I don't like chaos

I've been feeling out of the loop lately. A 12-hour drive to Swarthmore, PA, to take my youngest son back to college, and a 10-hour drive back to Seagrove, tends to throw me off-kilter. Driving that distance on Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving is hectic. All those people in their cars and trucks - kids, mothers, fathers, truck drivers, state police, wreckers, college students, in-laws.... Zooming down the highway - south, north, east and west. Some zipping and some zagging. Then everyone stopping and traffic crawling along.

Levi and I called 511 and received a traffic report somewhere in Virginia. "Expect delays because of repaving between exits...." We decided to try an alternate route. We picked up 301 which runs somewhat parallel with 95, around Washington and Baltimore. After a couple of hours on 301, during which we experienced a lot of stoplights, we ate a nice lunch at an old tavern in Port Royal, VA, near the bridge over Rappahannock river. I had crab soup and a crab sandwich. Levi decided he'd have some soup after tasting mine. 

A hour or so later, traffic was backed up for miles because the four lanes of traffic on 301 were squeezed down to two as we crossed the Potomac river. After finally crossing the bridge, we picked up normal speed and were beginning to wonder if we made the wrong decision to travel this route.

We finally made it to Swarthmore, sometime after 8 p.m., and after a quick meal at a burrito restaurant, I dropped Levi off at his dorm, and I headed to the Media Inn for a night of rest before getting up and doing it all again.

Now, it's Wednesday. My pugmill arrived yesterday, and I'm feeling off-kilter for another reason. I don't have a place for the pugmill yet. I spent today loading a kiln and then organizing a tool area in my current workshop for the tools scattered around my future workshop, a building I partially renovated to use as my "throwing room." Oh yeah, before I loaded a kiln, Mary and I drove to Asheboro to check out some utility buildings. The idea is to get one for a photo room and tie it into my future workshop building with a place between the two covered by a roof.

I'm leaning toward hiring someone to build a story-and-a-half roof at the end of my future workshop, and then I can add on building space as I find the time. I'd like some covered outdoor space to work in, with a gravel floor space that sheds water so I can do cleanup outside when it's raining.

I drew a quick sketch of my ideas on a chalkboard in my current workspace. I'd love to do it all myself, but I need to keep my work flowing and don't have the time to shut down for a month.

So, in the midst of my rambling through my day today, I stopped and took a picture of a display in my showroom. The picture is such a contrast to my chaotic mind these days.

 

I'll get through this.