Delivery Day

We took the train table backdrop out to Port Orchard and delivered it to its new home.  At first we were thinking that we couldn't fit the kids and the boards in the car at the same time, but then I remembered that I had done it once before, so we squeezed everybody in.  (Both kids have grown a bit in the interim two years, requiring  more squeezing this time.)

The backdrop is a present for Jerry from his wife Sylvia.  They are also the owners of The Cupboard Under the Stairs.



When I took the boards out for the initial "setting the scene," I was able to prop them up on a little lip that ran around around the back side of the table.  I was planning to do that again--set the boards up and take some pictures.  But when we got there it turned out that the lip was gone, so there wasn't anything to prop the boards on.  (Sylvia told me that they had to move the table over the summer when they had some water damage in that room and had to re-carpet.)  So I don't have any pictures of the boards on the table yet.  But we did line them up on the floor and admire them. 

Sylvia got a couple of the neighbors to come over, and we were standing there looking at the painting and discussing how part of it reminded them of Cambria, California where they used to live (I didn't know I was painting California) when Jerry came home a little earlier than expected.  He walked into the train room where we were all standing, and Sylvia kind of gasped and said, "Oh!  You're back!"  Then the neighbor said, "Hey Jerry, we were just checking out your train table--it's got a big crack in it!  You're going to have to fix this.  Come take a look at it."

Jerry walked over and  bent over the train table, not even noticing the backdrop at first.  We all started laughing, and then he backed up and looked down and saw it. 



(Jerry's reaction... Awww!)

The train table is kind of a work in progress (it needs more trees and things--and that white stuff that you can see in the photo is some repair work from the move).  It'll be fun to see what Jerry does with it now that he's got the backdrop to pull it all together.



Sylvia said they got the boards all mounted. I'll have to go back out soon and get some more pictures. In the meantime here are a couple of details from the painting.



I remember my roommate Julie using the term "post-performance adrenaline rush." (She was a ballet dancer.) I get that feeling from finishing a big project. Now I want to paint something else!