What a day.
We started out doing community service at the union mission gospel. I showed up a little late and missed the bus from the hotel, so my friend rebecca drove me down. We got there at the same time as Phil Krinkie, former state representative and president of the tax layers league. Phil got to the front door and discovered that it was locked. Phil shrugged his shoulders and said " it's locked!". I gave it a try myself because that's just what people do when confronted with an insurmountable obstacle like a locked door, try it again to verify it's insurmountability. Well, if you can't go through it, go around it: we walked around the building and discovered a beautiful courtyard with a fabulous trellis of flowering plants where a group of volunteers were busily setting up tables in the 87 degree weather.

Gina Countryman was waiting for us - well, not for us in particular but really any able bodies Republican volunteer. Gina is the communications point person for the Republican party if Minnesota. Gina explained that the schedule for the convention would be changing throughout the week due to the hurricane in Louisiana.
There wasn't much time for chatting because we had volunteer work to do! The volunteers outside had the tables and grilling well in hand, so they sent us to the air conditioned back building: tough luck!

The first job they gave us was an easy one: take all the blankets and quilts off the shelf and throw them on the floor. Easy. I can do that. I'm quite good at making messes! Ah, wait. There's more instructions. Throw them on the floor into neat, organized piles seperated by size and seperated into piles of quilts and blankets.
This is much harder. What is the difference between a quilt and a blanket?
The staff helps me out: "this is a blanket, and this is a quilt.".
"they look the same to me," I say utterly confused.
"well, this ones fluffier."
"oh, I see! It has to do with R-value?"
This gets a chuckle from the staff.
I did the best I could. Fortunately, many of the blankets were labeled "blanket", so I matched up those that looked the closest.