Wednesday 3rd Day

Yesterday Tony, Kelsey and I started painting on the wall early.  It was quiet on the streets and the paint started to come out of the truck, all the brushes, reusable cups and plenty of water for both the painters and as a cleaning aid for brushes.  The morning was uneventful except for the tall ladders that were being used to reach the top of the mural.  They are aluminum and they bounce when you climb on them, and that makes me uneasy, but I kept climbing up and down to work on the tops of the trunks.  About 11am I could see the depth of the trees emerge.  The dark brown, light gray, black, light brown colors were doing what they do, they were creating a forest.  There are only 4 trees up without foliage, but today is another day.

Kelsey worked on the grasses by the river.  Her palette consisted of green, white, yellow, some brown and small brushes.  Her strokes were strong and curious.  She worked on the grass all morning.  Right about 11 am I asked her to step away from the wall and look at her creation from three angles.  First to the the right side and look at it from a left angle.  Then I asked her to look straight on, and from a right angle.  She immediately said it all look different from the different angles.  I smiled and thought several things: first, she is observant; second, curious, and thirdly she is excited about seeing what a hand, some paint and stroke motion can create in a mural.  She is a tremendous help on this project and when it is over I believe she will be excited about our next project "Lillian" on Wyse Fork Road.  More to come on this later!

Our family had some visitors this week and they met us at 12:30 for lunch at Gypsy's in Red Willows on Jones Street in Trenton. As I packed up some objects before heading down to the cafe, I couldn't get over how hot it was and how wonderful that air conditioning would feel.  I was right, when I walked in the heat of the morning wore off and we sat around a table having "Redneck Day food."  Gypsy was asked by a local to have a Redneck Day, with food like ribs, cabbage, potatoes, green beans, and an array of desserts.  Well we just happened to come on this day and I must say it was "GOOD."  Larry, Bev, Tony, Grandma, Kelsey and I enjoyed the time together and the atmosphere.  Before leaving I looked outside and the heat was still bearing down so I suggested we call it a day and had Tony take Kelsey home and I said I would paint just on Mr. Andrews this afternoon in the shade and would be home later.

Well, that is just not what happened.  I returned to the wall, mixed some flesh colored paint and stood on the latter, looked up and a drop of rain hit my can of paint.  I looked up again and thought the overhang from the roof would protect me while I worked on his face and thought ok this will work!  Three minutes into that thought I was in the middle of a downpour.  I gently stepped off the latter and decided to use the scaffolding to protect me from this Spring rain, which I knew would be over in just a few minutes.  I stood under the scaffolding, after 15 minutes I pulled in one of the portable chairs I had and sat under the scaffolding.  When the rain continued for 30 minutes and the thunder and lightening was reaching out for Trenton, I quickly ran to the truck and sat in the heat of it for 20 minutes when the pea size hale started to pound the truck.  Then I called home and asked how the weather was there, a mere six miles from Trenton.  They said it is sunny and very hot!  To my surprise this storm had built right on Trenton and it was sitting there giving these Trentonians all the rain we needed six miles down the road. 

I called a friend, Gwen, and she said she saw the blackness over Trenton, but it looked like we were going to miss it and she was so sorry because her planted fields needed some rain in a really bad way.  Then she said "K do you have a swimming pool in the back of your truck, it would be nice if you did, because you could bring us some of that rain and we could just pour on our garden!"  I am a visual person and in my mind I saw plastic swimming pools in an array of colors in all the trucks that ride the roads in NC.  This would definitely be part of a truck package when buying a truck in NC, you would need your pool to capture water wherever you were and bring it home to your less drought tolerable plants!  I laughed so hard when she said this, because this is how inventions are thought of, they sound so crazy, but in actuality this could be a possible, rain barrels for trucks!   

As most of you know the rain did not arrived on Wyse Fork until later in the day at 4pm, then Greg and Eve called and said they had just come back from Kinston and to get ready for a downpour, and right they were.  We had 1.50 inches fall in a small amount of time.  The cats ran for the back porch, the trees stood straighter, and the garden turned an amazing green as the clouds rolled over and gave them the water they needed. 

I forgot to say earlier, it did take some time to get all paint and other items back in the truck during the hard rain.  But instead of fighting it, I used that time to say a little thank you to God for the rain, we so much needed and let it wash off the dirt and perspiration from the morning.  The ride home was cool and thoughtful because there was safety yesterday, no accidents on the ladders, and our mural began to respond to the attention we were giving it.  The picture was sharper, the shapes of light and dark made the mural remind me, that if you put energy into something (anything), you will receive a reward.......I felt peaceful when I left it yesterday and that peace translated into "I will see you tomorrow Mr. A. and I just might get to hear that river seep down the way as you sit and fish the day away."

So it is back to the wall today and the start of the 4th day.  Thanks for reading.  k