HOT, COLD, AND KAREN-LESS

by Linda Robinson

At five-o-dark-thirty on Saturday morning, I sat at the breakfast bar with my leaded coffee, put my head in my hands, and moaned. “If God had meant humans to get up this early, he’d have made daylight come sooner.”

My hubby laughed. “Well? Whose bright idea was this?”

“The birds aren’t the only ones still asleep. I expect the yard cats aren’t even up.” A few minutes later, I looked outside. “Maybe the cats are up and I just can’t see them until my eyes focus better. More coffee, please.”

But this was a special once-a-year kind of day. In one hour, I had to be checked in to participate. Months prior, I had reserved a booth at our city’s annual arts and crafts festival—to promote my books, as I had done the previous two years.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it had recently turned into a “shaky deal.” Two days prior, Tropical storm Karen had been predicted by one weather model to come directly across southeastern Alabama on the day of the event, packing possible hurricane force winds, perhaps tornadoes, and would at least drench us with many inches of rain.

I share my booth with another local author, and she and I decided not to participate when we heard the news on Thursday. In my wild imagination, I could visualize our canopy lifting up, up, and away. All of our books would gully-wash into the gulf.

But on Friday, the model changed its mind. It would be cloudy on Saturday, but the rains wouldn’t arrive until Sunday morning.” Great news! We’d go, and it would be a nice “shady” deal. All we’d have to worry about was a little too much wind.

Wrong again! While parts of our country got snowed in, Karen fizzled out to a depression in the gulf. Before the day was over, our temperature peaked at almost ninety degrees. Not a cloud appeared in the sky for most of the morning, and we coveted even a gust of air. A few clouds and breezes finally arrived just before we closed down mid-afternoon—hot, exhausted, and slightly sunburned.

Even so, it was a good day. We sold books and had a great time visiting with old friends and meeting new ones. Did I mention the food? I shouldn’t write about corn dogs and funnel cakes, or mention the scents of "blooming onions" frying and various types of barbeque cooking on the grills.

I’ll just tell you every cloudless day has a silver lining. We munched on pina colada-flavored Italian ice, which was available in the booth next to ours—the coolest memory of our day.

Linda Robinson is the author of two novels: Rails of Freedom, released December, 2012, and When Love Abounds, released in December, 2010. Her Christian/Fiction/Family novels depict the people, lifestyles, and music of the 1940's, 50's and 60's in the deep south, with an underlying message of "that little word that makes the world go 'round -- love." Linda resides in Alabama with her husband and spoiled Maltese dog, Joy. She is a member of her local Writers' Forum, ACFW, and many others and can be found on FaceBook, Twitter, and her website. She belongs to a writer's critique group and has recently finished her third manuscript, in addition to writing fiction and non-fiction short stories for magazines, newpapers, and contests. Find out more about Linda by visiting her web site at: http://lindarobinson.tateauthor.com