Round Bobbin St. Charles

The weekend of Sept. 14th & 15th was the Round Bobbin quilting and sewing expo in St. Charles. Londa was here with her booth so I was able to work for her. It was quite an experience. 

Setup - Londa received information that set up wouldn't be available until noon on Thursday. When she checked with show management they told her to arrive around 10 a.m. and get in line to unload. Because there was only 1 dock, unloading was the issue. So we arrived around 9:30, found ourselves next in line unload and were able to start unloading within about 15 minutes. We finished up about 5 p.m., headed back to my house to clean up a bit before meeting Ron for dinner.

The Show Opens - Doors open Friday morning at 10 a.m. Londa & I arrived about 8:30 to take care of some last minute work. Ready to start the day, and on the first transaction the credit card machine decides not to work. She calls the bank and gets put on hold. She hands me the phone and says, in essence, "here, you fix it." (She was off to teach a class.) Which was o.k. After the credit card machine fiasco in Houston one year, I was not really panicked. However, when the cash register wouldn't work properly, I did swallow hard. So now the credit card machine is working o.k. (It had dust in the card reading slot?), but I can't ring up any sales. 

I found the manual for the register and called the manufacturer. After describing the problem, the tech guy proceeds to tell me the batteries need to be replaced. "Batteries?", I ask incredulously. "The register is plugged into electricity." Who knew there were internal batteries! So know I've identified the problem, but I can't leave the booth to locate batteries. So I start hand writing sales tickets on yellow legal pad paper. I use the calculator to compute tax. "Please God,"  I pray silently, "Let me not make too big of a mistake." I send a text to Londa's phone, "Plz come back to the booth between classes." 

So I keep hand writing sales tickets. Londa reports back to the booth between classes and I hurriedly tell her the problem. What else could possibly go wrong? Thankfully, nothing did. God heard my pray and provided batteries. The show management lady came by the booth and said she had heard I needed batteries, would these work. In her hand were 4 A batteries. Just what I needed.  I inserted the batteries and said a quick prayer of thanks. Unfortunately all the pre-programmed pricing was lost, but I knew the prices well enough to enter the manually. Londa and Charlie are very understanding about cash register goofs. Thank goodness. 

So I was back in business. The afternoon was a blockbuster sale day and Saturday was o.k. So we ended up o.k. Life is good. I was able to spend time with Londa, talk to a wide variety of interesting women, and also see some of my sewing guild friends. Yes, God is good to me.