Awning in the Wind

   I walked out side of the auditorium after watching dress rehearsals and ran into Bill the other night. Bill was just hanging around the place doing odds and ends when he heard a thunk outside the wall. "The wind was so hard outside during the run that the awning blew right off the building!" He said excitedly. Then he pulled me over to the front door and pushed it open letting in a blast of cold snow and air. Through the swirling snow I could see our beautiful red awning twisted to the ground in a heap. Now you may think that its no big deal right? I mean, its just an awning. But to me it was a sad and depressing sight. You see about 2 years ago, my dad, Vincent Bill and I all went to the theatre and took down the ugly green awning and put up the red one. It wasn't easy though. It took hours of standing in freezing temperatures, blinding snow and blasting wind. I remember the day clearly. I remember handing Dad screws, donning another pair of Bills work gloves and Bill kicking me inside until I thawed out. After much work and sweat, (yes we were sweating) we had the awning up. And, if I do say so myself, it looked awesome. Now here I stood shivering in the door way of the theatre looking at the awning lying on the ground.
  "When are you going to put it back up?" I asked. Every time I drove past the theatre, I liked to look at the awning and remember that day and the fact that I had helped put it up.
  Bill smiled sympathetically like he knew what I was thinking ." The wind bent one of the supporting rods. It will have to be bent back into place first." He shut the door and pointed at the inside of it. There was a coating of snow about a foot or two up. " The wind blew the snow in the closed door its that strong right now."

  As I was leaving I looked at the front of the building and saw the awing being held down by straps that he had ran out and thrown on to keep it from going farther. I hope it goes back up soon. Maybe I can help this time too.