Tonight was my last party of the season, the usual Craft Center auction.

I had put up 12 handmade sweaters/vests/tops for auction, pretty much because the size didn't come out great or it looked just kinda "eh" on me, and they might as well go to someone else. The auction runs on a silent basis until the last night, then they do the live bidding. Nobody had bid on any of my stuff before tonight.

Now, I can't say I'm surprised at that. They weren't exactly set up to be tried on, which I feel like was necessary for anyone who wanted to buy 'em. And there was one sweater I donated for an auction years ago (a good example of "what happens when you get the gauge by stretching the sweater out." Don't do that, it comes out sized for an 11-year-old girl) and I think it went for $8. I figured as much for these here*, but I was thinking that maybe nobody would bid whatsoever and I'd be shamed and embarrassed. It was a biiiiiig deal that I donated this much, my stuff was going to be first up in the auction...and I didn't want to be there feeling stupid when nobody bid. To the point where I was debating leaving the party before the auction.

* Crafters who read this are wincing at the cheapness of this whole thing. Yeah, I know. But hey, it's not like I could sell them in real life at cost for materials and labor.

Well, people did bid after all, even if they all went for $4-8 or so. CC friends and managers and their relatives were the lucky winners, including one guy who bid on a couple--I wonder who those are for, heh. So that was a relief.

I never bid on anything--I hate arguments--so mostly I just knit in the back and watch the show. Notable moments:

* The CC head manager/auctioneer bidding on stuff periodically and randomly. To be fair, if someone else outbid him, he'd back off.
* We had two guy managers doing the modeling/showing off of the stuff this time. One of them dressed very nicely in a shirt and vest and with his handlebar mustache, looked like he could be an old time magician. Or magician's assistant, as it were. He was very good at dramatic hand gestures. At one point people demanded he model a girl's crocheted hat and he did it with aplomb.
* Several staffers finished their auction donations DURING THE COURSE OF THE SHOW.
* One CC manager, I couldn't help but note, seemed to have a belt buckle shaped like a pistol. Is that a gun in your pants or...nope, that's just a gun in your pants.
* One fellow donated something, then remembered he'd promised to give it to someone else before that, and had to buy it back. By proxy (i.e. getting another manager to bid for him). He'll be paying $36 for that one.
* One peace sign pendant was advertised as "pepper spray optional."
* Another item, a glass giraffe, was described as, "It's a free standing giraffe, unlike other giraffes."

I debated going to 2 shows going on tonight (though the lateness of the auction kind of ruled out going to one), then decided to go home and grab the car and go play with L's cat for awhile. Despite her mom leaving yesterday (and presumably filling the food Wednesday night), she was almost out of food, so it's a good thing I was over. She snuggled in my lap while I used L's Direct TV to watch an episode of Dallas before going home.

Here's something that didn't get covered in my driving lessons back in the day, and I don't think I've gotten around to mentioning it here: How do you deal with wet, frozen cars? I never had this come up in driving lessons because Elsa had well, driven over recently. And somehow it hasn't really come up with Zipcar too much--maybe I rent the cars after they've warmed up during the day enough, I don't know. And my parents (at least when growing up, Mom has gotten too hoarder to be able to still use the garage) had them inside the garage at night, so it wasn't an issue.

But here I am, coming out to L's car. It's all fogged over and sopping wet on the back window and steamed up on every mirror and window and it's dark out. I get in, I turn on the defroster, I wonder how long I have to have this thing on before I can see well enough to drive. And to be fair, the windshield clears up. The side windows mostly defog up. But I can't see out the back for shit (I can barely tell there's a car behind me except for the lights blurring behind), and one of the side mirrors--the right one--stayed fogged over (somehow the left one cleared up, don't ask me how this worked). Admittedly, I was only driving for 10 minutes at a time tonight in the pokey middle of town and didn't get myself into trouble despite the diciness of this situation. But some of this was going on during my recent airport excursions in the middle of the night and it was scary. (Plus, real rain and fog going on.)

But I want to drive to Folsom tomorrow, and uh, dumb question time, will the car not be sopping wet/foggy/all that crap if I don't drive it until the middle of the day? Do they dry out or something? Because I can't think of noticing that as an issue when I see cars parked around in the middle of a winter day. And I tried drying off the back window with some random fabric once, and that really didn't make the window any clearer to see out of (smearier, if less sopping). So that doesn't work, and I don't have a windshield cleaner doodad around here.

How the hell do people handle cars in real weather like snow, anyway? This is throwing me enough as is.

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