I have never been a good sick person. And it is all the harder when one has to take care of oneself and still try to keep up with the business aspect of one’s life that doesn’t stop when you just want to sleep the day away.
My time to totally get rid of this cold has been slow. The first week I was really miserable, but as time has gone on, feeling better every day. Still, the cough hangs on and don’t have my energy totally back yet.
The attitude of the Manitou Springs Officials about the promoter that is trying to sneak in another “Art Festival” into Manitou Springs during its busiest tourist time and also its rainest month, it the Park that Commonwheel was directed away from, well, that is just frustrating. It had me questioning what I have been doing to create a quality Art Festival over the last 40 years, with my sabbatical years not counted as time I coordinated it, but the Art Festival did start in 1975 and always only allowed in high quality art work. I guess we will see what we shall see on July 26 & 27. Will there actually be an Art Festival, or will it be canceled, or will it be filled with collectibles and other junk? And will there be any advertising? Or will he just rely on the tourist traffic that will be in town that weekend.
And since today we had Hwy 24 closed, opened, closed, opened again, causing the Police to direct people away from even coming into Manitou Springs and Fountain Creek ran fast and very muddy brown, would an Event in Memorial Park have been asked to close down?
The Art Co-op was told by an police officer to close as the water was rising pretty high behind the building.
I had walked down for a ManitFest meeting last Monday, only to find out it was canceled. There was a Commonwheel meeting that night, but not for 3 hours. So I got in a 2 mile walk, instead of just one that day. I could tell my lungs were still filled with crud, as it was hard to walk back home, uphill, then back again a couple of hours later. It was an interesting meeting. Our President asked for compensation for extra time she had spent training us on the POS system. People thought she should have asked before, but then she didn’t know that the system wouldn’t be up and running with less than 24 hours before it was to be used. I was kinda torn between yes, she deserved compensation, but yes, this wasn’t the perfect way to ask. Since I had been the first person to use the system, I saw how many glitches it had that we resolved that day because she knew who to call or where to look for a solution.
But it did have me wondering why I haven’t asked for some compensation for all the extra time I have had to spend, not just last year moving the Art Festival in just 3 weeks, but since then getting all the new pieces in place for it to be in Fields Park again, and the many extra meetings I have attended to get us some new and really great advertising. Then there is the addition of the Bristol Beer/Wine Garden. I am going to hint at the idea I deserve a bonus for the first time in many a year . . . but where that will go if the Festival doesn’t make money this year, which is a high possibility, how do I handle that?
Which leads to why I am a bit depressed. Financially I haven’t been able to create a better situation for me with my time eaten up by the Art Festival during the months I normally would have spent really focused on my own business. I did get the “How To Create A Sustainable Event” on Kindle, but it needs tweaking and promoting. I feel a bit guilty that I haven’t had time to read and implement all the suggestions my Arizona cousin has taken time to do for me. But I will very soon.
I have paid for classes and software that I haven’t had time to explore. A really interesting one of Drag & Drop ways to create Children’s books. I am not sure why it is that much better than my being able to work well in PhotoShop. There are lots of characters and backgrounds that come with it. But then, I have tons of photos and could create my own. Still the price was right, and it has some other software that comes with it to help create “path” books where a reader can chose where they want to go next in a story line. How to add those type of links can be tricky, so this could be very helpful when I do get back into writing more books.
And taking time to rest and heal my body has also pulled me away from sitting at the computer. But that is really important if I am to get through the next two months without a relapse or get even sicker.
I got myself motivated to get ink for one of the printers that isn’t working. The girl there told me all of her kids are sick in the same manner of symptoms as I have. She also gave me ink cartridges for free and told me they could help me find a printer to replace the laser printer if I want them to help. And at Costco, I ran into a “health nut” friend, and he told me he has had a nagging cough for over 2 months. I really don’t want to have that happen to me, so resting is a good idea along with many herbs and essential oils applied to my body and taken internally.
I brought some oils for my 1st Friday Tune-up and had Sharing Inner Health work them deep into my spine. I do think that helped.
One of my clients actually got his book on Kindle. We worked together and separately to make this happen. Yeah! Next is his book that needs to be published by someone else not connected to him. I keep putting off talking to CreateSpace to make sure I have things set up for HieroGraphics to be a publisher and that I can also have my personal space as an author. Just wrote myself a big note to do this tomorrow.
I do think I will have the Art Festival Flyer ready to go to the printer on Friday, maybe even on Thursday. Finally getting people giving me the information I need.
Then there is this odd virus that has popped up on my computer that resets itself whenever I delete it after a virus scan. Where it came from, how it got past Norton in the first place, I don’t know. I think I will look into SafeMac Virus Software. It just brings in ads, and sounds pretty harmless, but very annoying and another challenge I could do without!
My hiking friend is going on a trip, so she is not into taking a hike this week. I really need to get out in Nature in the sunshine after all this craziness and dealing with this cold.
I was suppose to go to Denver on Sunday for a reunion of the Great Book Group ladies, but just could not convince myself to drive for 3 hours round trip for a bit of camaraderie. I did get a quick chat with the organizer and she is going to plan another gathering in the Fall. I should be more up for that one, as I miss these ladies that I used to see about every two months, then haven’t seen in way over a year.
At the Gallery, when I returned from my trip, I saw that I had sold quite a few masks and hair clips. I raided my Etsy store for masks to get masks to my display quickly. I have spent a couple of sessions in my feather studio to create hair clips and masks for the Gallery. I noted that I hadn’t been selling earrings this summer, which was weird, then today when I checked in my masks, I saw I had sold some. I was going to stop by and figure out exactly which ones on my way home, but instead I did a “good Samaritan” thing that kept me from going back to the Gallery. When my ManiFest meeting was cancelled because people couldn’t get into Manitou Springs due to the Flood Alert, a family from Pennsylvania came by and asked what to do as they were not being allowed to go up the street to get to the Cog Railroad that they had 4pm tickets for. One of the people at the MAC suggested I ride with them and show them the back way to Ruxton Avenue that is my street and goes up to the Cog Railroad station. So I did that. It made them very happy and I did my “good deed” for the week and got a ride home.
I walked down to see what the creek looked like, but for some reason didn’t take my camera. It was very muddy, not too high, but running very fast. The best part was there didn’t seem to be much debris in it.
I almost forgot the most fun part of my last two weeks. When I went to a Chamber Marketing meeting, I went past the Fields Park and took a picture of the brown grass to ask what was going on. I stayed on El Paso and for some reason, decided to see what house was For Sale at the stop sign street near Rockledge B&B. When I came back down the street, there was a very strange creature laying on the lawn behind a fence.
I do wish I had gotten a better picture, but didn’t get myself energized to get out of the car to do that. And besides, I was debating what I was seeing, a very strange horse, or a Moose, and if it was a Moose, they are considered very unpredictable. Then again, there was an iron fence between us. It turns out a few days later this lady Moose was relocated to a new home, as she was getting too comfortable in the area, and could be a threat to people, especially when she headed down to the park where the pool is and many tourist and locals hang out.
On the 4th of July, I hiked up the road to find a place to sit to watch the fireworks. For many years they would shoot them off Red Mountain which is directly across from my house, but that got dangerous with our really dry winters and summers. So now they shoot them off Higgenbottom Flats near Hwy 24. The place I thought I would watch from had trees that had grown up and nowhere comfortable to sit. So I went up the road a little further and saw a rock that looked very stable at the top of a very steep area. I maneuvered myself safely onto the rock and waited for the show to begin. I did wonder if I could get up safely and considered asking one of the youngsters that gathered on either side of me to “spot me” getting up, but in the end, I just slowly got up and didn’t even get to prickled by the Yucca near me.
I do so love fireworks!