The man-spouse has been helping me set up my shows since we met in 2002, but a couple of years ago he got his green card (yay!) and a job (yay!), which means he's no longer available to help if the show begins on a Friday (boo!) So for the second year in a row, I have to figure out how to get this tent up by myself. It's not easy, but it can be done. As it turned out, my biggest problem in getting set up this morning was the lack of a water hose.
There are certain steps that must be taken in order when setting up the tent. First, uh... well, set up the tent. By that I mean, unfold it and get the legs snapped into place. That's actually the hardest part because gravity wants to interfere. It's easier with two people because one person lifts the roof support, while the other person snaps the corner framework into place. Not impossible for one, but very difficult.
Secondly, I bungee cord the corners of the roof. It's just a thing I do because during one show on a very hot day, the wind blew the roof off . Although this is a new tent, I'm not taking any chances.
Thirdly, we attach the walls, and fourthly, we attach the weights. Instead of using heavy items, like concrete filled PVC pipes, I use five gallon buckets filled with water, which are convenient because I can just dump the weight when the show is over. But they have to be filled at the beginning of the show, and that's where I ran into my problem this morning. There is a spigot available for use at the corner of 1st and Broadway, but this morning it took forever to locate the hose. I waited at the hospitality tent and had a donut and coffee, and chatted with the show committee ladies. Finally, one of them came back with the hose, and I was able to fill the two buckets that I had brought. When I got back to my space, I discovered that my tent had walked itself out into the street.
I finally finished at 11:20, an hour and 20 minutes after the show opened.
This is the first year that I am showing my new computerated photos. I put most of them all together on the north side, and put my older stuff, the pen and inks I'm known for, on the south side. I didn't bring everything, and I didn't display everything I brought, because I have eleven new pictures and limited space.
The weather was pretty iffy, but not nearly as bad as was predicted. It rained lightly for a few minutes at a time all day, and fortunately, it wasn't wet enough to keep the crowds away.
My daughter showed up for lunch, and while she was there a couple decided to purchase a picture. While I was filling out the ticket, I started telling them about this blog, and about how in the first post I had speculated what my kids would do with my work after I was gone. I said, "If my daughter winds up with my work, she'll probably find a way to market it and sell it all. Or she'll just toss it." That made them laugh.
"Dad," my daughter said in that tone that teenagers take when they're explaining something really obvious. "It's more valuable
after you die." That really made them laugh.
A gentleman came in some time later, and got really excited about the intricacies of my pen work in one of my pictures. He went to find his wife, who happened to be standing behind where I was sitting. He told her that I had an amazing amount of patience, and that he could never have the patience to do what I do. "Don't be silly. You've got a lot of patience," she said. "You married me."
About 3:30, one of the committee ladies drove by in her golf cart and informed the artists that a storm would be coming through in about an hour, so batten the hatches. As time approached, I wrapped up all my big pictures and moved them into the beauty salon behind me, and then sat in the booth waiting for a storm that never came. The temperature dropped a couple of degrees, the wind picked up slightly, and there was some thunder, but the only bad thing that happened was that all the customers left. By six o'clock, most of the booths had shut down, so I did too.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day.
