lost days

The days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s are, for the most part, lost time for me.  What I mean by that is, these are days I have no control over.  Between certain obligations on my part and the general mild hysteria the population engages in this time of year, both combine to make it impossible to further my personal agenda, whatever that happens to be.  

There is Hanukah, which floats around and is early this year, Christmas, Marc’s birthday and New Year’s.  And then there is whatever work I have in the shop at the time and having the grandkids down to the country house sometime during the holidays.  Whereas I am totally non-observant, the people around me are not.  I’m not a shopper at best (of course, if I found myself independently wealthy at some point I could sure give it a try).  It’s not that I dislike buying gifts for people, it’s just that whole time constraint thing.  You have to do it by certain dates or it doesn’t count and those dates have a nasty habit of sneaking up on me.  Because I’m non-observant and don’t keep track of that stuff.  So it never fails that I am in a time crunch with getting some job done when I have to squeeze in time for shopping.

The only job I am trying to get finished is the Oklahoma Heart Hospital, the one I have been posting about.  I had set a finish by date in my head of December 15th.  Last Tuesday, the art consultant called and asked about our progress.  His truck with all the other art for the hospital is leaving on the 10th.  He didn’t pressure me, said it could be crated and shipped later, but his crew will be there through the 14th installing all the art.  It would make it so much easier on both of us if we could get finished in time to get the panels on the truck so we are staying in town to work instead of heading home this afternoon.  

So the lost days are beginning and I will have to shelve the selfish things, the things I want to do for no one’s pleasure but my own until the holidays are behind us.  It’s not as bad as it sounds.  I will have fun with family and friends, the obligations are not onerous, I will enjoy giving the gifts but I will also be glad when it’s over.

later...

I have put in a very long day today.  All the sandblasting is done and all but two of the big panels have their second stencil cut and 6 of the 12 have the background etching done.  We could easily finish on Saturday if the weather would cooperate.  The past two days have been only moderately cold and no rain.  Unfortunately, the weather people are predicting a frigid wet front to come sliding in tonight or tomorrow bringing with it snow and ice.  

Snow and ice.  Two words that strike fear into the heart of any true southerner.