about a mile. She was about a quarter mile ahead of me when she turned onto the same busy, houseless street as me. I was losing ground to her when she turned left onto Sunset Ridge Drive and apparently made a B-line for the first yard sale on the street. By the time I passed a few minutes later, she was already in line to buy a pair of black pumps, still breathing heavily. I don’t know why, but I found it quite funny.

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