Craft Sale

Just as a quick side note... the gas smell is gone. It was gone by the time I returned from work the morning after the whole fiasco. Someone from downstairs tried to explain it all away as some sort of stagnant water... but that smell was unmistakable. I'm just glad nothing serious came of it.

Yesterday my sleep pattern was all over the place. I got home from work, slept a few hours, woke to answer the phone, chatted on the internet with a friend, walked to the post office, then came home and slept again, woke up to a ?knock at the door, no-one there. (Found out later it was the neighbor trying to make plans for today) Ate, read, watched movie, slept again. Finally, at 9 this morning, I pried myself out of bed, fully believing I hadn't slept nearly enough yesterday. But there was a very, very good reason to be getting up this morning. The Christmas Craft sale. Once a year in November a massive craft sale is put on in the community. It sounds like pretty much anyone who wants to can set up a table (I bet they need to rent out the tables) with items they want to sell. Everyone makes a big deal of it, and I was told by multiple people that it is THE sale to go to if you want to find some good home-made items. Down side? Everything there is cash only, and few things are cheap. So if you have any plans of buying things, you have to stock your wallet. They timed it the day after payday (pretty sneaky, huh?) Which means I had to carefully plan how much I was "allowed" to spend, so I didn't go overboard. Believe me, I could have spent my whole paycheck there.
So yes, I pried my sleep-loving body out of bed at 9, had breakfast, a shower, got dressed, and as I went to put on my runners (I see no point in switching to boots until the temperature drops at least 10 more degrees or the snow gets to at least a foot deep)... I found a note from the neighbor. She was saying they were borrowing a car and leaving the house at 9am to go to the sale. Ooops. Missed the boat on that one. I called a cab, and waited by the front door. As the cab approached the arena (where the craft sale was), it was obvious there was no room in the parking lot for him to go, and the lineup was going down the street anyways. So I payed and got in line as fast as I could. I arrived 5 mins before the doors opened. Since it was warm yesterday (I know, I should know better than to base my outdoor clothing selections on yesterday's weather), I had put on a toque, mitts and a light scarf with my jacket. Standing in line with the wind whipping my face, I was very thankful for my hood, and kind of wishing I had brought a thicker scarf and a neck warmer. I was quite thankful when the line started moving, and fairly swiftly at that. (this is a couple minutes after the line started moving)
About 10mins after I got in line, I was already through the first set of doors... and then the line stopped. I was thankful to be inside, but the wind was still coming in cold gusts through the open door. And apparently they were at capacity in the arena. I had no clue how long this wait would be. As people outside started to realize this was a long wait, the ones close to the door crowded in and we filled most of the space between the sets of double doors, trying to get people out of the wind. I lucked out and after about a ten minute wait inside, they let people in again.
Sure enough, the inside was packed with people,
and there was a lot of variety in what people chose to sell. There was a bunch of exactly what I expected to see. The various fur products including seal skin mitts, booties, slippers, fox fur trimming on the parkas, mitts etc.
Carvings of all sizes from tiny stud earrings to pieces that weighed at least 20 pounds, shaped like bears, seals, narwhales, inukshuks whales, walruses, ulus kamotiks etc.
And then there were some pretty varied paintings, drawings, and such. I found one I really liked for a price I could handle:
There was even a full-sized kamotik for sale. It's a sled for sled dogs or (nowadays) snowmobiles to pull when travelling across the land.
One of the more unexpected things I saw was:
Though, in some ways I was more surprised to see the girl guide cookies, the epicure spices, the east-indian garments, and the christmas chocolates. I met a lot of people I know there, because, well, it was the place to be! I even found the neighbors, and got a ride home, with a quick stop to get some coffee and a wrap for lunch.

Low temp today: -13, High temp: -10. With Windchill, low was -25. (Wind gusting up to 52km/hr) Sunrise today: 8:00am, Sunset: 14:38 (2:38pm)