Wow! What a day! Where to start? The weather first. One word...Beautiful! The day opened clear, with mild temperatures in the Low 60'sF. with a light breeze out of the southeast. Afternoon temperatures topped out in the Low 80'sF. with partly cloudy skies. All -in-all a beautiful day. I began early, by unloading the kiln with the last of the Bowman dichroic tiles. That's 18 tiles in all. I loaded the kiln with more tiles for a replace "Number 9" panel, and began the layout for the Bowman project. After lay-out was completed, I started cutting up boarder pieces and grinding them down in preparation for tomorrows layout. All the while, Sherry continued work on inventory replacement. This is a really critical aspect of our day to day operations. It is not at all very sexy, and is for the most part, drudgery production work. It is however, very important, and necessary for our survival. This is what pays the way. We have to replace what sells. If we don't, we won't have the inventory necessary for the next show. So I really appreciate her efforts. She put up almost 40 of the 3/2 dichroic sun catchers that we have been foiling up over the past several evenings.

I departed at noon to meet G.Booher in Punta Gorda. Gary and his wife purchased the "Circles & Arrows" panel, and exchanged their custom "Wright Transom" and cash for the panel. We occasionally do this with clients. They purchase a panel, get it home and find that it just does not do what they had hoped it would do. In these rare cases, we take the original panel back, and allow the purchase price to be applied to another panel, or towards a custom commission. In this case, the Wright Transom they returned was a custom panel, 10 X 42, in blue. It will be a little difficult to move, but this is the guarantee that we give our clients, and we must stand by our word ( and our work). Gary already had the replacement Circles & Arrows panel (He and his wife picked the panel up at the Venice Art Show on Sunday). He has already installed the new panel, and commented on how magnificent it looks, particularly at night!

After I left Gary, I stopped at the Home Depot and picked up some supplies for The Fisheating Creek Egret install, along with some Jack Chain and water filters. We go through about one water filter a month. The filters cost us about $1 a day. Time to get a real filtration system.

Next stop was in Bonita Springs to meet Mr. Katz, and deliver a C66 in Seafoam Green. This was one of Sherry's project. I was just the delivery boy. The hand off went well, and I was on my way to Naples, and the installation of The Fisheating Creek Egrets.

This installation could not have gone any better. It was a breeze. The panel is slightly smaller than the opening, not at all a snug fit. Nan has arranged to have her foreman inspect the project, at which time they will determine if they need me to remove the panel during the trim installation process or not. If they do determine that I am needed, we agreed to do this trim out during the time I will be in Naples for the Simon Transom installation, sometime this month, or purhaps early in April. A word here about Nan. She really is a wonderful lady, and a great patron of the arts. She supports a number of artist, and their work is displayed throughout her home. As for this current work, it is a rare thing to have someone give you the financial support, and the artist freedom, to create a work of this degree. We very much appreciate her trust, and support. She is a wonderful lady!

I departed Naples at 4:30PM and headed north on Interstate 75. My next (and last) stop was at the Home Depot, where I had to gather the materials necessary to build the stands and lay-out tables required for the 12' long Simons Transom Commission. While gathering the necessary components, I found 8' landscaping ties on sale for $1.97 apiece. I had mentioned in an earlier posting that I had in mind to build several raised beds, for vegetables and herbs. Well, I can now make that happen! I purchased 40 ties, enough to build 4- 4'Wide X 8' Long X 16"Deep raised beds. I will work on this a little at a time over the next couple of weeks. I need to get some really good soil from Todd, for the bottom layer of soil. The top 1/2 of the beds will be filled with good potting soil. One item I must get hold of is a composter. So much to do...so little time.