dancrafted
Member
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.
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.