This past weekend was the Virginia Woodturning Symposium, which, by the way, was excellently run – but then again, I did not expect anything less from good ol’ southern hospitality!  The staff was great, the attendees were engaged, and everyone had a great time!
Now for the not so good stuff!

You would think a professional demonstrator, who has been demonstrating for over 15 years, would not FORGET his demonstration kit, BUT I DID!!  I packed the car the day before checking, and double checking, to make sure I had everything, and I DID have everything.  However, I wanted to make one small change in the presentation,  so I took out my demonstration kit with all my tools and demo pieces, and took it back into my shop to add a few pieces to it.  When I was done I placed it in the middle of the floor so I would have to trip over it when I left the garage, and I would have tripped over it if I went out through the garage!  When I left Friday morning to drive 5 hours to Virginia, I went out through the front door of my home, and not out the garage.  The last thing my lovely wife said to me was did I forget anything, and my response was “What, me forget?”!!
You can probably guess the sinking feeling that I had when I started to unpack the car at the symposium to set up the lathe, and realized that I forgot to pack EVERYTHING that I had been preparing this last week! Panic set in, I used a lot of language I shouldn’t say in public, and after a rant of 30 minutes realized that I would have to make do with what I had available.  Other vendors offered to pitch in to help, and in the long run, after my blood pressure came back to normal, the attendees of the symposium, and myself, all had a good laugh at the “Professional who forgot his tools”!
PS – It all worked out well. Everyone still learned a lot, and I will make sure that I do check my checklist at least twice! (maybe 3 times – just to be sure.)