The worst part of the whole shebang is that I have to pretend I’m pleased with the gifts. I can’t chuck them away – Great Aunt Mercedes would notice. So I keep these things in a cupboard and after a year I try to sell them online. At least I might get a couple of dollars.
Someone on line bought both the bicycle pump and the puncture set and I got five bucks which is better than nothing. What I didn’t know was that these things had been purchased by my wife as a joke, and she hid them in a cupboard that I never look into. She was going to give them to me for Christmas but another incident intervened.
My local town is a bit rundown, and to attract people to the village – and hopefully to spend a bit while they’re here – they have set up a museum that is proving to be very popular. So much so that they have had to move to a larger venue. They collect balls from all sporting codes, from golf to basketball to water polo; from football to cricket to pickleball. Apart from the odd ball donated by notable sporting celebrities – who managed to touch it and increase its value – the museum has the history of balls through the ages. How times have changed!
The museum advertised for a bicycle pump and a bicycle puncture set, and my wife rushed to their rescue. She got fifty-six bucks for the things. They use them to maintain and renovate these old-fashioned balls – like inner tubes made of pig’s bladders. I’m looking forward to Christmas and my birthday to see what my wife gives me. It better be worth at least fifty-six dollars.
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