Toothless in Monroe, O2-less in Mint Hill

Ally is staying another week so we are busy-busy. We went to the Schiele museum yesterday, always fun for the kids. The newest exhibit is "Ocean" and it teaches a lot about North Carolina beaches, erosion, and wildlife.

I made beads with Ally on Friday - she had wanted to make beads all day (her first experience) but I told her we should plan for 1:00 to 3:00. In the 90+ degree heat, she was pretty much done by 2:30. We had a safety lesson first and she had a healthy respect/fear for the flame. She started the bead and I finished it. She did great! Then we ran out of oxygen, so we headed down to Airgas to get a new tank. It's a 20-minute drive. The guy at the counter was about 80, toothless (not that there's anything wrong with that) and kept telling me "I can't load a cylinder in your car and I WON'T load a cylinder in your car. I can't and I won't. I can't and I won't." He repeated himself in a very toothless way.

So it turns out I have to either have Tom go get O2 since he can load/unload the cylinder himself (I could do it if it weren't for the 3 stairs to get up to the dock at Airgas) - or I have to have it delivered. I was trying to avoid the delivery fee but that's how I'll probably go in the future...I only have one tank now (used to have two in Cleveland) so it's an issue of timing - I either have to risk not finishing the tank and having a delivery before it's out of O2, or waiting until it's completely out and then I sit for a few days unable to make beads.