It's Finally Friday!

It's finally Friday and I really need it. It's been a crazy week of dealing with large, impersonal corporations, trying to clarify orders for confused customers, and rain, rain, rain. Those of you in hot desert areas who would love some rain - sorry. People here in the Frozen Northlands are a bit unusual, perhaps they are related to the Wicked Witch of the West and will melt if contacted by water. I'll get regular shoppers who will come out in blizzards, but a few drops of rain and they will stay indoors until the sun is back out. Unfortunately, my sales for the past two days reflects this trend and it's been depressing.

Rain is something that we seem to tolerate here in the Frozen Northlands. We
prefer our water from the sky in the form of snow. Rain just depresses us - we
get the grey skies and the cloying humidity without a lot of payback. At least
the grass was probably happy with yesterday's rain. 

We're forging ahead, though. I sent a letter off to an old friend in the business as I was heading home last night. He runs an art gallery in a different state and we used to belong to the same organization for many years. I'm hoping he might be interested in some of the shop's artwork, and also that he might have some suggestions for other dealers I could contact who might be interested in purchasing. The inventory isn't doing me any good in storage and I would rather see it purchased by an end consumer who will love the artwork and what the artist was trying to portray.

Among many artists whose work I have is Duane Dishta, a well-known
Zuni artist. I have a different piece than this one, but in the same 3-D style.
I've loved and collected his work for many years, but my gallery space really
changed when I closed my Mall of America store. It's time to find other
dealers and venues for the artwork I still have available for sale. 

I also contacted our local utility company regarding those guy wires that we might end up covering with as much as an additional two feet of dirt. I got their answer this morning and it was completely unsatisfactory. (1) They don't move guide wires. (2) They should have an easement of at least 10 feet from the wires. Ummmmm .... NO. We'll just bury the lines. We're not going to be giving them an easement of 10 feet - no way at all.

The level of the guy wire has altered over the years anyway,
through natural erosion and the efforts of the many
trees growing around it. I'm not going to sweat this
one. There is no equipment to worry about, just the wire,
so I'm probably going to ignore the utility company
and get the land graded as we need to. 

So, life goes on here in the great state of mosquitoes and dragonflies. I'll pass the utility company information on to DH and I'm quite sure I'll be hearing him complain about it for weeks ahead. *Sigh*. At least today is the start of three days of wonderful old cars cruising in front of my shop. "Back to the 50's" is once again being held up the street at the State Fairgrounds and I'll have something fun to look at if I have the time. Have a wonderful Friday and stay out of the eye of mega companies and government. Argh!

Fridays Aren't Usually This Good - Classic Cars and Friends

Although I enjoy Fridays, they usually are just another work day since my Friday is Saturday (confused much?) But today I get to start my day off in one of my favorite ways - by meeting with an LJ friend in Real Life. Drummerwench texted me on Wednesday saying that she was in town for a few days and wondered if I'd like to get together. We had such a nice time talking when she was in town the last time, I immediately said "Yes, of course!" and we worked out a schedule. We'll be meeting for breakfast in a bit less than two hours and I'm quite happy about that.

This is a classic 1930 Model A Sedan. What a beauty!

Work will be boring, but I am expecting a shipment that will keep me busy for several days so that's good. In fact, today will be so busy that I'm not even taking my laptop to work with me - VERY RARE! I will bring my latest beading project. I worked with it yesterday and got a feel for how long it's going to take me to get the darned thing done - this will be a slow one. But it's coming together nicely and will be spectacular if I can pull it off, so I can live with a bit of slow in my life.

Here is a classic car from the 1930's showing the influence of the
Art Deco movement and the beginnings of streamlining. Just look at
the aspect of the hood and the grillwork. Beautiful! 

I got the final figures from my sales rep yesterday and I'll be picking up my new car on Tuesday. I'm quite sure I'll be bubbling too much about it as I get closer to the date, so I'll leave it here for today. But the rain is gone for the weekend and it is time for classic cars.

Here's a stunning car of the 1940's. After WWII, production of cars
returned, but the over-achievement of metal and chrome as we
saw in the previous picture was pulled back and refined to make classic
accents and tasteful designs. Follow this link for a great article on
the cars of the 1940's, their designs and styles. 

The Minnesota Street Rod Association has their annual convention at the State Fairgrounds for the weekend beginning today. That means that I'll have fabulous cars driving up and down past my store for the weekend and I love it! My DH is rather hopeless when it comes to cars, so we've never stripped an engine or even changed the oil ourselves. But that doesn't stop my love of a purring engine encased in wonderfully-shaped steel and chrome. I love classic cars.

Here's a classic 1956 Chevy Bel-Air in a great color scheme. There are a
lot of these 1950's era cars out on the classic circuit so I get to see many of
them on MSRA weekend. My mother's favorite paint scheme was red
and white - so for her I would have to change the blue to red.  This is a
classic car with a growling engine and lots of chrome. Pretty! 

This show has them all - from Model A Fords through the gangster cars of the 30's, to the rounded boats of the 40's and early 50's and the fins and chrome of the 60's. It's a great show and I always look forward to it. In a few more weeks we should have the muscle car show - they always seem to follow each other with a few weeks of recovery between them. That's the next one that I'll see wonderful cars driving by my windows for.

Here's a classic car from the 1960's, the 1965 Pontiac GTO convertible. Other classic
cars from the 1960's include the original Ford Mustang, the Chevrolet Impala, and
several Chrysler and Dodge models. I'm sure I'll be seeing more of those for the
muscle car show in a few weeks, so I'll leave it with this for today's post. 

So, as I get ready to meet drummerwench for breakfast and look at fabulous cars today, I'll wish all of you a wonderful Friday. I hope you've enjoyed some of the classic car pictures I found for today's post.