The Fall Festival is over. Sales were just a tad behind last year, not bad considering inflation's kick on spending this year versus folks coming out of the woodwork after finally feeling covid-free last year and finally able to spend money. But everything went just fine, things are back in their places inside the club, checks are written (not my job) to those who sold items (like me), and we can take a deep breath. Unless we're one of those sick right now from covid, RSV, pneumonia, etc., like we're hearing about from several of our members.The new tablecloth/banner looked great except for the people hanging it over a pair of tables instead of one, not understanding it was extra-wide because the sides were supposed to drape to the floor off the ends of the table for privacy of whatever/whoever was under there.
Thanksgiving cooking is finished, and as I do every year while making my stuffing muffins, the three days of work cooking drive home yet again my determination not to actually cook anything again till next year. Sure, I'll make sandwiches, nuke water for instant coffee/mocha or prepared food in the microwave, even including scrambling eggs in a paper bowl lined with margarine or stored bacon fat. While that may seem like cooking, I don't define it that way, mostly since there are no pots and pans to clean up afterwards.
Glass drilling has progressed far enough that I can proceed to make wind chimes needed to go our for X-mas presents, possibly even in time to arrive for the actual holiday for those who didn't get them ahead last summer to save shipping. (OK, so I'm cheap! Get over it!) Last night as I hung the latest one, I took a look at it and instantly decided I have a better way to use the wires to connect the glass pieces of they can swing freely. I think I'll redo that one... later. (If you need a re-do on yours from last summer, let me know and I'll bring enough wire and tools. Just give me a couple hours.)
The Christmas Tree Challenge still has a few days before it needs to show up in the club, and I think a few revisions in concept and a couple new skills will actually give me the concept I want to execute. The insomnia has retreated once I came up with the latest how-to, so now it's just the long haul of actually implementing all the minutia of wire work - in time.The basic form has been filled in with more framework giving proper shape to the final product, and should be completely covered rather than open to some kind of internal webbing of wire and hung beads like the first two samples to show up back in the club have been showing. Then after that, the basic tree will have jingle bells, candy canes and a tinsel drape added to the outside, with a tree topper in a variation of my wire poinsettias, and underneath on a green felt "floor" will sit a fancy box with a red wire bow on one side and a sleeping cat on the other. I have all I needed already prepared. It's just a matter of wiring things in place now. Or gluing in the case of the floor. It will take till Sunday night, most likely, but it doesn't have to show up till Monday morning. In fact, it won't, as I don't want to give anybody else any ideas.
Steve looked at the form, listened to my concept, and watched me start putting things together, and commented, "You're a bit competitive, aren't you." Ya think? It caught my imagination, and anything giving me insomnia needs resolution. It grew from there. My most recent idea sprung up last night on my way to bed, and is easy enough to avert more insomnia. I just need good glue....
Steve announced he found that glass table/chair patio set we've been talking about since we moved in here. We came down with a wicker set originally but it's not doing all that well in Arizona sun. After my Monday club duties we hit the thrift store that set was selling for me to check it out before he bought it for me. I had one question for him: once you sit in one of these chairs, can you get out again by yourself? I knew it would be an issue because it was a swivel rocker style. After my knee surgery years ago, we spent time at the neighbor's patio and I sat in one of those. Anything that rocks has the front drop as you lean forward to stand. Any bad knees need steady high support under the knees for standing to occur. Two helpers barely managed to get me out of that chair back then, and only after several tries, some rethinking, and a lot of pain. But I let Steve check it out for himself. It took two other people to get him up from the chair that went with that set. However...
There was another glass table next to it, even prettier, sold alone, and some steel patio chairs sold separately a few feet in the other direction. We had him try one of the steel chairs, and normal effort was all it took. Even better, they were having a half-off day, bringing the total down lower than his original planned budget even including delivery. Rich had the area cleared and the new set plus cushions laid out where it catches the morning sun and afternoon shade, and we gave it a tryout last night. Other than a temperature of 48, it was a very successful excursion.
The wicker set, minus one very nice piece as a side table holding Steve's pipe set, is curbside with a "FREE" sign with it. If nobody wants a painting project, it'll be chopped up and fed into the landfill via regular trash pickups.
The living room X-mas tree is up. It's what is now our usual, a 4' artificial white one with white lights already in the branches, small enough to sit on Steve's roll-top desk, sturdy enough to hold a string of bubbler lights. We have two strings plus spare bulbs, but figure one string in use means all the other bulbs stay available for replacements regardless of what the market chooses to provide in the future. After the club Christmas party I'll being my challenge tree home and it will become an annual decoration as well, no matter how it scores in the competition. The jingle bell wreath went on the outside of the security door like every other year, once the new door was installed. (It spends the rest of the years on my closet doorknob. No particular reason beyond sticking it there once until a better location came along.)
So with all that holiday stuff taken care of, or under control at least, what disrupted my peace of mind? Sunday night, I happened to look at the calendar. There is a Board meting this Friday! I totally spaced it, somehow thinking (OK, not thinking, alright?) that I still had an extra week to prepare for it. It's every 1st Friday, because it comes before the Membership meeting, this time being our party, but falling on the 2nd Monday of each month through the "winter" season down here. I have to set the agenda and I hadn't given it a single thought since the last one. Been kinda busy, you know? I started obsessing about whether our secretary had gotten me a copy of minutes from the last Board meeting, as that's my starting place for each next agenda, before adding whatever has come up during the month. It finally dawned on me that of course she hadn't. She was sick last month. So I, as former secretary, did double duty last month, running the meeting and recording it as well. I am the one with the copy of the minutes on my computer, dutifully sent out to the rest of the board the day after the meeting. I'll resend it along with the new agenda by Thursday, aka tomorrow. But right now I gotta go wind the ten foot multicolor wire thing around the wire form to make the body of my challenge tree while I listen to the TV.
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