Frantic Friday?

This morning Tom and I went over to the library to help set up for the first book sale of the year, one of three annual sales put on by the Friends of the Kilbourn Public Library to raise funds for special projects. This one-day sale is in conjunction with the Taste of the Dells celebration downtown.

Normally this June sale is a fairly small operation. The largest sale is in September with another small cleanup effort in October.

This year, however, because a small local academy closed down, they donated all of the library books left over after their own clearance sale last fall. As a result, the library has a ton of things on hand and did not actively solicit other donations for this sale. We were all convinced we would never get everything out on the tables, but our director encouraged us and amazing things happened. By the time Tom and I left at noon, it looked like almost everything was going to be ready for sale. Much depends on the weather, however, because the paperbacks, movies and audio materials are displayed on a large patio. The chances of rain tomorrow may make that impossible.

At any rate, we put in close to three hours of work. We went for lunch at a local place with gyros, a place Tom had not tried yet. A bit to my surprise, he was satisfied with the gyro. Not that he's picky, but he does have standards.

Then home to wrap up some of his paintings for him to take with him to Chicago tomorrow for Rebecca's new home. Because he wants to take the truck and it will probably rain at least part of the way, he wrapped each painting (two are 3 feet by 4 feet and another is 4 by 4) in canvas drop cloths, then layers and layers of stretch plastic wrap, first one way all around, then around the edges to seal and then all the way around again across the previous layers. It took two of us but we managed.  After all that, he cut up large garbage bags and added an additional layer of plastic around each package. This, he told me, is why he doesn't want to sell his work. Too much trouble to ship!

Sundance did her best to help by wandering around underfoot. I was getting dizzy walking around and around the paintings so much, and she is lucky she did not get stepped on. Cassidy, who had been sprawled out in the middle of the floor where we needed to work, ran off after the first large drop cloth descended upon her. Sundance stayed in the room because she suspected the whole thing was just an act to distract her and make her miss a mid-afternoon snack. As if!

Tom heads out tomorrow and will be gone until some time next week. He will see his twin grandchildren for the first time, as well as having a chance to see all his children. He and Helen will drive back here next week (day a little uncertain at the moment) and she will proceed to St. Paul by train, possibly after staying overnight to recuperate a bit.

The cats and I will try to hold down the fort. I expect them to follow me around all the time Tom is away. When only one of us is home, the cats tend to want to keep an eye on him to make sure they are not going to be abandoned completely and left to starve.