Lynn's Comments: I have had yard sales. I have helped with yard sales. I now know they are far more trouble than they are worth. Still, the fun factor makes them a good idea anyway. One year, I joined the "5-Mile yard sale"; an event, that happened every three years or so on the 5-mile stretch of Macpherson Drive in Corbeil, Ontario. The word would go out and everyone on this country road would bring their stuff to the end of their driveway. This made for a great 5-mile walk as we perused each other’s cast-off clothing, kitchen gadgets, car parts, and other effluvia. I had my own pile of junk to sell, and found myself rooted to my post. When I told my kids they could keep what they earned by selling their unwanted toys, they volunteered to take over while I bumbled off down the road in search of treasure.

I came home with a purse. When my husband saw the purse he laughed. He said all we were doing that day was exchanging junk! This was true. I told him that on my hike down the road, I had seen an old blue tractor for sale. He lit up. A few minutes later, he came back on the tractor as happy as a clam. I asked what he was going to do with a tractor. We had property, but weren't farming or mowing it. He didn't know. The thing is…he had always wanted to own a tractor. The moral of this story is: if your husband buys a tractor (that he doesn't need) at a yard sale, you are free to buy whatever you darn well please from then on. A short while later, I came home with a puppy. Game on!