Baby Animal Day Sucks, Part 2

The second day of Baby Animal Days has gone worse than the first. I got set up inside my tent in the morning, and took pictures of my displays for my application for the Downtown Salt Lake City Art and Craft Market. Right after that it started raining.

The rain wasn't so bad-- it was only drizzling off and on, and it didn't seem to affect attendance. And in fact it wasn't the rain that made it difficult for me; it was the microburst winds. I very nearly lost my canopy and at one point I was holding it down and screaming while my merchandise fell over all around me. With great effort I closed my sidewalls and dropped my canopy to half height to give it a lower profile. Then I kept banging my head on the lowered framework, so now I have a bruise on my sunburned forehead.

The lady who was in charge of the vendors was nowhere to be found (it turned out she had gone to run an errand in Lewiston, on the Idaho border), so vendors just started packing up and moving indoors. By this point we didn't really care if she had a particular place indoors where we could set up. Half the vendors just went home. You can't sell in conditions like this. Me, I went inside the livery stable and set up next to the lady who had been next to me earlier. I know her from the Cache Valley Gardeners' Market, and although we were not really good friends, she was very nice and watched Knuckles for me while I set up my displays. She had been doing very good business since moving into the livery stable earlier in the day, when the wind was only just whipping the rain inside her sidewall-less booth.

The floor inside the livery stable was covered in straw, but at least it wasn't being blown around. My booth is now over in the corner where it can't be seen by people walking into the stable, but it can be seen on the way out, when it's not blocked by people in line waiting for face painting.

To be honest, I was expecting some wind because of the location being right at the mouth of Sardine Canyon, but not like this. If I'd known it was going to be this windy, I'd have stayed in Tooele, where there is so much constant wind that it must be being farmed for export to other places in Utah.

I did even less business on the second day than on the first, which I didn't think possible. Forget about bringing home $100; I'll be lucky to make back my $50 booth fee. I certainly won't be coming to do Baby Animal Days again.