Thanks and a saga for your pleasure

Cathy Babula and I have shared going to shows together for a while...splitting the fees and the sales and wrapping, and set-up and take down often.

She has made some amazing work this year, while I've done less than usual.

We both must say a great deal of gratitude to those who stepped up and helped us behind the scenes.

The Saga of the Van Lights and getting to the show on time!

Tim loaded his van with my pots (3 tupperware bins) and shelving unit...then we met Cathy and he loaded Cathy's table and pots and shelf, after he'd already added another seat to the van so we all could go together to Marion from Black Mountain Friday evening.

Did I mention Black Mountain was in the midst of a festival called Holly Jolly? Pedestrians and police stopping traffic for them to cross the streets...a real slow-down for traffic. Happy shoppers, free treats in stores, music...you get the picture.

We took a back route to the Interstate and got as far as the first exit going east and the van's headlights began to go completely out, and we smelled that "hot wire" smell that sometimes happens with electric wires. If we hadn't had the lights go out before that exit, we would have been trapped going all the way to Old Fort on the pass over the mountain...which would have been pretty darn scary.

So Tim found his flashers button (with the help of my phone's flashlight) and we went back to Black Mountain, quickly giving up any options to get to Marion to set up by 6:30 (which was only about 20 minutes from then already.) The flashers made the van somewhat visible to other cars, and Tim knew the road in the dark, which it was!

We parked at Tim's house, which could be reached without driving through town, and he downloaded our various pottery show stuff into his other vehicle, his small pickup...which could hold one other person and half the cargo from the van. Then he took Cathy and her things to her pickup...while I sat in the dark in his very dark van in his dark front yard.

Eventually he was back with empty pickup, having again gone through the Holly Jolly crowd, or the back way (I didn't ask.)  So he loaded the rest of the stuff from van to pickup, and he took me home. But we drove directly through town, with several (infuriating?) pedestrian crowd crossings.  I was easily showing my impatience by then.

There we put things in my car. Cathy and I had decided to drive separately early the next morning to set up in Marion without Tim.  I had originally asked Tim to have a dinner as a thank you for his help, but we were all pretty tired by then (Friday night) so I gave him a "rain check."

Thus the saga of the van's lights and not taking us to set up in Marion for the pottery show.

But Tim happened to be available for unloading my car the next evening when I got home from the show, and he was agreeable for having dinner out that evening! I was tired but hungry for seafood and cheese cake for desert. And he hadn't been working on his light situation because he'd been working (with real pay as a bookkeeper) that day.

Our other helpers behind the scenes were volunteer high school students who had big flat dollies with which they loaded our things from cars to our booth, and then back again following the show. We tipped them liberally.

I love the display shelf my son gave me for putting my sculptures and pots on, but I haven't been doing much lifting lately, and putting the shelves in place required a couple of other folks to help. Thanks so much.

All in all, I'm glad I took part in this market. It was definitely different than anticipated!

volunteer appreciation

I have noticed how much of our town's growth depends not upon corporate finaces trickling down....but upon the backs of our volunteers (either retired people or those who can afford to give their time and energies to charitable organizations.)

And what is the return these folks get from their dedication?

Smiling faces who receive food from Bounty and Soul, and Food Connection.  Gathering with other like minded people and getting to know new friends in their volunteer work.  Education is certainly a bonus from my being a docent at the Swanannoa Valley History Museum.  I wish I could remember half of what I hear about!  And giving back to the areas that feel like blessings in my life, which is what my volunteer time at the Clay Studio of Black Mountain Center for the Arts provides for me.

The lunch program runs on volunteers who prepare and clean up, who serve the lunches which are catered by a local restaurant in Asheville under a Council on Aging program.  The Black Mountain Recreation and Parks has a few paid employees who organize things, including trips around the area.

I know our church also runs on the backs, hands and feet of volunteers.  As a new editor for a monthly magazine for that organization, I want to feature the volunteers who don't get as much recognition as I think they should.  Others feel the same way, and hopefully will write articles for me, which I'll then add to this newsy e-zine.

But I'm also aware of many time having joined a committee, or worked to share a new creative idea, which over time doesn't seem to work as well as my original intention, and then I've just done the job that is maybe menial but I can do it. And then eventually I've "burned out."

I think appreciation is a lame way to avoid that.  There is little feedback to let volunteers know that they are doing well, or maybe need to change their approach so that their work will be more (what?)  It should be enjoyable for them, and fruitful for their particular job, and efficient in that they won't make more work for others, and appreciated by those they serve of course.

If you volunteer somewhere, how do you know that you're doing it well? How do you feel committed and invigorated in the doing?  Seriously.  Comment below, because I want to know.

It's Monday so it must be Bounty and Soul day

Volunteers unload produce from the Bounty and Soul truck, and then put the food in baskets for us to go by and take whatever we want, free.  Us seniors get some things that are pretty high priced in some stores, but have been donated for us to enjoy.  This week I came home with a baking potato for 2 (huge), a grapefruit, some cherry tomatoes, a lemon, a halo orange, a bag of 3 pounds of bartlett pears (unripe), a small serving of organic spinach...and I didn't take about half of the other things, 3 kinds of squash, eggplant, onions, cucumbers, bananas, apples and a few things I've forgotten.

Many of us will have plenty to eat this week, and certainly more variety in our meals.  The same outfit will offer the same foods at 2 or 3 other sites this week.  What a wonderful opportunity for those who don't receive government food subsidies, or maybe some do.  But this program is helping so many of us.  My refrigerator is full again.

I mentioned this beneficial outfit before in a post HERE.

Let's see, last week I used an eggplant and squash and onion and added some cheese, spaghetti sauce and Italian bread crumbs, drizzled some olive oil and made a faux eggplant parmesan.  And I still have some left over...so I didn't get any of those ingredients this week.  I was out with friends over the weekend, and each time I brought home a box to provide another meal...that way I justify ordering larger servings because they make 2 meals.

So getting to age 76, I've learned a few tricks...mainly to live more economically now that I'm on a "fixed income."  The only things not fixed are the prices of things I need to purchase!

There's a great thrift shop (locally owned and operated) that provides pretty much of my wardrobe these days. I've learned the Goodwill people aren't really as friendly when they refused to give a homeless man a coat (or maybe it was a shirt.) Either way, what's with these people?

Blog updates

Last night I revived the family tree blog.

That meant shifting the postings about the ancestors that I've added to this blog in the last month.  I've got a whole lot more over here, from last year going back 6 years or so.  I don't think I'll shift them all!  The family history blog can be the place I store information (and pictures and documents) that I want available without going to the Ancestry site (which is a leased site).

Today I'm getting into shifting my activities as well.

I'm volunteering in different venues for the rest of the summer.  Instead of spending time (and money) daily to make pottery, I'm going to work as a docent in the Swannanoa Valley History Museum.  I think I need to focus on my interest in history and genealogy for this wonderful little town of Black Mountain, and the area around it in western North Carolina.  The Western North Carolina area is so distinct that most people use Capital letters to designate it, or just say WNC.

It's mainly mountains, and wonderful valleys, and a few towns with Asheville as one that gets to city status.  It has enveloped several of the smaller towns around it, but Black Mountain stays distinct.

This morning I sip my coffee as I listen to Marina Raye's flute music, and birds out the open windows...and a bit of traffic away in the background.  Occasionally a train rumbles past and toots its noisy whistle at the crossing of Blue Ridge Road.  Yes, who knew that I'd retire and actually live on a road by that name...which elicits the nearby parkway which is a national park.

So that is where my thoughts are this morning.  I'll also go sign up to volunteer at the Old Depot in Black Mountain, where I already have my pottery for sale.  It just makes sense!

Last night's rain

Actually I took these a few nights ago, when the sun came out and gave us a lovely double rainbow.

But today is market day in Black Mountain, so I'm glad the rain has gone, though the sun isn't out yet.  It's so nice and cool at night in the mountains.

I'm taking some more pottery over and will bring home some that didn't sell last week.  It would be nice to never have to bring it home, wouldn't it?  Oh well, that's the way of markets these days.

The Volunteer appreciation party at church was well attended, though not as well as I hoped. We were inside rather than on our lawn.  I should list everyone who helped make our Trillium Festival and yard sale so effective.  Never doubt what a group of committed people can do, which I think was first said by Margaret Mead.  I sure appreciated all their work.