When I woke up, it was just after 8. I forgot to drink a quart of water. I checked e-mail, and Maria said she was coming over with distilled water. I did some strip sewing for awhile. Then I emptied the ice cube trays and chocolate molds into a freezer bag. Maria came over with the water in jugs. She put them in one of the coolers and took the jugs back to refill from her water filter. I finished emptying the ice and refilled just the ice trays this time.
I got texts from the lady who made some custom jewelry for me. She sent a pic and it was nothing like what I ordered, but probably a better design for what I need. I invited her to the open base event. I texted Myra the pic of the jewelry. She liked it. We talked about lemonade, too. I went out back to find some hard greenery. I found one privet tree and got a small branch.
I got some Berkey water and refilled some of the ice trays. I made and ate breakfast. I checked e-mail again, deleting most of it.
Maria came over with more water and we put it in the other cooler. I mixed yellow lemonade in one and pink lemonade in the other. I added a frozen pack of lemonade to each one. I found a pic of a glass of pink lemonade on the internet. I printed it out to label the appropriate cooler. But it came out yellow so I colored it over with a pink pencil. The effect was probably too subtle to get the attention of customers.
Myra came over with a handful of sunflowers and some pieces of wire. She made a bouquet in a gallon jar, adding the privet. I put some lemons in the water in the jar. I also blew up the three balloons from the party store and put them on sticks. One of them popped while she was integrating them with the sunflowers. Then she made a very nice bow with the ribbon Terri gave me.
I was shocked to learn that it was 20 of 4. I changed my clothes. She helped me move stuff to our car. Chris put the two 5-gallon coolers at the end of the sidewalk, and the ice chest, too. I drove the car around and he put them in. Then I drove the three of us to the end of the street. There were large concrete pylons in the way that security had placed there to keep traffic out of the area. Myra and I moved the lighter stuff to the laundry parking lot while Chris carried the coolers. Each space was marked as to which NFE it was allotted to. We found a table and 4 chairs in our spot. We washed the table and covered it with a white sheet. Then we put clear plastic over it. Myra got someone to move the coolers and put them back on the tablecloth. I laid down some fabric and Myra put the vase in the middle. Alicyn set up her face paints on the end. I taped the posters to the front of the table and had to tape everything down all around because of the breeze. It did not seem strong and yet it picked up the tablecloth constantly.
Sue came with her cooler of ice. I asked Chris to come in 15 minutes with a bag of ice. Carolyn came by to check it out. She bought a cup of lemonade and that is when I realized we needed to change coolers to one with an attached lid. So when Chris arrived with a bag of ice, we put it and Sue's ice into the big cooler. That worked much better.
I had a box of plastic gloves and used them often. It was a very hot day and the gloves stuck to my fingers. Business was slow. At first the ice was easy to scoop, but then it started sticking together. Even with the big spoon, it was hard for me. A different Sue broke it up for me. I had to ask Chris to bring another bag of ice.
The pink lemonade was very popular. We only had 4 gallons. But we added packs of frozen lemonade that Myra made. The frozen yellow did not seem to affect the pink color. Maria brought 4 more gallons of lemonade. We used two. Eventually we ran out of the 18 oz cups that Christine brought and we had to use the 7oz cups that Anna gave us. So I made the $1 sign into 2/$1. People did not seem to notice that and were surprised when I handed them two cups. Sue took the money and made the tick marks for lemonade and face painting. The painting was very popular and Alicyn stuck with it. Kids lined up and most did want it on their face rather than their hand.
Near the end, Christine's daughter came by. I asked her if she wanted to help sell lemonade and she said no. But she changed her mind five minutes later and put on a pair of plastic gloves. Soon she was asking if her friend could help. Myra gave a small cup of lemonade to one of Cory's girls and Taylor said Oh, we can have lemonade for free?” So we let her have a glass after the rush. It did not matter since we ended up with gallons left over.
Several kids saw the balloons in our arrangement and wanted one. I happened to have a pack of regular balloons and the rest of the balloon sticks. So when necessary, we just handed out a balloon and a stick.
The guys to our right were selling doughnut holes and bacon on a stick. It didn't excite me but they did ok. On our left, they were selling lemonade (yellow and pink) and a bowl of meat and veggies. When we ran out of cups and they ran out of food, I considered asking them for some cups, but they had a lot of lemonade left to sell.
The lady I had asked to make me some jewelry, came by with her husband and son. She was excited to see the base. She brought the jewelry with her. I tried on the necklace and everyone thought it was just fine. So I paid her what I still owed. Then she and her family went on to see the activities MWR had.
At 8:40 the fireworks started. Myra and I headed down to the end of the parking lot to see them. I don't think anyone was trying to buy lemonade, but the girls were helping themselves. There was music playing, kind of a montage, and it did not go with the fireworks. But I enjoyed them all the same.
When it was over, we went back to clean up. Myra went through my bin to arrange all the stuff. It was good to have the stuff on hand, but so hard to find anything when needed.
There was a lot of lemonade left. We handed out three gallons. Then Myra and I poured the leftovers together into one cooler, which we carried to Security for them to drink. Then we went back to the space to clean up more. I called Chris to come. He was able to drive up to the space because the pylons got moved. We loaded it all in his car, including Myra's cooler and folding chairs. Nelson asked if we would take his cooler home in our trunk and leave it on his doorstep. Since he lives in front of our parking spot, it was an easy request. We dropped Myra off on our way home. Then we parked and emptied the car. But Nelson's cooler was full of liquid and ice and it spilled in our trunk. Chris just scraped the ice out.
I carried the bouquet and the cooler to the house. Chris brought the rest.
We watched one episode of Gotham. It was too gory for me, but Chris seemed to like it. Then he made the bed and went to sleep. I stayed up to recharge my phone and write to my blog. I wasn't able to keep all the events in order, but the gist was about right. Then I went to bed.
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