On Saturday, when the Festival applications were dropped off, I also had to redo the Excel a bit for the jurying of the images. I realized we had way fewer applications than in the past. Not even enough to fill the park! This was a very stressful realization. At least when we looked at the images there was no junk or “crafty” applicants. So the hardest part would be if there were too many jewelers and we had to reject some, lowering the number of booth and fees even more.

Sunday I worked for 4 hours with another Commonwheel member downloading the images from applications onto a Thumb drive.

Such a variety of sizes caused some problems. Some were really, really huge – over 20 megabytes! But at least they all opened other than one person’s. This person has applied for many years, so we had last year’s images to use and we know her well. It took a bit of time to size some of them down during this time so she would not have to spend extra time later if they were too big and would make the PowerPoint too big to email back to me. She lives in Pueblo, so was hoping to not have to drive the Thumb Drive back up to Manitou.

We finished just in time for her to get to Commonwheel on time to work the afternoon shift.

That afternoon I wrote an email to send out that night. I sent it just to artists who had applied before that hadn’t applied this time asking if they had missed the earlier deadline. We extended the deadline to the end of the week if they did want to take part in the jury for the Art Festival. On Tuesday there were about 10 more applications and some emails back saying that “The Fields Park” did not work for them and purposely had not applied.  Will check the PO Box on Friday in hopes a few more do show up.

 On Monday I focused on getting the Posts done for “Demented” and some ads and Press Releases needed for Westword for the Commonwheel Art Festival. I continued doing that also on Wednesday and into Thursday.

Tuesday I had 3 meetings scheduled. One with the City Manager to discuss being allowed to put out extra signage the week leading up to and the days of the Art Festival to let people know something was fun was happening at a Park they could not see from Manitou Avenue. Plus I needed to find out if Tajine Alami parking lot would be free on that weekend, or if he had exempted it from the City’s contract for Shuttle parking. He hadn’t, which was great news.

I went to the Bank to deposit all of the Jury Fee Checks and noticed there was equipment in the creek doing some dredging, so I took some time to take pictures.

I was wearing sandals and couldn’t get quite where I had a good vantage point, but am sure a few will be useful in the future for the updating on my “Lessons From Past Floods” book, if I ever get time to write again. (Maybe should be doing that instead of blogging . . . )

I took lots of photos of flowers on my walk. And I just had to take a few photos of the flowers about to bloom in my garden.

There were two Poppies that had a hint of oranges showing and the Peony buds had ants crawling all over them to help them bloom very soon.

When I was sitting on my porch enjoying my lunch, a City Staff person walked into the yard and held out a blue piece of paper saying “I guess this is for you.” It was a notice of an exorbitant amount of water that had been used the last month. 10,000 gallons more than the previous month! This is sure to be very costly, just when I thought I could afford new computer glasses.

I went in and listened to all the pipes, heard no running water. The dial on the water meter wasn’t moving. I had no idea what could be using that much water. So I had to schedule a leak check to figure out the problem. Couldn’t do it that day as I had two more meetings scheduled and my Tony Laidig Tuesday Expert Media Show at 5pm.

I had planned on walking to the Chamber meeting, but after calling my tenants to let them know I might be doing an inspection in their spaces the next morning and again trying to listen for running water or see if the water meter was moving, and it wasn’t, well, it was just too late to walk. So drove there.

The meeting at the Chamber was actually 2 meetings. One to discuss the Chamber helping Commonwheel by hiring the Shuttle we would need, then Commonwheel would pay them as we did last year. She was agreeable to doing that. And probably can get us a better rate that way also.

Next there was a Marketing Meeting. Here I got some help with doing Press Releases to reach more media in a much larger region than just Colorado Springs for the Art Festival and probably they will schedule 2 Live Remotes during the Art Festival as part of the marketing package that was added on to the normal marketing package in years past. Two Big wins! They also asked if I could supply some flood pictures for a group that was offering some more grants to Manitou Springs Businesses that got harmed financially by the flood in 2013.

Got home in time to grab a snack before the Expert Media Show began. He mentioned at the end that he will be doing a training for PowerPoint, something I have wanted for many years.

As I was working on choosing and sizing flood pictures, the John Lennon song “Strange Days Indeed” came on. How very appropriate. The line: “Nobody told me there would be days like these” resonated with me strongly at that moment.

Little did I know the next day would hold an even stranger challenge.

On Thursday, during the Leak Check, it turned out it was my bedroom bathroom toilet was just barely cresting the overflow pipe and ever so slightly constantly sending water down that drain. No sound and so slow that the water meter dial wasn’t noticeably moving. They adjusted a screw and the level of water ended much lower. So simple, yet so horrible. I “save” flushes, take short showers, etc. And here I wasted more water in a month than I would have used watering the gardens for all summer. Frustrating and will be costly, but fixed.

Next I walked over to take pictures for MSAC of a sculpture that was being installed on a pedestal. The welder and artist was there, but the sculpture was not. The artist was bringing it the next day. So the installation was stalled. The welder had a bit of fun with a vegetable that was on the ground nearby. 

I walked to the Post Office and did not find any more applications. One more day before the extended deadline is reached. I know I will still walk over and check until the very last moment in hopes of finding a few more late applications to help with the final financial picture.

I saw that some Poppies and Iris had bloomed, so stopped to not smell, but photograph the flowers.

When I got home, I heard this strange sort of “purring” sound from the basement stairway.

When I looked in the vent pipe at eye level, at least 6 feet above the stairs, a little raccoon face was staring out at me. It quickly retreated.

Now I had noticed some insulation and bits of plaster on the stairs when I had gone in the basement to check the water meter the day before, but had not heard any noise.

I sort of “freaked out” with this discovery.

I called the Humane Society which directed me to the Wildlife Management Division. They do not capture wild animals in any one’s homes any more. Suggested I call someone in the phone book, but had not suggestions for who. Called two friends who I thought might have a humane trap. Neither did. Wanted to give my roommate a heads up, as the pipe comes down the chimney that is in her bedroom, but is sealed off.

Then remembered my plumber friend had dealt with skunks before and called him. He had a Live Trap, but was busy until the end of the day. Thinking about it, not sure how a Live Trap would help, as the creature was in a pipe that was way up in the air. I went outside and looked out at the roof and the chimney. I can’t figure out how the creature got on the roof, as the trees raccoons used to climb on had been cut down. And then how did it get into the chimney? But being at the bottom of a two story metal pipe that lines the chimney, I couldn’t imagine any way for it to climb back out.

Went back to finishing up the ads for Westword and as the day went on, checked to see if it was still in the pipe. Yep, it could be heard. At least it was still alive.

I was getting ready to go to Green Drinks at the Local Grocery when my friend showed up. We looked at the situation together and decided to put a board as a ramp down in hopes it would climb out on its own. Then we put a board ramp to a partially opened window to give it an easy exit route, hoping nothing else would come into the basement and use that ramp tonight.

Last I checked, it was still in the vent pipe . . .

Green Drinks was a smallish crowd, had some interesting conversations. And one person may be bringing me some Chocolate Mint plants. I had almost bought one when looking at plants a few days ago, but didn’t, so that would be lovely to have.

And my Poppies are just beginning to pop out in glorious orange.