The Lincoln Nebraska Rotary #14 auction was interesting and much in contrast to the Presque Isle auction that have assisted in for the past nine years. The auction here is pretty much a black coat and tie affair, with perhaps almost 1000 people paying for a dinner and seat at the old train station here in the city. There were about a half-dozen tables of silent auction items and 29 live auction items. Most of the live auction items with week long condos at some beachish resort, but there was also a baby grand piano, jewelry, a basketball setup and so forth. The auctioneer was one of those types that speaks and a rapid fire manner to perhaps drive up the enthusiasm and price — I could never understand the price until the item was knocked down. They raised $90,000 (last year they raised $140K).
Now $90,000 is a lot of money, but I must say that this auction made me better appreciate what we do in Presque Isle. The club here has 300+ members – three times the size of our club – and the average member probably makes several times the income of the members of our Maine Club. We raise some $25-30K in our three-day TV auction, plus maybe that much more for our special project for the year. Our auction earnings are a third those of this Lincoln club, for a third as many members. But considering the significantly lower income of our area we do darn well. We also have a much younger club – at the RotaryAuction here I saw very few people of an age that me.
ON Saturday morning I visited the local farmers market, which is excellent. This was also a good opportunity to better know the middle parts of the city. I am on Saturdays and Sunday trying to get in one day of research, and a day of exploring. It is the only time off that I have been taking so far from the microscope and writing (more microscope now, more writing later). I did one microscope slide on Saturday and two on Sunday (with likely a third still to do), plus scanned others. I am now out of the really interesting stuff for the present and back to counting some of the less productive slides that provide background and contexts. On the two slides that I have examined today I have found perhaps ten, all fragmentary, specimens.
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