Thirteen Years Ago Today.

Annie's Wearing The Pants In The Family Tonight!

Yea, Verily, it was June 22, 2001, and we were in Cedar City,Utah, to attend an auction of Forest Service vehicles.  There were 153 such vehicles up for sale. Professional dealers had come from as far as San Diego, California, to slurp up the deals.

We went to the Pre-Inspection the day before the auction.  It was obvious we were Bit Players.  As we were looking at The Truck Of Our Dreams, Sweetie Susun struck up a conversation with the Dealer that was coldly evaluating the same truck.

It turned out he was a Surfer Dude who lived in the same city (at that time) as Susun's Dear Daughter.  The Surfer Dude Dealer and Susun hit it right off and it was a chat-a-thon.

Meanwhile, as the chat-a-thon ended, Susun looked The Dealer Dude in his eyes and said, "We really NEED this truck and we have only $5,000 to spend, give us a break."

The next day the auction fired up.  Oh, my, the dealers were buying USFS trucks by the car-hauling semi load.  The truck just before Annie was identical and the Surfer Dude bid it up to $6,500.  Well, at that point, we know we lost the game.

And so they came to Annie.  And the GSA Auctioneer Caller fired up the bidding.  I jumped right in and kept goin' up by the thousands until I hit $4,000.  Then the bidding slowed way down.

The GSA auctioneer looked at the Surfer Dude Dealer and he had his hands crossed and was starin' at his feet.  The GSA Auctioneer yelled over the PA system, "Jim whadda ya doing?  You just bid $6,500 on a truck just like this one the lot just before this?  Jim, Come ON, where's your BID?"

But The Surfer Dealer Dude just kept his hands folded and stared at his feet.  Meanwhile, we won the high bid for $5,000 and the rest is history.

I went over to The Surfer Dude after the Deal Was Done and I said, "I know what you did there and I really want to say thanks."

He looked me in the eye and said, "Even car dealers have to do something nice once in awhile."

If we wouldn't have been able to buy Annie on that fateful day, we have no idea how different our life might have been.

And so it goes...in Idaho Falls.