I have my usual mass of scribbled notes from yesterday's auction, but of course there is no time to type them all down. So here's one thing, just to mark down that we were there.

It was a combined estate sale, from two men that were about as different as any two men can be.

One, who the wife knew, was seen walking the streets more often dressed as a woman than a man. And left behind more costume jewelry than any three or four women.

The other was a carpenter, and outdoorsman deep into the cowboy culture, who left over a dozen firearms and boxes and boxes of carpentry tools.

It was during the item by item description of one of his boxes on the block that Grandpa, who was on the mike, asked the auctioneer, "What's that red thing?"

The auctioneer flipped the hand-sized object, and opened it.

"It's a butt marker."

"Whaaat?"

So the auctioneer showed it to him.

"It's a butt marker, by God. Everybody needs one of these!"

From the row behind us comes a male voice...

"Left or right?"