The shop was quiet today, as it was yesterday. The crew chose yesterday for their statuary holiday as Canada Day fell on a normal day off - Saturday. Happy Canada Day to all! Canada is 150 YEARS old!
Young entrepreneur
I'm using my forced sitting time (on account of my broken toe) to prepare for some talks I am to give at a sign conference this coming fall. I was going through some old pictures today and came across the very first piece of commercial art which I did at the age of fourteen way back in 1968. I had decided painting store windows for the Christmas season would be a great way to make some spending money. I dug out some of the Christmas cards my mom always saved and used those as inspiration for a book of designs I drew up. As Christmas approached I hitchhiked into town and visited the merchants. Each store owner got to look through my design book and my pressure tactic was to offer exclusive designs to them. Once a design was chosen I wouldn't do it on another merchant's window. The first merchants to sign up also got the first pick of my available times. My plan worked beyond my wildest expectations! I made a whopping six hundred dollars in the next few weeks, after school and on weekends. It was a fortune in 1968 - especially to a fourteen year old kid! This is a picture of my very first window which I painted for fifteen bucks. It took me about an hour as I recall which was a fabulous wage in those days and a whole lot easier than shovelling driveways or mowing lawns!
Sidelined (temporarily)
While we work hard on a daily basis I find it much, much harder to not work - especially when our crew is busy doing the things I feel I should be doing. Yesterday evening, I dropped a large piece of steel on my big toe and the x-rays today confirmed it was indeed broken. I'm not going to post a picture of my foot. It's purple and black, a little larger than normal and I'll even admit to it being a little bit sore. Janis is keeping me firmly planted in my recliner (with many dirty looks when I make like I might get up) and I get to watch the crew working out the window.
They will of course do a fine job (as always) and Peter is more than capable of leading the charge. But all of that doesn't make it any easier to just sit here and RELAX.
