November 17 – “Storage Wars”

We made a flying trip to Bay City yesterday.  Bay City, Texas, not Michigan.  Chris got a call that if we could be there by 3:00 p.m. we could pick up some of the articles mentioned in her Mom’s will that she had not yet received because they have been in storage.  Jennifer and Bryan came over to stay with Mom, and we hit the road around one.  The drive was uneventful except for the fact that it sprinkled a time or two and the pump on the windshield squirter was broken, so we ended up with some massive streaks.  It wasn’t that bad going up there, but on the way home it was dark, and that made matters much worse.  Guess I’ll be forced to get that replaced.  Soon.  Some day. 

After a quick stop at the Bay City WalMart (where else?) for something to drink, we located the storage facility.  It wasn’t really a Storage Wars thing.  We didn’t have to bid on anything.  In fact there weren’t even that many boxes to go through, but Chris did go through every one of them.  We had to transfer stuff into our own boxes that we brought anyway.  The buried treasure we ended up bringing home with us consisted of a lot of dishes and lamps.  I know that is grossly oversimplifying things, so let try to get specific about a few things.  First, we did get Chris’ grandfather’s old pipe.  It was the only artifact that her Mom had kept of him, so Chris was particularly glad to have found it.  The other significant find was a crystal bowl that had belonged to Chris’ grandmother.  Again, it was the only real souvenir left that for sure had belonged to her, so it was quite special as well.  After those two finds, everything else was like gravy on top or maybe dessert.

There was a set of dishes.  I think Chris called the pattern Desert Rose.  Apparently that is some kind of hard-to-find thing.  There may have been another set in there as well, but the Desert Rose is the only one I actually saw unwrapped samples of.  Amidst the china was a set or two of crystal glassware as well.  Oh, and a wine decanter and wine glasses that looked very pretty.  There may have been some other things in there, too.  I imagine I’ll be seeing them soon as Chris unwraps everything and designates which things go to her sister. 

There were also a bunch of lamps.  Her Mom collected Aladdin lamps.  Apparently the Aladdin designation is something special, but I rubbed a few of them and no genie ever appeared.  They are interesting items.  Some of them were kind of quirky looking, if you ask me.  Most of them were glass, but we also got two that were some kind of metal.  I was interested in looking at those more closely.  I kind of assumed that at least some of them were antiques.  But what do I know about lamps?  They may have been fresh out of the box for all I know.  A few of them did still have kerosene in them.  Nice and safe, right? We ended up bringing home six of those sterilite plastic tub boxes full of the dishes, and three boxes with the lamps. 

Now the only thing left to finally close out her Mom’s estate is the transfer of a little bit of stock and distribution of it among her siblings.  She is so ready for the whole ordeal to be over and done with.  Me too.

Psalms 119:14 says, “I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.”

Father, I found it fascinating that the items Chris was most excited about finding were a tiny pipe and a small bowl.  Their value came not from monetary assignment, but from their ability to bring forth relationship recall.  That’s where true riches are found.  Amen.