MOTHER NATURE
BLOWS OUR TENT DOWN


Last year, we bought a big, brand new tent for events there at the winery. It was 20' x 13' and very roomy. This year we used it several times to great effect,most notably durin the Sangria Festival and the Psychic Fair.


A month ago the winery was set up for a series of bus tours. On a Sunday we were scheduled to have several bus tours, so we set the tent up, as we always did, several days in advance.



On the day we set it up it was still and quiet. The several days later, on a Saturday, the wind began to pick up. And pick up some more. The tent was tethered, staked down to the ground. It shifted some, and then one line snapped, and then another. All through the night I could hear the wind build and build like we were out to sea in the middle of a gale.


Several times I went outside and reconfigured the tent. It was shifting and creaking. I railed at the winds and the waving tree branches, and cursed like Ahab aboard the deck of the Pequod.


But I couldn't stay out there all night. Eventually I had to leave the tent to its own devices. Dominique and I looked at one another and shrugged. Short of holding the tent down myself, there was nothing I could do. I worrie and tossed and turned as the wind howled and roared.



The next morning I surveyed the wreckage. I asked Dominqiue to help me try and resurect it. It was like trying to raise the Titanic. Everytime we raised one corner, another one would fall down. It was a disaster.



Eventually we scrapped the whole thing. The poles were twisted, bent, snapped. The irony of course was that the weather turned beautiful, and we didn't end up needing the tent at all.




It was eventually deposited at the local dump. One of the fun parts of owning a winery.