Friday, September 9, 2016

Today at Logos


Sandy was working today and we had a long chat.  We are bemoaning the approaching end of Logos (end of January) and Sandy said starting in October, she will only work every other week, so I won't see her as much.  


It seems each time we have a long chat we learn more about each other.  I learned today that her daughter was a midwife at the medical office where I worked for 12 years.  She didn't come until about seven years after I left, but we talked a lot about the office, the partnership, The Mother Ship and how it screwed us all.  It was nice to have yet another thing that connects us.

There were many customers who came in and out while we chatted but we kind of ignored them, especially when we got into the upcoming election and how depressing it all is.

But she eventually left and my afternoon was moderately busy.  The first customer looked around for a long time before buying "The Dynamics of Automotive Controls."

My friend Ellen called with a question about our local internet provider, but she also told me she was in a 4-car accident on the freeway yesterday and her car was totaled.  Miraculously nobody was injured.  She sounds like she has a bit of PTSD today.  I couldn't talk long  Nobody was in the store when she called, but finally 3 customers came in and I feel uncomfortable talking on the phone while there are customers in the store.

A woman I described in my notes as a "me-type," i.e, the same kind of build and posture, though much younger.  She was wearing a very oddly patterned shirt, that looked almost tie dyed, but not quite.  Hers turned out to be one of the funnier encounters of the day.  Shortly after she came in and started looking through cookbooks, an older couple came, both very tall.  They were wandering around the store and the "me type" had put the cookbooks she was going to buy on the desk and was looking at other books.

While she looked, I was browsing through one book she found called "Artichoke," not only artichoke recipes, but also the history of the artichoke (which apparently goes back 2,000 years).  Anyway, when she was ready to check out, I told her my theory that artichokes were a sign that God says it's OK to eat mayonnaise.  

Then I added that I remembered seeing an Our Gang comedy where Buckwheat was given an artichoke to eat--and from somewhere in the book store, the older guy called out "No...Stymie!"  (In truth, I never thought it was Buckwheat either, but couldn't remember any of the other characters except Alfalfa, and I knew it wasn't Alfalfa).

[This is, by the way, why I don't like taking personal calls in the office when there are customers there!]

So that was my bit of humor for the day.  She paid for her books and left.  The Little Rascals expert was with his wife.  Both were very tall and both wore wide brimmed hats.  She was a vision in purple.  He bought two photo coffee table type books and was saying he hadn't been back to Davis in a long time, that he had gone to school here in the 70s and he was amazed at how different downtown looks.  We compared notes on restaurants he remembered that are no longer her (like Larry Blake's, with its wonderful Rathskeller in the basement).  He asked for a bag for his two large books and I told him I'd have to charge him. He waved me away and said they now live in Santa Cruz and "we have that rule there too."

A mother walked by the store and I only noticed her because she had two little boys, abut the age of Brianna and Lacie, and each of them had his own iPhone and they were looking at them intently,  I wonder if they were playing Pokemon Go.

A young woman almost wearing a crotch length skirt (I can't believe how short skirts are these days!).  Her friend had a slightly, but only very slightly, longer skirt.  She bought coffee table books on the Louvre and the D'Orsay museum and the very next customer found two coffee table books on the bargain table on Versailles and one other French place.  The second woman told me she was going to France in 2 days with her kids, 6 and 8, that she home schooled them and that she uses books like this to make "scavenger hunt" books for them when they travel.

A very thin woman with skinny arms that make one appreciate a layer or two of avoirdupois under the skin bought Nora Ephron's "I feel bad about my neck."

My friend arrived shortly after 4 and found a book on rifles in the bargain bin, though it did not have a bargain price on it  I made an executive decision and told him he could have it for the bargain price.  He also bought an art book.

A woman named Alice, who seemed to be a friend of Susan's came in and told me she had received a note from Susan saying she had left a book for her.  We went to look at the pick-up shelf and it wasn't there.  She read over Susan's note which said that the book would be in a bag on that shelf, with her name on it.  I texted Susan, who had no memory of the incident--or the text--but she told me to look on the top shelf of the cookbook section and there it was.  But it had a price on it and Alice thought Susan was giving it to her.  She decided she didn't want it if she had to buy it, and then Susan texted that I could just give it to her, but by now she had decided she didn't want it after all.

A Japanese young woman came in wearing the cutest pants I've seen.  They were denim, but they had a design of zippers all over them, and each "zipper" opened a bit to show a dog or a cat underneath, peeking out.  There may have been other animals too, but I only noticed the cats and dogs.

She bought 3 horse story books from the children's room and paid with a Japanese credit card, which our machine accepted, but it was the first time I had been asked to enter a PIN for a credit card.  When the transaction was completed, she signed the receipt in Japanese.

A professor type bought 3 books on electrical engineering.  A tall woman who looked like a professor type bought four board books in the children's section for her new 4 month old grandson (her first....she was very excited).

A short guy wearing ear buds bought two Tolkien books, and a Martha Stewart type bought two bargain books.

A woman came in with two bags of donations, which she deposited in the back and then bought a copy of "The Orphan Master's Son," which is a Pulitzer prize winner set in North Korea. She says she has read before, but it's wonderful.

A man with ruddy complexion and bleach-blonde hair, who was probably homeless, left his huge backpack and bed roll outside and came in to check the science fiction section.  He didn't buy anything, but when he left the store to get his stuff and go on to...wherever he was headed...he was talking to himself.  (Pretty sure he was not talking on a cell phone).

Peter came to relieve me.  Apparently there is going to be a notice in the paper, maybe as soon as tomorrow, about Logos going out of business in January.  Guess it's really happening.

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