Still Kickin'...

No, I didn’t go throw myself off the neighbors’ roof to protest his tree-massacre—in case you were wondering. We had an event this past weekend—the "Newport Microbrew Festival." Newport is on the coast, about 140 miles south of here. The weather was NOT nice on Friday…even had some lightning and thunder, which always elicits "oohs" and "ahs" from a crowd in Western Oregon. We don’t get a whole lot of that kind of violent weather in the valleys. Fortunately, WE were inside under a big tent, thumbing our noses at the weather gods. After feeling like drowned rats at a couple of our most recent events, we were ecstatic about being under cover.

Business was not great, once again, but decent enough that we will  return to that event next year. Our product was well-received, for the most part. I had a couple of people walk up to the counter and wise-crack, "Oh, and this stuff is really low-carb, isn’t it?" I couldn’t resist firing back, "Yeah, just like that beer you’ve got in your hand…!" We were approached by a couple of folks who invited us to other venues next season, so the weekend had "networking" value, if nothing else.

Since things were slow, I tried to write a journal entry while sitting waiting for customers. I didn’t bring my laptop with me to the booth, because I don’t like to take the chance of it getting bounced around so much. So, I sat down with a pen and a spiral notebook and tried to write…and I made a discovery: I just HATE writing by hand anymore. It’s slow, it’s labor intensive, it’s impossible to edit. I actually DID write a poem on Friday night…but it took me about three hours, and a dozen sheets of paper to get through the first umpteen drafts, until I finally came up with something I liked. (The poem is about the trees, so I won’t share it here. I think I’ve beaten THAT dead horse quite enough!)

I now have a six-week lay-off until my next event. This is a good thing. We’re having my cousins in from out of town at the end of October, so I’ll have to spend at least a week fussing around the house and yard to get ready for that. And husband and I will be off for a week’s vacation starting October 16th, which also happens to be our twenty-eighth wedding anniversary (OMG…HOW many years is that again?) We’ve scheduled another romantic camping trip…this time at a place called "Silver Falls" for the first weekend, and then out to our favorite hang-out on the coast for the remainder of the time. We hope the weather will cooperate. I’m going to pack the new digital camera I just bought…hope to get some great "Autumn in Oregon" shots to share with you all here. Nowhere to connect to the internet in State Park campgrounds, so I will be MIA from j-land for a week or so. I’m sure you could all use a break from me, anyway!