Winning The Bid

In early May the local art museum held its annual "postcards of the west" event. This is a fundraiser where several rooms of postcard-sized art donated by local artists are auctioned. Each bidder writes their bid on a sheet posted by the artwork. Rooms close for bidding at posted times so as the end of bidding in each room nears, people tend to hover around the piece they've bid on so they can place a last-minute bid if they discover someone has bid above them.

This year Dean created and entered a postcard for the auction using traditional paints instead of beer cans.

Leslie brought Emerson and Myra to the event and they had their first experience hob-nobbing with local "artistes" and partaking of the refreshments. Myra, who usually seems to survive on air, spent a large portion of her evening filling her plate with handfuls of pretzels or chips, carefully carrying her plate back to the table, devouring the whole plateful and then going back for more.

Once the food lost its attraction (as in was taken away) we wandered from room to room writing our bids on the art work we hoped to win. Emerson learned the hard way the fine art of sneaky, last-minute bidding. She had bid (okay, I did it for her) on a painting of cowgirls in brightly painted pink shirts. We stood watching as the time was counted down ... 30 seconds, 15 seconds...when a teenage girl rushed over, increased the bid by $5.00 and won the painting. Having learned our lesson, in the next room we covered our bases by bidding on two paintings Emerson liked and a painting of cowboy boots that Myra really loved. Leslie and Emerson stood guard in front of Emerson's chosen artwork (which she won) while Myra and I watched the boots. Once again came the countdown, but this time when a woman bid above us on Myra's boots with 30 seconds left we were prepared. I immediately stepped up and increased the bid, writing so slowly there would be no time left for anyone else. Myra was really excited she'd won. I was excited she'd won because Myra wears cowboy boots with everything, not the least of which have been her swimming suit and snowsuit. I'm sure the only reason she wasn't wearing them with her Sunday finest at the art auction was because Leslie wouldn't let her.

As in the previous rooms, once the bid closed, women in white gloves swooped in and carried away all the art on the walls. I looked over at Myra, who 20 seconds earlier had been so excited she had won the boots, and she was standing in complete silence with wide, confused eyes watching a lady take her boots and carry them away. Pretty soon her face crumpled and big tears started falling. I told her that she would get to keep the boots and those ladies were just taking the picture so Papa could pay for it but by then the big tears had progressed to deep sobbing. So I got down on my knees, nose to nose, held her wet, snotty face in my hands and told her again that she really would get to keep the boots picture. She would stop sobbing long enough to say "okay" and then start up again. Fortunately it was the last room we had any bids on so shortly after we were able to collect our artwork and Emerson and Myra headed for home clutching their artwork in their laps.

I took the following photo at Leslie and Ryan's as Leslie was trying to get Pierce ready for a bath. The little skinny legs behind the door are his. Once he discovered we were outside taking a picture he would run up to the door buck naked, jump around, squeal, run away and then immediately run back and do the same thing again. If the photo seems a bit blurred or off-center or just not very good it's because I saw nothing but a blur in the view-finder since I had no reading glasses with me and just as I was ready to take the picture (I tried 3 or 4 of them) a naked boy would pop up at the door. It's hard to take a good picture when you're blind and laughing.

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Winning The Bid