of someone in the room. I opened my eyes and there was what resembled that guy in the movie, "Powder". About a foot from my face staring at me, my automatic reaction was to shout, HEY!!! This has always worked in the past to get rid of the hallucinatory beings. (or wake me up as the case may be.) But, this apparition only stepped back, and I had to yell out another, HEY!!! Needless to say, I thought I would have awakened my brother, but he must have been out like a log. Four hours later, he woke me to ask if I was ready to go with him to the Electronics Flea Market. I told him, not possible, I would come later.
Kats picked me up and got me to De Anza by 6:30 AM. It was quite cold! I put on sweatshirt. two jackets and knitted hat. Soon, I was waiting on customers. I have worked with my brother like this since about 1979, when we both lived in the Los Angeles area. That's part of how I got to be such a Geek, being exposed to coaxial wires, adapters, antenna splitters and now a plethora of new stuff. I still enjoy hanging around with the big boys. Though not able to do the things I once did gets more frustrating, like unloading the truck, setting up the tarps, lifting crates of merchandise, putting up tables, and so on. Roger's space was about 30 ft by 20 ft and I found myself pacing when not waiting on customers. It is so painful for me to just stand in one place for any length of time, I just have to keep moving, lie down or sit down. So, I put my pedometer on, and decided to see what happened. Several times I left the site and went for walks throughout the swap meet trying to guess what all the unimaginable ham radio devices were for. I still have so much to learn.
This time I was wearing my Lucky Pinks, so walking was stable and able, up and down all the aisles at a brisk walk. It was fun to just look and keep walking without any difficulty except having no money to splurge on some old Syvania vacuum radio tube, like the ones my mother produced during the war. Eventually, I thought it would only be fair to return to Roger and get back to the business at hand.
We were aware of the possibility of light rain showers, but that is not what they used to call what happened next when I lived in the Mid-West. (tornado watch) We, of course, were ready for the rain, as Roger had put up his rain tarps before he set up the tables. A little rain occurred at that time and died off. Upon returning to Roger, the rain had returned with a passion. I kept going around with a long stick and pushing upward on the tarps to get rid of the run-off before the whole thing collapsed on us all. In the meantime, some customers were getting dowsed before I could get to them. Everyone crowded under our tarps anyways as not too many other sellers had protection from the weather.
All of a sudden the wind lifted up the frame of the tarps. I grabbed one of the poles and asked for help from the man nearest me. Then, a few others followed suit. The wind was so intense, many took their chances running back to their cars. A few regular customers (for years) stayed behind to help us. I felt so bad that I could not grab the goods, load them in the cases and haul them into the truck as I once did, and Roger had to rely on customers to help. All I could do was dry things off with a towel.
Going home driving through more rain was challenging now that my body had time to complain. Kats and I went to the spa and did the pool and jacuzzi, to release the tightness in the muscles.
During the four hours that I was with Roger, the pedometer registered 4114 steps.
