There's No Such Thing as Autumnal Cleaning

    Normally, Labor Day marks the time of year to change the decorations of my store, Booknotes, over to fall, with actual Halloween decor coming in October. Well, Labor Day was on the seventh this year, the latest it could possibly be, so the changeover was late. While I was able to take down the last of the spring/summer stuff fairly quickly, there was a slight problem with the new. Someone wanted to move some of the shelving and storage around to create a slightly newer look. I didn't think it was needed, but I got overruled, and I should have fought more on my decision. Anyway, I went to move out some of the spare empty boxes we have, when I noticed some damage on the bottom of one. It had been directly on the carpeting, but it had picked up something somehow. I had to go back and look at the bottoms and sides of every box I moved, checking to see if there were any more that had damage. There were many more.  All told, I had to throw about a dozen boxes away due to damage.

    The real question was how did the boxes get damaged in the first place. Last year, a small leak developed in the ceiling, but it was repaired soon after it was discovered. The floor didn't get that wet, and the damaged boxes were nowhere near where the leak was. Someone had spilled various liquids near the affected carpet, but nothing leaked that could have spread as far as it did. The weirdest theory involve the unit next door. An Amazon delivery hub opened up some time ago in the unit to the right. Last month, a clog developed in our shared sewer pipe, far enough down that was affecting both units. Soon after that was fixed, the hub had another problem, possibly involving a leaking fire retardment system. We saw them dumping buckets of liquid out, but no one said what exactly had happened there. Maybe some water, or whatever, seeped under the shared wall. All I now is that there was an odd odor in that area earlier in the summer, possibly from the boxes.

    After getting rid of the bad boxes, the carpet needed cleaning. We were had to wait to bring over the vacuum and other equipment immediately, since there was the probability for heavy rain in the forecast. (It ended up that we barely got a quarter of an inch over the period.) Waiting meant that there were piles of boxes around the store that I had to keep moving around while searching for damages and rearranging the other supplies that were kept in some of them. I also meant that decorating had to be put on hold until the carpet could be cleaned. Yesterday, we finally finished the cleaning and putting the remaining boxes away. Today, the last few decorations are being put up, and I can finally take pictures of the store to post on social media.  Over a week late, but it will be done.

    Even by putting my own spin on some of the design changes, I still don't think it was worth it. At least we got rid of some bad boxes.

Very Delayed Gratification

    I ordered a book as part of my regular order for my bookstore back in July. Unfortunately, they were out of stock, but expected the title to be back in stock relatively soon. I backordered the book, but it came in just after the rest of the order was processed. So, instead of having the book as part of that order, the title would be held until the next regular order. Strangely enough, when this happened at other times, the book was added to the order even as it was being processed. I finally placed a new order in the middle of August. Instead of the order being shipped immediately, it was held in processing for two weeks. After a week, we called the distributor to see what the hold up was. It turns out, someone other than me had ordered a book that was print-on-demand.  Although the inventory check said that the book was already available, we had to wait over a week for the actual book to be printed before the rest of the order could be sent. (Okay, there was a second book as well, but there was nothing overt about it that suggested it was POD as well.) Finally, this weekend, I checked in on the order, and I found out it was getting ready to be shipped. Well, the packing label was printed, but the actual order wouldn't be sent out until yesterday, Tuesday, due to the three-day weekend. The order is supposed to be delivered sometime tomorrow morning, and I will finally get my book. Technically, it is the only special order with it. A woman had asked for a book on medicinal plants, but she hasn't been back since to look in upon it. We needed the book for the store anyway.

    That's not the only thing I have been waiting on. Back in early August, my local comic book store had another one of its missed shipments. Actually, make that two, as it didn't receive any comics of mine for the first two weeks of the month.  So, I went and placed on online order with one of the places I had been dealing with for the past year. I also ordered a comic I missed from back in June that had been missed from both my local store and the other online store I deal with. However, the online store took so long to get to my order that two of the comics had already sold out. One, the missed one from June, had already been reordered for the store as a second printing (I think) and that asked if I wanted to hold my order until in came in.  I said yes. This weekend, I finally got the email saying the comic was in, after three weeks of waiting. The next issues of many of the comics are coming out this week. I've even put off reading other comics that are part of a crossover until these come in. Like the book order above, they should be in tomorrow.  The worst part though is that my local shop, although it has been improving lately, frequently doesn't get their regular order for the second week of the month, which is this week. It also has problems getting deliveries after a federal holiday, like Monday was. So, I might have to place another online order almost immediately after I get this one.

    Finally, I mentioned back in June about a special limited-edition flavor of ice cream that involved blueberries that I wanted to try. While it was available around here, it was out at times where it was either too hot to try and take something frozen that far, or I didn't have the extra money, or it was at a store where I couldn't get it from due to a lack of room at my own store's mini-fridge. When all the conditions were finally right, it was all sold out. I thought my one chance had been blown. But wait. Last night, a store that hadn't gotten the flavor before had some. While I couldn't buy it last night, due to a long stop I was going to make after shopping and before getting home, I am planning on getting it this evening. Sure, it's hotter today, but I will have a freezer bag with me this time. I just hope they don't sell out this time. I want my blueberry ice cream.

It's a Mistake by Man Not at Work

    I finally decided to register for another graduate school class. I had taken the last three years off after my last failed attempt to finish my degree. Since then, I kept putting off taking classes. All that seemed to be offered were classes I had already taken, or featured subjects and authors I didn't like, or were geared more towards teaching English than anything else. Finally, this fall semester, the school was offering a class on sociolinguistics that appealed to me, as well as one class that fit each of the previous three categories. Sociolinguistics is the study of how people choose what languages to communicate with and how those choices are made. I had seen related topics show up in my various social media feeds, and that just seemed to be the right coincidence to make me take the class.

    I ordered the lone textbook over the summer, and I received it a few weeks before the class began. I had read the first eleven chapters by then. I even started to see the topics I already knew about start to show up. I was ready for the first week. There were two assignments. The first was a multiple-choice quiz about the syllabus. You had thirty minutes to complete it, but I only needed ten, since I had the actual syllabus to study from. The other assignment was to introduce yourself to the rest of the class, while mentioning a few things about yourself, including the first time you heard a foreign language and what you were planning on using your degree on. I didn't give out too much about myself. I don't like to be too personal around strangers. I couldn't remember the exact time I heard a foreign language, but it was probably on Sesame Street now that I think about it. I mentioned how I wouldn't be able to watch the video lectures that go with the class. (I just don't have the time, patience, or attention span for the optional information.) I had to say that I didn't know what to do with my degree, though. I just wrote that I wasn't going into teaching nor pursuing a doctorate. I couldn't write the real reasons though, how my mother was pushing me to do it so it would look better on a resumé that I finished my degree or how I had already spent so much time and money that I might as well just finish.

    Well, you also had to reply to at least two other introductions, with a few sentences at a minimum. You also couldn't read the other introductions until you posted yours. I was the third one to post, and I noticed that both of the first two were involved in education. Not surprising, as the majority of my previous classes were like that, although I sometimes had a non-teacher like myself in most cases. I waited until more people posted to reply, and my fears started. Not only was I the only one without any experience in education, but everyone else seemed to had been in teaching for at least five years.  Most were in the ten years range. Three had advanced to administration, at least. One had even recently retired, making them around my age or older. I had no connection to anyone. I could barely come up with even a sentence to reply to anyone. There just wasn't anything there to connect with. 

    I was hoping that when the second week rolled around the discussions would be more about the textbook. I was wrong.  The assignment for the second was to discuss a time in your life when you either used the topics in the chapter in communicating or heard someone else use them. Now, even at my best, I'm not that talkative. I usually stay out of such things unless I'm very comfortable around the other people, or if I'm very confident about the subject matter. It can take me weeks, or longer, to truly feel comfortable around people enough to talk with them.  That's one reason why I never made any new, real friends in college. I just wasn't around them or comfortable enough to strike a friendship. Even if I share almost everything with someone, if I don't feel a spark, I won't be able to talk to them about that much. However, if I feel a connection, that bond lasts with me, even if the two of us have almost nothing in common.

    This lack of friends is one reason why I had my panic attacks after college. I became quite the loner, barely leaving home for many years. When I did, I barely talked beyond a minimum. Even today, decades later, that stress prevents me from speaking sometimes, especially when paired with a minor speech problem and continual stuffiness. I just lost the few social habits that I once had. Sure, I can write most of what is on my mind, but even then, I can be terse. This blogcast being a huge exception.

    Anyway, I emailed my professor with my concerns that I didn't have any recent examples for the assignment, nor any memories about the topic. I also raised my doubts over the three projects for the class. Not many details were given in the syllabus, but all three seemed to possibly include interviews, something I didn't think I could schedule or conduct on my time. I emailed early in the day, but he didn't respond until that evening, although I didn't look at it until the following morning.

    His response was fairly cordial, although he might not have realized he was writing to someone who may have been older than him. ( From his video and credentials, I think he's younger than me, but I could be wrong.) He noted my concerns, and he suggested that there could be a work around, basing my assignments more on written communication rather than spoken. Still problems for me, as I mentioned, I don't write much to people either. I didn't even write a lengthy birthday note to a close friend recently like I usually do just a few days ago. I didn't feel the need.  I was panicking a little by then, and I quickly made my decision. Like I had many times before, I emailed the school when I got to work and asked them to drop me from my class.

    I was just starting my task that I mentioned in last week's post, when I began to have doubts. The long lists of books made me think that maybe I should find a way to take the class.  Unfortunately, as I said last week, once I started going over that list, I couldn't stop. This was made even harder due to the fact that I have to use a different browser to contact the school, as their system works better on systems other than my default Safari. For some reason, my work took much longer than average to finish. Nearly an hour longer. There was no way I could contact the school by that time. Last Tuesday was the last day to withdraw from a class, already past the last day to register for a new one.

    I hate that I flaked out yet again. It makes me hate myself. I only need two more classes to pass to get my degree, but I keep finding stupid reasons not to take them.  I dropped this class even though I knew that the rules for withdrawal had changed, making it less of a good option. I don't know why I'm doing this. Yes, I can be exacting in my decisions, but this is getting ridiculous. I have legitimate reasons for doing this, but they just seem stupid after the fact. I never even responded to my professor about dropping the class. I was just too embarrassed to explain my stupid qualms.

    The only bright spot is that I don't have to shorten my posts here like I was initially planning to when I was going to take my class. 

    I'm a horrible person for doing this, again. 

One Hundred Fifty Minutes and Change

    I run a bookstore. Sometimes, I am find myself reaching for topics to post on social media, including the store's website. One thing I do is frequently changing the site's color themes to match the current season/holiday. For example, I have had the site fixed up in sort of a beach scene. The header is red, with a happy, little sun graphic. The background for the main body is orange, while the footer is blue. I was supposed to have changed the theme over to back-to-school a few weeks ago, but I could never find the time. 

    See, I usually update the site every Friday. However, I've been late coming in the last few Fridays. Not overly so, but late enough that I don't have time to update everything that I need to change. In fact, I will probably have to go straight from summer to autumn without anything in between with the extra time I'll be getting on Labor Day. That way, I can change the theme and graphics without the hassle of the other changes I normally make on Fridays.

    What do I update every Friday? Why, I update the upcoming book list for the following week. When I first started, I just highlighted a few books coming out each week, going back tow weeks, for three weeks total. Then I started doing something a little different.  First, I went out to four weeks, shifting each week down one spot when I updated the list at the top. I also expanded the title list. Instead of just a few books, it grew to over a dozen per week.  The top picks are now highlighted in a special color tied to the current theme. However, the list of new books has grown to a few dozen per week. That takes up all of the allotted time to update the site, making it harder to make other changes.

    Now, you might be asking "Where do you get all of those book titles?" Glad you asked.

    Years ago, the store's major book distributor provided a list of street dates for major releases, predominantly hardcovers. Their list soon great to include almost every title that was coming out, regardless of being hardcover or not. They even allowed public access to this list for a short time after they left the retail market. Unfortunately, the distributor stopped providing this list years before they went out of business.  Fortunately, there is another book distributor.

    I can't really say how they do their listing. Instead of an easily printable list, they have an online listing, of all possible new products coming out. Instead of a few months, their list goes out to over year in advance.  At least is adaptable. I can shorten the list to just the forthcoming month. That's still thousands of products. For the purpose of my list, I just focus on the hardcovers. I narrow the list down even further, by price, language, and publisher. Even then, the list can get a little long.

    I come up with my list the last week or so of the month for the next one. I start by picking the best titles from the monthly catalog, and then making sure of the release dates.  (Occasionally, a book is listed late and put in the catalog for the following month, or a title gets delayed after the catalog is made.) I then get even more books by checking the online listings they way a mentioned above. Usually, I can narrow down the list to manageable number between one thousand and fifteen hundred books. I focus on the ones with firm street dates, prominently highlighted, so I can keep my search time down.

    This September is abnormal though. Not only are many of the biggest books for fall already coming out, but September has five Tuesdays this year. The biggest titles have street date releases on Tuesdays. This meant an extra week to go through. I had over twenty-two hundred books to go through yesterday. Instead of the normal hour-and-a-half to finish the task, I had to work around two-and-a-half hours to go through every listing. Sure, I skipped dozens of books, like an entire children's book series about dreaming about each letter of the alphabet. However, I had to keep checking other books to make sure they weren't re-releases or on a subject that wasn't appropriate. 

    The work wasn't torture, but it took a long, long time. It got a little crazy at the end, as I had to skip bunches of self-published works, just to find the major titles. Did I mention that the list is in reverse chronological order? The last listings were for the books coming out on September 1, next Tuesday. The time order just bugs me, almost as much as seeing how commas look after numbers in this font. 

    Later on today, I make out the final list that I will be putting both online and on a dry erase board in the store. See, I don't just look at street dates.  I also look at the covers of the book, and use them as inspiration for the in-store board. I've written about how I make up that board somewhere in this blogcast, I think. I would go over that as well, but I don't have the time.

Novel Ways to Ruin a Mystery Novel

    While I did major in English, most of the time that interferes with just reading for joy and pleasure. It is sometimes hard for me to enjoy a book as the critical analysis I've studied over the years just gets in the way. This just happened in the most recent book I read.

    I used to follow a series of cozy mysteries whose hook was that the protagonist had "visions" that helped her solve the crimes, although they frequently just got in the way. Although I loved that series, it had a habit of including a few more typos than a regular book, as well as various stylistic choices and factual inadequacies that a better editor could've helped with. The worst of these errors was when a background character claimed the wrong history about the origins of the board game 'Clue.' I couldn't be sure if it was to show the character's incomplete knowledge or if it was just thrown in as a way to connect with a later plot point in the mystery.

    That series kind of ended last year. While new books could come out later, the author has begun a new series with one of the supporting characters as the new main protagonist, although many of the rest of the cast is still around as well to pop in when needed. No visions, but the character has been showing a unique thinking process that wasn't seen previously. Unfortunately, the same editorial problems persist. 

    For example, one of the suspects brought in for the new mystery only goes by their first name, as a way to hide the ties to their father who is in prison. While everybody knows the man's name, no one mentions it. Even a news interview about the father's release from prison skips over the name entirely, at least in print. Oh, the name gets mentioned, but characters only react to it.  The real name is never seen in the text. The technique makes it feel like the father is very famous and the author doesn't want to get sued for using it, ever though the character isn't real. You could have used a totally different name. Fictional people can't sue.

    The factual mistakes might be worse. Based on the previous novel in the original series, where a baby is born and is celebrating their first birthday in the new book, it is late September/early October in New England. I guess that could be a good time to repot summer flowers, even if some could still be blooming. And a slightly rebellious older woman might choose to wear a white skirt to an event after Labor Day kind of makes sense. However, the third mistake almost made me want to stop reading.

    Two men comment about the post-game show they heard on the radio while on their way to a dinner. Although the timing is sort of loose in the book, the dinner happened on a Thursday, meaning the show occurred in the late afternoon. It is very unlikely that the NFL would've have scheduled an afternoon game on a Thursday. There are only two possible scenarios this might happen. The first is if the start time had to be moved up to avoid a major weather event, such as a hurricane or other tropical system. Based on the time of year and the two teams involved, the Titans and the Patriots, this seems unlikely. The other scenarios is if this was an international game. Brazil would be likely, although London, England is also probable, although this meant the game ended around midnight locally. If the NFL was playing in Brazil on a Thursday, they would've started it slightly later for a great US viewership.

    Now, I'm not saying it would be impossible for this game to be played at that time, but I had to stop reading for a while when I saw it. Fortunately, it was at the end of the chapter, but still. If the author needed to include a sporting event to be mentioned at that time, why not a baseball game? It would've made way more sense for a Thursday that time of year. I guess the author needed to include a tie back to Tennessee, for plot reasons that barely mattered.  It just irks me whenever a small line like this almost ruins a book for me.  I'm emotional enough as it is.

Why My Blogcast Post Is So Late This Week

    So, we closed the store extra early yesterday as the storm warnings started to come back in. My mom went to the bathroom, only to notice that the toilet was clogging.  Nothing major, but she instantly blamed the unit next door.  They have been the reason behind many plumbing problems at my store for many, many years.  The only thing this time around is that the unit is technically empty. It is currently being used for storage by an Amazon delivery hub. No one is ever over there for any great length of time. However, someone had been over there about an hour before any problems were noticed. I personally thought that the problem was a finicky toilet. If you don't hold the handle for the right length of time, it doesn't flush properly. As we needed to get home before the heavy rains arrived, we said we would handle things today.

    Numerous storm and tornado warning were issued on the drive home. We were there for about forty minutes before it started to rain, with another five to ten before the storms hit. Nothing too bad happened, although the electricity went off for a few seconds and a number of long siren blasts were heard. I still don't know why they went off. 

    Anyway, my mom waited until just before we were supposed to leave this morning to gather everything needed to work on the toilet. This not only caused as to leave over twenty minutes late, but we also got caught in the light rain all the way to Pikeville. She also had to stop for coffee, and there was a long wait. This was probably because so many people in the area were without power. The electricity did go off at the store, but it looked like it was only for a few seconds. We were about thirty minutes late. 

    After opening, she began checking out the problem. She asked for my help with the plunger after fifteen minutes or so. I gave a few quick plunges, and everything seemed to be better. She went on to see the shopping center's operating manager before cleaning the room up. This allowed me some time to check on my own things on the computer, but not to write my post. When she gets back, informing me that the plumber who works for the hospital that owns the center can only come after-hours, she asks me to try the plunger one more time before cleaning.

    I give it a few more plunges, when these paper towels suddenly appear. She had used them to clean the plunger, but left them inside. (She has done this before.) She begins to panic. Running around a bit, before she calms down enough to figure out how to get the towels out before they cause trouble. After another ten minutes or so, she asks me to plunge again, once the towels have been scooped out. I did so, but the water levels never did get back to normal, unlike the first time.

    My mom started calling people, after cleaning up the mess that included a puddle of water that appeared on the other side of the room, and she found some possible plumbers. She later talked to the manager again, after he came back from a break or something, as well as the Amazon delivery guy, who finally returned after his vacation. (He had a sub handling things while he was away.) The other unit was having problems too, even though I didn't even know it was being used. 

    Finally, someone should be over tomorrow afternoon to look at things. I'm still not sure what the real problem is. Whether my mom did something wrong and acerbated the situation, or if the unit just had another problem with our shared piping system. Whatever it is, this could be another time when my mom turned a minor inconvenience into a major problem, if somewhat unintentionally.

Buy the Book, in Fact Buy Lots of Them

    Last year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of my store, Booknotes. We would have celebrated the anniversary, but there was a small chance that we would have had to either move the store or close it after a hospital bought out the shopping center where we are located. A few years after we opened, our closest competitor, Read More at Coal Run, closed. Last year, the Prestonsburg location of Read More also closed, leaving Booknotes as the only book store in the near area. Even without major competition, sales didn't change that much in the past year.

    Recently, not one, not even two, but three new book stores have announced their openings. In fact, two of them are opening up this week--one in downtown Pikeville and another in Coal Run (albeit in a different spot than where Read More once was). The third is planned to open in Prestonsburg shortly. All of this feels off somehow. After so long without any interest in the area, how is it three new book stores are opening up so soon of each other.

    There weren't any real rumors until their posts started popping up unannounced on my Facebook feed. Why the algorithm thinks I need to know about my competition so quickly is just crazy. What gets me is that other people started sharing these posts, and their posts have sometimes popped up on my feed as well. Some of these posts complained about not having a book store in the area, even though Booknotes has had a media presence from the beginning. I must admit that I would slip the occasional comment about the store, both as myself and Booknotes, whenever someone complained too much about such a false lack. Sneaky and a little underhanded, but I felt it was necessary. 

    Of course, I had to do a little research about the new operations.  Each store posted pictures of a new book shipment. For one of them, I couldn't recognize the company that the books came from. Turns out, it was a remainders reseller. Such businesses would buy the unsold products from other stores, and they would then resell them to somewhere else. While most of these books would have been kept in warehouses, some may have been actual stores, meaning that some products could be shopworn. Also, an order from such a place might not be of the greatest variety. Most of the books could be older, or of a limited variety of genres and types. Still, they are cheaper than many other places. Another picture showed just how few books that store was offering, as various objects filled up the otherwise empty space on their shelves.

    The other store has shown a slightly greater variety of books, many current or recent bestsellers among them. However, their picture of a book shipment was totally different. While the books shown weren't too old, the two romantasy novels shown aren't from this year. The children's book packed with them might have been, but there was no way to tell. Furthermore, the distributor I go through doesn't use that style of cardboard box anymore, and it is pretty much the only one used by independent book stores. My distributor also wouldn't pack such an eclectic selection of books in the same opening delivery for a new store. Back when I opened, they tried to keep each genre in its own box to make it easier to inventory and shelve. I don't know if that is still an option. Regardless, I find it suspicious. A later picture showed that most of their books are on one long bookcase, with other products filling out the rest of the space in their main showroom. There is also a special section for kids that also features toys.

    I've hear almost nothing about the third new store.

    At least my commenting has led to a mention of the local news when a feature on the new stores was shown. Considering that they had sent remotes to feature my store in the past, it was the least they could do. They didn't come back this time around, but they could have if they wanted.

    They really should.