Procrastination

Just for a minute or two. I have so, so many things to do that I just can't get started. They're demanding things today: a new logo design for the OCF, more or less visualized but not on paper, and several pieces of art for several customers who all ordered on Thursday and Friday. I put way too many items on my credit card for post-Fair payment. So much riding on three days in mid-July.

I committed to buy a huge pile of locally-made tote bags of an untested design that I have a lot of faith in, and that I need a couple of weeks ago to be efficient about their decoration. I hope they sew like crazy next week down at T&J. I'm really over-excited about having locally made goods. Most of the bags I sell are made in China out of relatively cheap fabrics, and you know what their labor picture looks like. Probably the largest portion of the cost is the freight. Of course the local ones will most likely have to use imported canvas since textile production has not come back to the southeast just yet, but it is definitely a great improvement to get the bags made here. The quality is terrific.

Between T&J Designs in Springfield and Silver Linings Productions down on 4th and Lincoln, we now have two textile production factories in our area, so the next thing we need is to have a big organization to commission a hefty order of t-shirts for the 2015 event. It seems so close, just within our reach to walk our talk down to the tags. How cool would it feel to have your staff shirt say Made in Eugene/Springfield for the Oregon Country Fair?

I would love it. We could get organic fabric and make it any colors we want, now that we have run out of the good useable colors in the Royal line. Using local printers has been a huge success and has saved the Fair some money, so the next step is sourcing the garments here. An excellent goal.

I also bought 48 purple hats. Eugene is probably the only place where you can sell that many purple hats and mine continue to sell out. *Queen Bee* on purple is apparently irresistible. I drew some little bees and have been adding them to the bee series: I now have Worker Bee, Queen Bee and Beekeeper. Getting on the bandwagon, because who doesn't love bees?

The duplex next to me went this week from a jungle of about ten years of neglect to a sterile wasteland of dirt and "beauty bark." The previous renters had lost control of it though I still tried to corral the blackberries and maintain a bit of garden on that side of my house, expanding my raspberries and blackcaps to fill space. I'm way over my property line into an easement that lies between us, and when the renters left I dug up a few things left by previous renters. I knew Stacy and Rita would have wanted me to save the hydrangea and the grape vine and I wish I had gotten over my moral qualms and stolen more of the plants, as the workers were apparently instructed to cut every living thing to the ground. They killed a lilac but left weeds, took some artichokes I could have eaten and wiped out lilies and other bulbs I could have dug if I knew where they were. They'll be covered with fabric and bark and are probably already dead. I'd been watering, and probably still will water what is left. I relocated many of the rocks which were going to be taken to the dump. It's hard to watch this type of management in a neighborhood of gardeners, but perhaps they will be able to make the yard cute enough to attract some new gardening tenants or owners.

The loss of habitat is frightening. There had to be birds nesting in those thickets, and I hope they had all fledged. I won't really miss the blackberries, as I've been trying to get rid of them for more than 25 years now. They had a fine crop of bindweed too. We lost privacy, and the neighborhood lost the little children who added so much life to our street. I keep finding their little cars and toy fragments in the dirt.

All we can do is look forward. Of course we all are talking about buying the property, but though they will make it look cute, it has some problems still to fix. Some, like the siding which will not hold paint, are only temporarily fixable. It won't be a good deal. I can't recommend it to anyone I know, though I would love to be in touch with the owners for a change. But it will be fine.

And I don't have time to think much about it. The workers were all good people and they gave me countless things they didn't want to take to the dump and they didn't eat my berries the way those cute kids did. I'm sitting in a really nice chair saved from the basement. I got new stepping stones in all of my messy-looking gardens, and maybe I won't be living next to the worst house on the block now. All will be well, as I constantly have to remind myself this month. It will all get done.

I'm not going to go find any photos for you though. I have to get with my day-off program and get to work. I'll get a day off in August. It will be epic. I'll be rich. I'll probably be fully stocked for Holiday Market at the rate I'm going this month; over-production is my tendency and it kind of makes sense, and allows me to take it easier in the post-Fair season, when I need to paint the south side and put a roof on the shop. I'll get to do that kind of thing then.

Besides it's cold and cloudy. I had to wear a jacket all day yesterday. Summer doesn't really start to be full-on until the fifth of July, after it rains on the 4th. Even though we know that, we still complain. Ahh, Eugene.

By the way, no one is buying Curmudgeonland City Council, a hat I thought was brilliantly funny. I think that may be because people are thinking I am talking about our City Council, which I assuredly am not. Our City Council has a curmudgeon or two, but usually I am pretty pleased with the level of dedication and caring in our city leaders. It's supposed to be a comment on the level of self-importance in some difficult people I guess, the way they feel they should be in charge of something, or everything. Some random man suggested the idea, and if he shows up I will give him his free hat, but it wasn't meant to be a political statement. So you can buy one. Maybe someone will.

I think Eugene might just be too full of nice people. Guess I can live with that. In our discussions by the fountain yesterday we reflected on how OCF was all about people taking care of each other, as opposed to Burningman, for instance, which is about radical self-sufficiency. Slightly different tribes who can learn from each other. I'll reflect more on that as I draw my peach today. One of my biggest concerns is whether or not I will be able to finish Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch before it is due back at the library. You see how I am. Today's big reward will be reading until I fall asleep, which will probably involve one page. Maybe two. Read a novel for me this week.