Third day of sales

Well yesterday I had an extremely unnerving experience: I was on television.

On Thursday the craft/slash/publicity coordinator for the event asked me if I wanted to be featured during a morning live news feed with a brief interview; she also asked if my booth could be used as a backdrop for an interview with another vendor. With trepidation, I agreed.

I gather much of the media attention for this event occurs on Friday, so I was asked to show up before dawn and get my booth set up (since I break it down every night).

By the time I arrived (5:30 am or so) the news trucks were already set up. There were at least three different stations.

They all had tall antennas set up.

I peeked into one of the news vans at the dazzling space-center-type console.

The interview was with a Matt Johnson with KATU Channel 2 in Portland (he's in the middle). I also photographed the cameraman (left) and the craft coordinator and events publicity person, Chris (right). Matt and the camera man were very very friendly and put me very much at my ease. Poor Chris (who is an angel on earth) had lost her voice and couldn't do much more than whisper, not a good thing if you're the event's publicity person.

After about a half-hour delay, the booth was used as a backdrop to interview another vendor. The woman is Alicia Somebody-or-other and she was extraordinary. Tall, blond, thin, gorgeous, smart... then to top it off, she was one of the nicest people I'd ever met.

You'd think someone blessed with so many gifts would be lofty or snobby, but she wasn't. She was friendly and a hoot, a Tennessean gal who said she had to take French lessons to lose her southern accent in order to anchor.

Here's Alicia's cameraman, filming the interview.

It was fascinating seeing how things happen from the "other side," and it was nice to know that the news people I met were just plain NICE.

I went back to my friend's house for a couple of hours until it was time to open the booth for the day's sales.

Back at the site but before opening, this floating paddleboat museum went down the river...

...toward a raised drawbridge.

What's the old song? "Big wheels keep on turning'..."

Quite an impressive sight.

I also met the fellow who operated that small drone I saw the other day. Turns out the drone has a video camera, and the operator had been hired by the event to video the activities over the five-day run of the show.

Here are the controls. Before the gates opened and the event became crowded, the operator asked permission to swoop the drone low over my booth and photograph the interior.

For obvious reasons the drone can't be brought low when thousands of people are around.

In talking with the operator, I mentioned the large drove that had flown over our house last summer, and he was startled -- very startled -- at hearing it. Despite his little gizmo and what it could (potentially) do, he doesn't like the idea of spying on private citizens. I liked this fellow's attitude.

Anyway, this all happened even before the event opened for the day. Once the crowds started coming through, I was busy! Quite a number of people said they'd seen me on TV, which was kind of freaky.

Amusing T-shirts:

Amusing visitors:

...(including a customer hamming it up)

Really impressive tattoo. I guess.

Here's a young visitor testing one of our miniature "shot glass" tankards (I took it home and washed it afterward).

This woman had such beautiful hairdo that I asked permission to photograph it.

The Portland Police had a visible presence but didn't appear to have much to do except answer questions and be helpful. This is a remarkably well-controlled event with lots of internal security. Over the years I've seen very very few problems.

This reggae/rhythm band had a dancer who had an astounding amount of energy -- she danced on stage to the drums and never stopped.

The band inspired a conga line. No kidding.

It was a very long, long day (especially since I'd been up since 4 am) and I went home exhausted, but I also sold 43 pieces -- so no complaints from me!

First day of sales

Well this was a first for all the years I've been doing this sales event -- it rained.

To Portlanders, of course, rain is nothing more than "liquid sunshine." Rain in Portland is like sunshine in Phoenix -- it happens all the time. Nonetheless it's the first time it rained on me during this particular show.

Thankfully I was renting a booth provided by the event, and it was watertight. I only put out two of my four shelving units, stripped the booth of anything dangling (tankards, signage, etc), and otherwise kept a pared-down display.

The problems didn't arise from what was falling from above. The problems arose from what was collecting below. The vendor booths are on an apron of concrete that has a tiny slope down to the grass. The water came off the concrete and collected at the edge of the grass, then backed up into the booths. Because the concrete was wet, I couldn't put any boxes of stock directly on the ground or the boxes would soak through. So I (ahem) borrowed a couple of folding plastic chairs and laid them on the ground, then put the boxes on those. It worked fairly well.

My booth was comparatively dry, but the two booths next to me were awash, literally. The vendors were standing in three inches of water, and of course no customer wanted to wade through the puddle to investigate the wares inside. So a bunch of us got together and moved the booth right next to me up off the concrete and forward onto the grass.

Nevertheless, the true Portlanders didn't let a little damp get in the way of having fun. I won't say the event was crowded, but there were a lot more people there than I would have thought.

This was a reggae band performing their hearts out to an audience of five or six. The band was good, too.

During a time when the showers tapered off, I noticed this pretty little girl who had discovered... a mud puddle. Oh joy!

I was talking with a customer at one point when something whizzed overhead. My jaw dropped -- it was a small remote-controlled drone that someone was operating.

It was moving fast so it was hard to get an unblurred photo, but it hung around for ten minutes or so.

I didn't have many opportunities to get photos of Kolorful Karacters (since the uncooperative weather kept most of them away) but I did get a few. Here are a couple of gentlemen sporting leiderhosen who posed with big and little tankards.

Here's a fellow with a moose-antler helmet...

...who donned it for my edification.

This was a very nice fellow with impressive ear... um... holes (one with a gauge-thingy and one just an open hole). He said it took him two years to get his ears to this point. Older Daughter winced when I showed her this pic.

That's about all the photos I had. Things dried out in the afternoon and I sold an extremely respectable 26 pieces. Considering the weather, I had no complaints!

I must say that despite the "liquid sunshine," yesterday's crowd was very cheerful and good-natured about the rain. Today's weather is supposed to be vastly improved so I hope to report higher sales, as well as get more photos. Onward!

What kind?

Ever since a drone flew overhead last summer on a rare occasion when I didn't have my camera in my pocket, I've been kicking myself for the lost opportunity to photograph this sky-borne menace. Because of that incident, now it's not unusual for me to snap shots of aircraft that aren't immediately identifiable... y'know, just in case.

So this morning Don and I were working in the garden when a loud droning sounded. I found and snapped a photo of the aircraft, not thinking much about it at the time.

But when I saw the photo and cropped it, I was startled by the unusual profile, with uptilted wingtips.

It was fairly distant so I can't attest to the size, though my impression was that it wasn't a jet (despite its looks). We heard a "motor" sound of a small plane, not the whine of a jet, so your guess is as good as mine.

Any aircraft aficionados out there who can identify this baby?