Tuesday, November 8, 2011

That Lemonade Thing

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" is probably the most overused adage in the world today. It's not that I don't believe it and agree with it, but I'd just like to change the wording to, "When life gives you a gloomy, damp stormy morning after being rousted out of bed by yet another earthquake and you couldn't go back to sleep so you end up at the grocery store at 3:45 a.m. and then drive to Afton in the dark, gusty winds, and heavy rain, only to sit all day in a chilly room with only two visitors. . . make lemonade!" Or, to put it another way, enjoy autumn and use the free time to do some creative tasks!

That's what I did today, during the L-O-N-G time alone between Visitor #1 (a gentleman from Dayton, Iowa) in the morning and Visitor #2 (a gentleman from Deer Creek, Oklahoma) who arrived just as I was packing up to leave. No offense to the visitors. Both were really great guys. But I have to say I enjoyed the down time, too.

I made a stencil which I hope to use to decorate the four iron poles with which surround the Ribbon Road monument. Although I'm extremely experienced in stencil making, I didn't have any of the right equipment with me (a sharp x-acto knife, stencil paper, a pane of glass on which to cut), so it turned out pretty primitive, but it's not horrible. It won't be blue on the posts. It's just that blue is the color I happened to have at the Station.

Then I made about 40 magnets and badges. Two of the designs are just for Saturday's monument dedication. I hope to sell a few that day to defray the cost of food and paper products.
Oh, about that earthquake. . . Yes, we had another one last night, and it jolted me awake again. I really don't hate the feeling, but I'm aware that folks in the small towns closer to the epicenter are pretty freaked out. So far, there have been no injuries, but people are losing their chimneys , the brick facing on their homes, and the crockery on their shelves. Here, about 50 miles from the center, we feel shaking but it's not violent although it lasts quite a long time.

I used the drive home from Afton on Route 66 to appreciate the foliage. It was still dark and gloomy and spitting a bit of rain, but that's just how autumn tends to behave. The leaves were showing more color as a result of the moisture on them. By the time I got home, I'd made lemonade out of those lemons.

2 comments:

Trevor Hilton said...

Leaves are getting pretty down here, too. I've been carrying my camera to work with me to snap picture on my way home. I got some pretty pictures of the Rock Of Ages Gas Station outside of Arcadia.

Beth said...

It was really surprising to read about your earthquakes. I don't think it's even associated with the New Madrid fault, which is supposed to be such a danger to the Midwest. I'm just glad that no one was hurt!