OK Boomer

 I got "OK Boomer"'d but good. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned it here but a few months back Ken bragged to me about a sterling silver dish he'd bought for something like $5 at the Goodwill on Coleman. He showed it to me, it had a bunch of hallmarks, etc. 

So from time to time I'd thought about that dish, I guess because I'd been kind of jealous. 

So last night after I got my check and we talked and the usual, he asked if I knew someplace that would buy the dish. He had it in his car. I said "I've got a guy" so he handed it over and after he'd gone I weighed it and did some math. Ken wanted at least $300 for it and I figured, since my match seemed to show a melt value of $540, that there was a fair chance I could skim off a bit after selling it and then give ken his something-more-than-$300 and he'd flake off a bit more to me, for my time. 

So as usual I didn't go to bed as early as I should have, and since I set my alarm clock for 1PM I didn't get much sleep. I packed a few packages and basically was up at the time I'd set, cleaned up a bit, and headed out at 2. I dropped off the packages and went to Whole Foods where I got a couple of beef sticks and $40 cash back. I put $20 of that on my clipper card to be sure to have train fare, and got on the train. 

My place was up in Menlo Park so the train's really the only practical way to get there. I got there and after watching the guy fork over a few thousand dollars to a guy for a coin collection, I handed over the tray and he got out the XRF "gun" and tested it and said, "I'm gonna pass on this". 

The thing was plated! Sure it has a bunch of little hallmark-looking marks on it, but for the first time, I looked closely and one is "SP" in a circle which even I know is "Silver Plate" and the others didn't look like anything, and it was also stamped, "Made In US America" like who stamps that on something? "US America"? So all in all it was a bit of a laugh, and the guy, who I think gets them for free, gave me a still-warm cheese steak sandwich which I tried once I got to a bench to sit down outside and, well, I'd have had to be a lot hungrier and have a lot of hot sauce .... But  I digress. 

It was a kind of fun trip in that the new electric trains are always nice to ride, and I got to look at the pretty coins and bars and stuff in the display cases at the shop, and the guy was in a nice mood. The mood in there changes with how silver's doing and it's kind of "meh" right now. So the mood was nice. 

I went to the Starbucks to use the loo and get a drink and I called Ken and told him how things had gone, and about the XRF gun and Ken was like, "Oh, those are nice, they cost thousands though". So he's pretty lah-de-dah about the whole thing, and I told him we might be selling some big capacitors that might bring in a few thousand, so it's all good. He, in turn, said my ballot has come in the mail so I'll get it next week. 

So I'm out an afternoon and the train fare but I think the whole thing is kind of hilarious. Ken thought he had one over on the Salvation Army folks and in the end, he only fooled himself. And he's the one who has his life set up so he's always chasing after money like a junkie. 

I got back downtown and went down to Walmart for TP and paper towels, and got back here and that's that. 

I probably will not busk this weekend since I want to work on this new technique and I haven't been practicing. It's not like guitar where you can just bang away and blargle out some nonsense "lyrics"  and get tipped if you play until the wee hours of the morning for the drunks and if one of 'em gives you guff, you've got your guitar and they get the "KA-BONGGG!" just like Quick Draw McGraw.