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dancrafted

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Mar 25, 2005
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EL PASO, TX, USA.
I haven't posted for a while but I thought I would pass on this story. I started turning pens a little more than a year ago. Started as christmass gifts. Found I realy enjoyed it. Did my first craft show in May. A lot of the folks at show said wow you make great stuff you should do the Kermazzar (El Paso's largest jured art show) this year. I look into it and found booth fee was $300.00. Geesh I thought to my self that is a lot of bucks. So I fooled around with the idea for about a month. I decieded to take the plunge and write the check. Sooo steadly for the last 4 month's I spent 16 to 20 hours every weekend making pens trying to build up inventoy for this big event. Well the big weekend was last weekend. Set up was friday morning, the show was friday evening and all day sat and sun. I get to the convention center bright and early friday and get all set up. A lot of the other artists are looking in and comenting on how nice my pens are. At about 3 pm there is a meet and greet with all artists across the street at the hotel. We are all enjoying good coversation and food before the show starts....

At about 4 pm I decide to walk back over to the booth and finish getting things ready. When as I am walking across the street my left leg cramps up. I managed to get across the street and up a small flight of stairs before my leg goes completely numb and I can't walk. So as I sit on little bench and thinking ok its a cramp I"ll wait and stretch and get to work. Well 15 minutes later and things are getting worse, the pain had become realy bad and the numbness as growing. 10 minutes later the ambulance arrives and I am on my way to the hospitle. So I'm in the emergancey room, in agony, thinking well so much for this show. The testing commences and they find I have no pulse in my left leg. Pain meds are not working because no blood is flowing to the leg. I't turns out there is a blood clot somewhere in my leg and I am not going any where, any time soon.

I realy start to worry about things. About 2 hours pass and the pain starts to subside ( the clot starts to break up). I breath a sigh of relief and tell the Doc to get me out here I got a show to do. Well the Doc say you ain't going no where son we need to find out why this happened or next time you might loose your leg. I agree all the time worring about my pens. You see the Army brought me to El Paso about 12 years ago and I have been out for about 11 years. I work at job where I freaquently work 70 to 80 hours per week. My wife and I have no family and very few friends in El Paso. They put me in ICU and continue to run tests. I dont know what to do. I have $6,000.00 dollars worth of inventory sitting in a booth with no way to close it down. The wife is freaking and I am just plain lost. The one phone number I have is to a friend/neighbor. So I make a call and ask Julian if he could get down to the convention center and gather up all my stuff. Well he says he will and I hunker down for a couple of days in ICU.

Well saturday I get a call from Julian asking how much a piano pen is. I tell him the price thinking well he saw a pen he liked when he was putting my stuff up. Well I get another call 10 minutes later asking how much a diffent pen was. Well I am starting to get a bit confused, I tell him " bud it's yours, thats least I do after you help me out last night." He said no he had a buyer for it. Well I give him the price. Well I get a call back in about 15 more minutes are there he is asking for another price. So ask him what is going on. Well seems that he a my other neighbor decided to not take down my booth but rather run it for the weekend. Well a long story short the 2 of them sold more than $1,200.00 of pens for me those 2 days.

I don't know how I will ever thank them. But I know that I am truly blessed with at least 2 great friends... I got out of hospitle on monday and I am doing better. I doc's still don't know what caused the clot but suspect standing a lathe for more than a hour or 2 at time was probably not in my best interest. I guess the moral of this story is thank to God for your friends and do everything in moderation.
 
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lkorn

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Jan 12, 2005
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395
Location
Virginia Beach, VA, USA.
Its amazing how folk we thought were only neighbors suddenly become friends in time of need. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
Congrats on a successful show, too bad you had to be in the Hospital. My wife had similar experience, only we were on vacation at the time. Listen to the Docs, sometimes they know what they are doing.
 

Dario

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Joined
Apr 14, 2005
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8,222
Location
Austin, TX, USA.
Dan,

Good to hear that things went well (eventually). Nice story about your friends and good reminder for us to take breaks and walk every now and then.

Take care. I agree, listen to your Doctor, exercise/walk regularly, keep that leg propped up when you are seated for extended time and take your meds regularly too.

Can you tell I know someone who had a similar condition? LOL [;)]
 

Daniel

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Jan 1, 2004
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Location
Reno, NV, USA.
Daniel,
Good to here you are better. It's incouraging to think you have people that will stand in like that. I call it standing in the gap.
Good news to here the show sold as well as it did. start now for next year and you won't have such long weekends.
 

PenWorks

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Aug 18, 2004
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5,186
Location
Scottsdale, AZ
Glad to hear your out of the hospital and doing better. That was quite the scare.
As for your great friends, hire them as salesmen and you just stay home and make pens. [:D]
 

smoky10

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Aug 17, 2004
Messages
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Location
Shepherdsville, Ky, USA.
Daniel, friends like that are hard to find and I'm glad to hear everything turned out good for you. This past tuesday a nephew of mine spent the day in the hospital with severe leg pains, he couldn't walk because of the pain. They sent him home after the pain eased a bit. He took a hot bath after the pain returned and died in the bathtub of a blood clot in the heart that probably came from the leg. We bury him saturday. He was 45yrs old.
 

Paul in OKC

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Jul 26, 2004
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Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
Good to hear things went OK. Great friends you have there. Read this this week and your story reminded me of it, as far as worrying about life sometimes.

The story is told of a South American tribe that went on a long march, day after day, when all of a sudden they would stop walking, sit down to rest for a while, and then make camp for a couple of days before going any further. They explained that they needed the time of rest so that their souls could catch up with them. (from “Sabbath†by Wayne Muller)

Are you working and living without the benefit of having your soul catch up? Are you feeling like your work is soul-less and little more than a method of producing a paycheck?

In the modern “busyness†of modern life, I fear we have lost the rhythm between activity and rest. Just as exhaling without occasionally inhaling will cause you to turn blue and pass out, busyness without rest will cause you to “pass out†from things that matter. “I am so busy.†We say this as a badge of honor, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, and our ability to withstand 70-80 hour work weeks a mark of real character. We convince ourselves that the busier we are, the more we are accomplishing and the more important we must be. But is this really so? Does more activity really mean more accomplishment? To be unavailable to friends and family, to miss the sunsets and the full moons, to blast through all our obligations without time for taking a deep breath - this has become the model of a successful life.

Can we really separate ourselves from things that matter in our efforts to get more things? Just this week I worked with a very competent lady who has reached the pinnacle in her profession, with a world class apartment and a beach house for the weekends. Although her income puts her in the top 1% nationally, she has lost the sense of fulfilling work. One of her expressed goals is to “smile more on my way to happiness.â€

Embrace Sabbath days and times in your life. Wisdom, peace, contentment and insight about fulfilling work will grow in those times. Take a walk, give thanks for simple things, take a bath with music and candles, turn off the telephone, pager, TV and computer - carve out those times for restoration and spiritual breathing.
 

ryannmphs

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Sep 24, 2004
Messages
449
Location
Memphis, TN, USA.
Dan,
Glad to hear you have good friends that will be there for ya!!

Paul, Do you subscribe to Dan Miller's 48 days emails? I think I've seen you post stuff from his email before, thought it was just a coinky-dink, but it's happened more than once now.

Ryan
 

Paul in OKC

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Jul 26, 2004
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3,089
Location
Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
Originally posted by ryannmphs
<br />Dan,
Glad to hear you have good friends that will be there for ya!!

Paul, Do you subscribe to Dan Miller's 48 days emails? I think I've seen you post stuff from his email before, thought it was just a coinky-dink, but it's happened more than once now.

Ryan
Yes I do. Good stuff, and helps keep the dream of my own business going. (good or bad[:D])
 

ctEaglesc

Passed Away Jul 4, 2008
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Jul 5, 2004
Messages
3,238
Location
Camden, S.C., USA.
Great story!
Hope the leg is better.
The $1200 is nothing compared to finding out what kind of friends you were blessed with.
Congrats on the $1200 any way.[:D]
 

tinker

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Jun 11, 2005
Messages
138
Location
marietta, georgia, USA.
That was a close one Daniel. It could have been much more serious (fatal). Sometimes we find friends we didn't know we had. They are the kind of neighbors that we all would like to have. Glad you came through it in good shape.
 

ldimick

Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2004
Messages
407
Location
Westminster, CA, USA.
Daniel,

Glad the show worked out for you and I hope your health catches up.

Water seeks it's own level - to have great friends you must be a great friend. You must be a great friend.
 

Easysport

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Joined
Oct 24, 2005
Messages
275
Location
Prescott Valley, AZ, USA.
Dan, Glad to see you're doing ok. If you ever figure out how to sit at the old lathe let me know. I have bad feet and get pretty miserable over time. Best of health to in the future. Friends are priceless.
 
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