Margie's Much-Anticipated Weekend

Well, I posted Thursday that I was off for a three-day show in southern Ohio.  Not only did I miss my 50th-year high school reunion, I also missed a second event, both of which I had looked forward to.  Nonetheless, we started out Thursday afternoon to pick up another one of our group, and ran into this:

The wind started to howl and we were fighting the wheel to keep the vehicle on the road.  We picked up our friend just as the heavens opened up and it started to pour and blow monsoon-style.  Retracing our route to get on the freeway, the traffic was totally jammed where there was no traffic a few minutes before, and we suddenly saw what caused the hold-up--the wind had knocked down a street light and it crashed into two cars, shattering the whole back end and window of one.  (We found out later no one was hurt.)

Finally on the freeway and fighting wind and rain (while towing a van with a motorhome), we're on our way.  The rain petered out about 45 minutes later, and the rest of the drive was uneventful.  We caught up with my partner, Sharon, and her husband in Cambridge, and after we all had dinner, they took me with them to the house we had rented while the motorhome friends had reserved a spot in a nearby campground.  

The house was from about the 1860s, and sadly in need of a LOT of refurbishing.  It was clean, however, and the three of us had the whole house to ourselves.  We heard about the flooding in Louisiana the next morning while checking on the weather, and I was concerned for Mark since he lives in the area.  (So you had lotsa good thoughts and prayers throughout the weekend, Mark, some from people you don't even know!)

The days were swelteringly hot and the humidity high--fully dressed, I felt like I was wearing a wet bathing suit (!)--and while it was a really nice show and there were truly wonderful artisans, the heat and constant threat of rain kept a lot of people away.  Sharon did very well, and I even made some good sales, but that all ended around lunchtime today when it started to pour.  

We had arranged the curtains on our canopy for quick closing in case of rain, but this defeated us.  The canopy is water resistant, but the rain was relentless, and we tried to pack up while everything was dripping wet, including ourselves.  Nothing was spared, and I lost most of my stock to the water.  (And my lunch, which became too soggy to eat.)  We also had to take a lot of breaks to push up the sagging canopy top to remove the collected water.  I don't know which was worse--soaking wet due to high humidity or soaking wet due to pounding rain.

Watery sunlight appeared just as we were trying to get the sodden canopy into the van, and the clouds on the way home looked like when we set out on Thursday, but the rain held off.  I'm home now, and after a hot bath, I'm heading for bed.  I'll be spending a lot of time in the next few days trying to salvage something out of this soggy mess.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and good wishes--they are always much appreciated.