Today has been kind of a wearying day.........no time for tea or posting about it!!
Found out yesterday that the building where I have an antiques booth was hit by a tornado on Saturday! I read Monday's paper, saw the word tornado in the headlines, but did not look at the picture, and turned the page.
My mom came home yesterday, and said she had driven by the shop and it looked like it had been hit by a tornado!!
I got in my car and ran over, and sure enough, half the roof was missing and insulation, tin roofing, wood and glass were strewn everywhere. Alot of the tin roof ended up across the two lane road into the farmer's field, at least 500 yards or more away! Fortunately, the horses living in that field, had not been there on Saturday!!!
By some miracle, no one was hurt - it happened on Saturday - at 10 minutes to 5 - just before closing. The owner was hurrying customers out of the back - because they close promptly at 5pm. All who had been in the back were near the register, when the winds hit. One of the cashiers almost got sucked out the front door as she tried to close it.Everyone hunkered down behind the counter, and it was over before they knew it. The back area where the customers had just been standing was totally destroyed!!! The roof lifted off, the chimney crashed in, the beams and a/c duct work collapsed, and the windows imploded. AND, the area's Doppler Radar station INSISTS there was no tornadic activity in that area on Saturday!!!!
The good news is - no one was hurt!!!! The other good news is that the little room where my mom and I have our booths, was totally spared! The bad news is some vendors lost all their inventory and display cases.
We spent today, along with other dealers, removing all our stuff. The building needs to be totally empty while they renovate. Hopefully, they will be open for business again in September.
It is sad, because almost all of the dealers I have met, are the sweetest people, mostly retired, doing this for fun (certainly not for big money), others are trying to eke a meager income to supplement their " habit" or daily living.
I hope to go back, but am still mulling it over. This is the 2nd time this building has been hit by heavy winds in 2 years. I was not aware of the first time. As much as I love having a "real" shop, I may keep selling on eBay for a while and see how that goes.
Another sour note today, was hearing about some of the dance bags and totes I made for a dance studio. One sold right away - yay!!!- but a friend checked, and two of the most expensive ones are missing and unaccounted for. I was going to give it a month or so, to see how they sold, but now I am not sure.
Oh, well, things could definitely be worse!! When one door shuts, another opens- I just have to find that darn door!!! LOL
