Red Skies at Night — A World on Fire

Once again, it has been a few days since I last found the time to write a post.

As I look out my home office window at the setting sun... it is barely visible behind a thick layer of smoke from forest firest in our region.

It has been incredibly dry around here. Fall may have a arrived — from a temperature and shorter days perspective — but we have not seen a drop of the autumn rains, as of yet.

Meanwhile, more than 160 wildfires are burning across the state of Washington; some of them quite extensive. The Bolt Creek fire — just 35 miles from the city of Seattle — has already burned over 13,500 acres (55 sq. km) of forest, and has been burning since September 10th!

We've seen this before, mind you... but it seems like our normally moderate climate is becoming more and more extreme with each passing year.

The result is that our air quality — normally some of the cleanest air in North America — is seriously compromised and actually "unhealthy," making any kind of outdoor activity a very unpleasant experience.

Of course, it's not the fires that have been keeping me from the blogosphere...

We spent this weekend — since Thursday night, really — at an arts and crafts show where we were had set up a vendor booth to sell both my own and Mrs. Denmarkguy's creative endeavors.

It's a lot of work because you are there all day, engaging with potential customers... and at the end of the day, I mostly just want to crawl into a hole and not do very much!

It's also a lot of work because of the week-long prep-time that comes before the actual event... and then the effort to basically haul "a small shop in a box" to the location, setting up and making it all look nice... and then taking it back down at the end of an exhausting three days.

It is worthwhile?

Depends on your definition of "worthwhile," I suppose. If you look at it purely in terms of "hourly income," the result is a somewhat pathetic "less than half of minimum wage," but if you look at the bigger picture of gaining exposure and putting your art in front of many people, then the picture is quite different.

We have voluntarily chosen the path of independence and being free to do the things we really enjoy... and part of the "price of admission" seems to be that your "wealth" is counted not only in money, but also in terms of contentment and satisfaction.

Hopefully, now that this event is over, I will have a little more time for blogging... although we do have other events to participate in, this holiday season.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!

How about YOU? Are there any particular activities you do that take time from your blogging efforts? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20221016 18:29 PDT
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