No Me Day

 This preparing for a craft show - getting my mugs and such inventory built up - is hard work. I thought it would be a rather slow week, and I could work in the pottery room lots. I did work out there lots, but there was lots of grunt work to be done. Reclaiming clay is the pits. It is taking the clay that we used, but did not fire, soaking it, drying it some, and wedging and working it back to a good consistency.  It is hard on my shoulders to wedge so much. Some day, I will get a pugger to do the work for me.  Although I did manage to throw a few cups, I spent most of my time glazing. After Tuesday when my pottery student was here, I figured we had enough pieces for a glaze fire. I loaded up the kiln until it could not hold anymore and had a few pieces that would not fit.  So on Thursday morning I fired up the kiln. This morning I unloaded it. There are always a few things that don't work just right. This time, I had three mugs that will need touched-up or just become seconds - stuff we don't sell, but is usable. We give away seconds or use them ourselves, and we have plenty of mugs in the cabinet.  The good news is that it has been cool enough in the mornings not to run the air conditioner out in the pottery room. It doesn't work very well anyways. Not only do I need a pugger, I need a new air conditioner.

Part of Wed. was spent cleaning house. Dang it, sometimes you just have to do it. I vacuumed and mopped thinking that my brother and his wife might come by. Their son is getting engaged next week. They ordered a ring. The jeweler had it sent here - I guess if you ships it out of state, there is no tax. Anyway, having an expensive ring sent by mail is nerve-racking. But it came in, and instead of coming here, we met my Bro and SIL in Duncan for dinner. I was too tired from all that cleaning to fix supper - ha!

Thursday night, CTAC had their first live concert. We had it at the fair grounds, served beer, and had a place to dance. This venue and dance was something new for us. The young man who sang was Matt Mercado - he sounded a lot like George Strait and sang mostly George Strait songs. It all turned out very well, although the crowd was small (but what do you expect for a Thursday night? God forbid that we have an event on the same night as high school football). Everyone seemed to really enjoy the concert. They probably didn't know all the hassle that went into preparing. The fair ground's barn was not air conditioned. They had a couple of huge fans, but no cool. The flies were horrendous (even now there is a fly buzzing me making me loco). We used the big fans to blow them out, but doors and windows had to be left open for air flow. The beer was donated by a local store, but they delivered it to the wrong place. We had to go get it and bring it back, unload it, and put it in the coolers. Because of the problemas, I arrived early. Then I always stay with our director until she goes home. It just seems the thing to do. It was a late night for me - 10 PM!

So today, Friday, I thought it would be a day to do pottery. A day all to myself. Then it became obvious that we needed groceries. So I planned a trip to Walmart. Then Toby wanted to have lunch with me. I'm not complaining. Lunch with Toby is always fun, but it kind of threw the day off. By the time I got home from shopping, I was pooped. I did do a little bit of pottery - putting handles on mugs. But I was kind of hoping for a me day. Tomorrow, I am going to a wedding with my Cousin Connie. We will show up and be the two crazy cousins. Someone has to do it.