Sadness and Site Update

Yesterday started off with some sad news. Yesterday morning, Mark's mother passed away following a long illness. Mark and Patty, along with the two older boys, will go to Florida on Wednesday for the service and funeral on Thursday. We extend all of our prayers and sympathy to Mark and his family on this sad occasion.

I spent most of the day buying the fence and chasing around town to various hardware supply stores to get all the material needed to complete the installation. On my way home in the afternoon, I stopped into the office, as usual, to check on our mail and to extend our stay here to the 16th of May. I was thrown a curve ball when I discovered that our site had been rented for Memorial Day weekend. With all of the improvements we made to the site, and in all of the conversations we've had with the office personnel, we never anticipated another party occupying our space at any time. Our commitment from them on the annual plan for our space prohibits any other party from occupying the space at any time. The problem is, we aren't officially on the annual plan and we don't have our space "officially" reserved for the year until payment is made for the entire year. Now, instead of paying the annual fee in October when we return, we are forced to pay now in order to keep from taking down all the improvements and placing them in a storage unit for the summer - and also to prevent our space from being rented during the summer months. Not very pleasant news. I will hold off installing the fence until this is resolved.

Josie is putting in her long days now, and is anxious for this stretch to end. Beginning on Friday, we both will be in the middle of the frenzy until Mother's Day - a week from today. Having owned a shop before, we are both aware that this holiday, along with Valentine's Day, is the key to a shop having a good year financially.

I also had a chance to catch the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby yesterday and was happy to see the favorite win. The fun now will be watching to see if the horse can win the triple crown which is rare in horse racing. This one - California Chrome - will have as good a shot as any after seeing how strong it raced yesterday.

One thing became evident while driving around yesterday, and that was the fact that the Saguaro's are about to burst into full bloom. I took this one shot of a Saguaro that I could get close to, and will leave this entry with the shot:

See ya tomorrow...