Rainy Day at Logos

I use the term "rain" advisedly.  But when you're in the kind of drought we've been having, you'll take anything.  Let's just say there was enough precipitation in the air that it made the ground wet, but not enough to require an umbrella.  But the weather folks call it rain, so I'm going with that.

The "rain" (or whatever it was) obviously had an impact on sales.  The person who worked in the morning had served fewer than 10 customers and while I don't remember exactly how many I customers bought books from me, I think there were fewer for me than for her.  There was even a whole hour when nobody came in (which was great because I was enjoying my book).  Things picked up, as they always do, around 4, but it still was a pretty sad showing for the day, money wise.

The person who works in the mornings now is getting to feel more comfortable with things, though she confessed having had a problem with the credit card paraphernalia that she had to call Susan about. That reminded me of an oddball situation she might encounter with the machine at some point--the only thing I ever had to call Susan about in my early days, so I explained that to her and maybe can remember if it ever comes up for her.

Very shortly after I arrived, my friend Kathy drove in from Sacramento with six big boxes of books to donate.  We got them stashed in the back and she looked through the boxes one last time to make sure she hadn't brought the wrong boxes.  She pulled out what she said had been her favorite book, "Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies" by the former White House Chief Usher J.B. West (and Mary Lynn Kotz, Collaborator).  She told me to take it and read it, which I did all day.  Fascinating book, which I will talk about, perhaps, in other entries.  Totally changes my view of the White House and its occupants.  West was there from FDR to Nixon, so he definitely saw a whole variety of personalities, ideologies, and events in that august building.

Before she left, Kathy and I chatted (because we were the only ones in the shop).  We realized that our friendship goes back 40 years, in addition to our having lunches together every month at Olive Garden for the past 15 yrs.  It's quite special when you have been friends for that long.  (Of course Char and the Pinata Group can beat that, with friendships going back nearly 60 yrs!)

She finally left and I settled in to read the book.  At 2:40 a guy came in and bought a book of Maryland cooking.  He said he thought that was the only book of Maryland cooking recipes that his mother did not have.  (I was surprised that there are apparently a whole lot of Maryland cook books!)

Then there was a whole hour when I was alone, which really got me hooked on this book.  Finally a guy came in asking if we had books on martial arts.   I showed him the section, but he didn't buy anything.

A student came in asking if we had a pick-up service.  She has some 100 books she wants to donate because she has to vacate her apartment by this weekend.  I took her information and told her Susan would call.

Someone else came in bringing a box of what she said were children's books and parenting books.  Later in the day someone asked if we had any parenting books.  I seriously considered letting her paw through the box, but I didn't.

By 4:30, I took stock and realized that I had sold a grand totaly of 5 books in 2-1/2 hours and has served fewer than 10 customers.

At 4:45 a guy came in who wanted to know if I had read most of the books in the store.  I laughed.  He ended up with two of our bargain books ($1) and 3 sci fi books.

My friend came in at about the same time, though this week he only bought a thin book called "Textiles."

Around 5, a guy came in wanting to know where our non-fiction adventure book section was.  I actually knew the answer to that one and he bought five books from that section.  He says he's from Chico (about an hour away) and doesn't get down here all that often, so he needs to stock up while he's here.  He says he's run through all the books in the Chico book stores.

There was an Asian man who looked around the store for about 30 minutes, trying to make sure he examined every section.  He ended up buying two science books.  The girl who spent her whole time on the phone talking to her friend, however, did not buy anything.

A heavy set man spent quite a long time looking through the music section and the sports section and eventually walked out with the Steve Jobs book.

The only noteworthy moment was when the door opened and this short girl walked in.  At first I thought she might be a character out of the Harry Potter books.  She was on a full skirt that came down to her ankles and she was wearing several layers of clothes, stopped by a huge jacket thing that looked like it might have been made out of an Indian blanket.  It covered her up and the hood on it pushed her long hair forward so that it wrapped around her chin and looked like she had a beard.   But she was warm.  

She had a book from the bargain shelves outside with her.  It was "Metamorphosis" by Ovid and she wanted to know if we had any more books by Ovid ("I don't know his first name," she said).  I actually looked Ovid up and discovered that he did have a first name:  Publius.  So now you know.  (He lived 43 BC - 17/18 AD)  And no, we didn't have any other books by Ovid.

Susan and Peter arrived at 5:45 and Walt shortly after that, so we headed on home.  Later that night, Walt sent me this link:  http://dctv.davismedia.org/node/41608, which is the link to a 23 minute interview with Susan on the ocal TV station, should you be curious as to want to know more about her and Peter!