Time flies when the wind knocks down trees

Last Friday I came home from work rather exhausted and immediately Puck says "Lori grab the camera and come outside"
"Why?"
"Just grab the camera"
"but I'm tired, I just sat down"
"Grab the camera"

so I grab the camera and go outside with him. We get to the very back of the yard and finally see what the big rush is about. A giant branch has fallen off the tree that is part of our three lawns and is basically covering the entire corner of the lot including our boat, part of the garage and Puck's hammock, not to mention the three lilac bushes which were Mother's day gifts from my family. I am not thrilled. I start taking pictures








So all last week was spent dealing with insurance people and getting quotes. Finally this Friday they came and finally got it cleaned up. We did find that one of the branches though had skewered the neighbors roof as well as ours so we still need to let them know about that.

This weekend is our town book festival and the big deal was acclaimed author of Polar Express, Jumanji and more Chris Van Allsburg was headlining. They got him to to blow off a bigger festival because we promised him a ride on a steam engine :)

I have been a fan of his work long before it was popular and long before hollywood had bastardized his stuff. I have been pretty excited. The last time I stood in line for an author autograph was for Dr. Seuss.

Anyhow he was arriving on the steam engine at 10:00 am. I got up early and it was raining. Oh well. Puck was supposed to come, but was slow getting out of bed. I heard the train whistle and got a little ticked so threw on my rain coat and stormed out the door without him. I walked downtown with my copy of "The Widow's Broom" wrapped up in plastic bags and tucked under my trench-coat. Puck followed me with an umbrella.

Walked the 5 blocks to the depot and got a spot next to the tracks, standing in the rain. The train apparently had done a test run and had left to get Mr. Van Allsburg so I didn't miss it after all, but the train did arrive about 10 minutes later and it ended up stopping almost in front of us. It was just shy of the depot where most of the people were. I recognized him right away and saw he was in the cab of the engine. I quick took a pic, a little blurry, but it is him.

They got him down out of the engine and he looked a little bewildered. The festival had handed out little sleighbells to the children and they rang them and rang them to welcome him. I don't think he heard them due to the rain and steam engine.

He gave a little speech and said this was the second most fun thing he had ever done next to going to the antarctic. I was impressed and then we got in line for the book signing. That was supposed to start at 11:00 and it was only 10:17. I saw the line was pretty long though so got in. It ended up taking 3 hours to get to the author and have him sign my book. I waited in line, we all commiserated and made lots of waiting in line jokes culminating in exchanging Christmas cards since we had gotten to know each other so well. We finally reached the last 5 steps when they came out and told us that Mr. Van Allsburg would be taking a 15 minute break for lunch and then resume signing. A collective sigh from our small group and comments about how none of us would mind a little ketchup stain on our books. When I finally got in he signed the book for the guy in front of me and then performed an amazing feat. He paused and asked for a minute... then actually swatted and killed a fly on his yellow sweater. It was quite amazing.

There was no way that Puck would have stayed in line. He brought me a hot chocolate and I sent him home to get the car and park it at the library. He did that, but he parked the car on the far side of the library and it was all I could do to walk that far LOL.

I am so happy to be home and sitting down. He was very nice though and I am glad to have his autograph. I think the only other author I would wait that long for is Neil Gaiman.

Oh across the street the coffee shop was offering Polarexpressos.