My photo
No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Talk about exhausted!

Wow, what a day! Starting at 6:30 a.m. I was hauling the priced items for the church yard sale out into the parking lot and set it on tables. It was as dark as pitch out there, and often, I had no idea what was in the boxes and baskets I carried out. At first I tried keeping my car lights on so we could see what we were doing but evidently I have a safety feature which shuts them off automatically after a certain length of time. At one point we had the moon shining in the west as the sun was coming up in the east---far out!
*
Eventually we had enough light to see what we were doing and workers were busily setting stuff out on the tables. We had a great turnout for setting up and for staffing, but poor Twila was in some kinda pain with her sore shoulder and hips. I suggested she stay out side and put stuff on the tables rather than running forth and back with boxes and such. One of the younger ladies was telling how she got such wonderful relief from the overly advertised "Activon", describing it as "the bomb". Twila was going to stop and get some on her way home, since her Aleve wasn't doing the trick.
*
It was so funny when I arrived at church and started hauling stuff out--Ethel met me at the door and was sooo surprised to see me there. She said, "Kim! You're here!" When another lady saw me, Fran, she, too, was surprised and exclaimed, "You're here!" I asked her if they were taking bets on whether I'd be there this morning and she said, "Yes!" They thought that since I was there on Friday for marking items, that they'd not see me today. Well, fooled them, didn't I? They knew I had a full day today, so they were not being cruel about it, but appreciated the fact other things were going on in my life today, besides the yard sale. Most of the ladies also know I am not a fan of the sale.
*
After setting up, I met with some of the guys from the Building Committee in the back of the church where we discussed some of the financing options we have. The chairman, Mike, told me the "new" carpet and tile samples were in the kitchen so I went to check them out. One of our members' spouse is a tile installer and Cliff called to thank me for suggesting we use him, since he is giving us a fabulous price! I went in to look them over, chose the tile and then the carpet, marked them with a "dot", and that's done, ready to roll. No need to discuss with anyone, since I went with the basic color pattern I'd originally selected.
*
Some of the guys were getting busy with painting in the new classroom building so I trust they accomplished a great deal today, hopefully at least one coat applied. Shoppers were already arriving and we'd not even officially opened, with some folks attempting to block the driveway with their cars. One of the guys came to the rescue and got the cars out of the way so I could leave. When I arrived home, I saw my neighbors beginning their day, one out for his morning walk and another lady walking her dog, wearing her night gown over her slacks. I was the early bird today! My shirt was soaking wet from perspiration and it wasn't even that hot today, just from all the toting and hauling and running.....When I got upstairs I immediately laid down on my bed to rest. I didn't have to be at the Fall Festival right away so it felt good to rest for a bit before jumping in the shower.
*
Martie called me as I walking the four miles from where I had to park for the Festival and we made arrangements to get together Tuesday. We've not been able to get together between her working and being busy with other things going on, including her breaking a tooth, right in the front! Not too willing to go out and about looking like that! It was a very long walk to the booth I was tending, much more walking than I'd normally have done, especially since I was already exhausted! Arriving a bit early for my appointed time, I snooped around until I found Travis' booth and got my campaign sticker. As he pressed it onto my shoulder for me, I asked him if that's what "pressing the flesh" has come to mean!
*
Upon finding my booth, the Guild president gave me orientation so I knew how to handle the purchasing of raffle tickets, ornaments, and greeting cards, and so on. My partner was a lady named Barbara who'd I never met before but with whom I truly enjoyed spending time. And, I was firmly ensconced in my element! Just like in Home Show days, meeting and greeting people as they passed our booth, old home week! Saw some former members of my church, current ones, even Tarren's grandpa, working at the booth across from Art Guild, in the "Fair Tax" tent. It was great, great, great! Until it started to drizzle.....we had contingency plans in place for just this event, and Art Guild people came to the rescue, covering our table with plastic, moving art work under the tent, protecting anything that needed covering. Nuts! It was not a drenching shower but naturally even a little bit of rain can harm a picture or frame. Since so many folks were there and my time nearly up, I left the Art Guild booth and went to Travis' to do some time as I promised I would. Well, the rain had let up for the most part but his booth was packed with ladies. The Republican Women's group had ascended on his booth since theirs had no tent, so they were busily "manning" his booth for him. My help not being required, I got myself a funnel cake and headed back the four miles to my car.
*
Oh, it felt so delicious to be reclined on the bed, lying back to enjoy my now cold funnel cake and mess up my shirt! I watched a couple episodes of "Seinfeld" before getting ready to go help Julia. In the meantime, Justin sent me a text message telling me that if I wanted to make other plans for dinner, it would be okay with him.....What? It seems he was helping his roomie work on the structure he's going to move into and time got away. That's very nice of him to give me permission to make other plans, but the thing is, our plans were for tomorrow night, NOT Saturday. Okay, never mind! We're good for Sunday dinner as planned.
*
No football tomorrow as it's a bye week for the Jags so right from church I'll be heading back to Green Cove for Julia's show. We had dinner together tonight after hauling (more hauling!!!) the display pieces and about half her ceramics to the studio. Once more I was able to dine at Mojo's and I think Julia loved it too. She is in charge of bringing the wine for tomorrow and I reminded her that she had to get it tonight because tomorrow she wouldn't be able to buy any until after 2:00 pm. She was glad I told her, as she'd have been so embarrassed to not have any with her when she arrived. The show opens at 1:00 pm so ooops!
*
I saw one of the guys from the cemetery at Mojo's as we were leaving so I stopped to say "hi" to him as Julia went on to run some errands for tomorrow. Which brings me to now, listening to the washer run and feeling my muscles relaxing as I write. I remember something I forgot to mention Thursday: my friend, Dolly, called with a question regarding how to go about renting a car. Her daughter, born one day before Justin, is going to visit family in Phoenix and didn't know how to go about securing a rental car. I walked her through the process on Orbitz, but I think, but don't know for sure, she's not old enough to rent a car on her own yet. I haven't heard how it went since I had company coming and couldn't stay on the phone too long. It was fun guiding Kristin through the process, just another service I offer!