You know you've been too busy when...

The summer of 2010 saw the arrival of three trains weekly at Thurman Station, and, as president of the Thurman Station Association, I was involved in helping to create and publicize special activities in Thurman to attract and entertain rail passengers. Added to my other regular activities, it made for one crazy summer, with way too much stuffed into my volunteer schedule. Not only did I not blog, I let myriad other things slip between the cracks of my life, as well. I've finally found a few minutes to reflect on that crazy busy-ness, and the impact it had on me:

You know you've been too busy when your "short" hair cut is curling down around your collar and you realize it has been three months since you felt you could afford twenty minutes to sit down and have it cut.

You know you've been too busy when the pile of documents to be dealt with on your desk teeters above the screen of your open laptop and threaten to topple down onto it.

You know when you listen intently to a story your spouse is telling and realize moments later that not one word pierced your brain --- which was focused on that teetering pile.

You know when you forget to eat, to sleep, to go to the bathroom.

When you forget what file you were just about to open, whose number you were about to dial, what face belongs to the name on the page in front of you.

I knew best yesterday, when I sat down to work and suddenly was flooded with the awareness there was nothing -- NOTHING -- that I needed to do right away for any of those volunteer projects. It took a few minutes to fully realize that I had time to.....to what? I'd almost forgotten the alternatives.

I had time (not unlimited, but time, nonetheless) to phone a friend. Time to listen to some music and plug a few pieces into a jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table. Time to pull up a piece of fiction I wanted to noodle around with before my next writers' retreat.

Time to share a few thoughts with you in this long-neglected blog.

I've missed that.

Till soon,
Perky

Thurman Station Farmers' Market - A Plan Comes Together

I can still see it in my mind's eye now, that impish grin growing on George Peppard's face as he clamped a cigar between his teeth, lit the end, looked around at his team of military misfits and said, "I love it when a plan comes together."

No cigar here, but I know that feeling. There's a special sense of completeness, of wholeness, when a plan is crafted and all its details are executed. That is most apt to happen, as it did with clock-like predictability each week for Peppard, when a team goes into action, each member taking responsibility for some aspect of the project and seeing it through.

It has been my privilege to be part of a team like that--the Thurman Station Farmers' Market committee. This gang, pulled together in late June, has been amazing, and it looks as though our very ambitious plan to open a farmers' market at the historic site of Thurman Station in the small town of Thurman, NY, will come to fruition on August 12. Organized under the umbrella of the Thurman Station Association, this group owes much to the cooperation of the Warren County Department of Parks, Recreation & Railroad, the Town of Thurman and the Upper Hudson River Railroad. There has been enthusiastic response from vendors, and we expect a dozen or more to offer such goods as produce, crafts and antiques. All that remains, after the final paperwork is approved, is to share the excitement with the public when they come to shop at Thurman Station Farmers' Market.

The plan is coming together!