Friday, August 8, 2014

Today at Logos...and More

First off, the day started with a scare for me.  I went to Atria at 11:15 to have lunch with my mother.  I had brought my iPad so I could shoe her a video.  But when I got there, her newspaper was still in the box, which means she had not gotten up (or had forgotten to get her paper).  I didn't know what I was going to find when I went inside.  She was in bed and I couldn't tell if she was breathing or not.  I shook her shoulder gently and she pursed her lips and moved a bit on the bed, but didn't open her eyes. 

Knowing that she would be quite disoriented when she finally did wake up, I just left her a note and came home.  I called back in about 2 hours and she was awake, the TV was on and she sounded more chipper than I've heard her in awhile. I guess she really needed the extra sleep!

Now to Logos...It was only 90° outside when Walt drove me to the store, but it was humid and sweat was already dripping off of me by the time I reached the door.  Thank god for air conditioning...and the desk fan.  Peter jumped right up as I came in the door.  I could hear Susan in the back.

I was still settling in when a guy gave me a book on Statistics to purchase.  I didn't even look at him, so don't know if he was young, old, fat, skinny, or whatever!

A couple came in.  I was drawn to the guy's big grey trainers with shocking pink accents and laces.  (Aside:  I used to call them "tennis shoes" but athletic shoes come in so many different styles and uses -- running shoes, walking shoes, whatever shoes -- that I like the Australian "trainers" as a good all purpose term!). He bought a copy of "Atlas Shrugged."

A woman was looking through the bargain books and brought in two to buy.  She was carrying a white canvas bag covered with pictures of ants. She purchased the two books from outside and looked through one of them, which was a book of poetry.  She noted that someone had already left notes in it and we talked about how much fun it was to find someone else's notes in a used book you just bought.

A very tall, very skinny guy with very hairy legs was wandering around the store.  I didn't know if he was with a woman, who looked very fragile, very pale, in an old-fashioned white lace dress.  Her hair had a braid crown that joined together at the back and went down her back in a long heavy braid.  But they weren't together.  She bought 3 books from the literature section, a Zola, a Yeats and one other.

There was a man in black from head to toe, including a very heavy looking back pack.

Two women came in looking for "Love in the time of Cholera" -- and found it!

A grey haired man with a black shirt and jeans was checking out science fiction, even including removing books  from the shelf to see if there was anything hiding behind them.  He then spent some time going over the sheet music and bought two pieces.

Another couple came in.  He was holding a water bottle under one arm.  She looked like one of the ubiquitous blonde TV stars without make up -- like Kim Raver, who played Jack's ex-girlfriend in 24. They wandered around for awhile but didn't make a purchase.

A guy wearing a red "Fly Emirates" came in but things got kind of busy, so l I didn't notice when he left, but he didn't buy anything.

This was around 3-4 and was the busiest time (4-5 was dead!)  A guy with a pot belly, drinking some beverage bought a novel about the war in Vietnam. 

A woman with a sleeveless top which showed the beautiful dragonfly tattoo on her left shoulder came in, earbuds hanging over her shoulders.   As she entered the store, she pushed her sunglasses up to the top of her head, gave a wave and said "hello." (nobody I knew personally, just a friendly woman)

She was followed by a perky business-type woman in brown slacks, a crisp white shirt and carrying a red bag.  She bought 3 books from the literature section and asked for information about volunteering at Logos.

An older guy wearing cargo pants and trainers with white socks spent a lot of time at the Fantasy section.  When he came to buy two books, I took his credit card and, when I looked at the name, realized this was a long-time friend of ours.  I hadn't seen him in years.  He is greyer, more wrinkled, and looks like he has lost a significant amount of weight.  I might have recognized him anyway, but I don't focus well on people coming in the door, and by the time he was looking at the fantasy shelf, the sun was coming in the door and it made focusing on details of his appearance difficult.  ("In the dusk with the light behind him" sort of thing)  But it was nice to see him, to briefly hear about his kids, and to send greetings back to his wife.

The chatty guy from the last few weeks came in and I groaned as he waved a cheery hello, but instead of settling in to talk, he got a book and sat down to read for about an hour.  When he finished, he put the book back and waved goodbye without saying more than "hello" to me.

A nicely coordinated guy came in, wearing blue slacks, a blue and red plaid shirt, a red ball cap with blue accents, and wide blue and red striped socks.  He brought a stack of books from outside and said he was going to "start a stack," and ultimately bought those plus four more from inside the store as well.

A couple from Sacramento returned.  Apparently they had spoken with Susan earlier in the day about books by an author the woman was looking for.  Susan had told her to come back after 6, but she showed up at 3:30 instead.   I had no information for her.  But she also wanted information on local movie theaters.  They had found two, but didn't know about the third, so I gave them directions.  The husband wandered around the store while the woman and I chatted about Vermont (where she is from) and California (where I and her husband are from). 
  
A grizzled farmer-type with a wide-brimmed tan hat, rumpled pants and a shirt hanging out started wandering around the store.  Suddenly he started sneezing very loudly, over and over again.  He was blowing his nose in a big purple handkerchief.  I asked, jokingly, if he were allergic to books.  He said if he were allergic to books he'd be dead, but he took his sneezes outside without buying anything.

A person of questionable gender arrived.  The hair was masculine, there was a lip ring and the voice seemed feminine.  The customer purchased a book by Spinoza and was tickled to find it because apparently the only other books had been about Spinoza, but none by Spinoza.

Bruce came in.  I hadn't seen him in weeks.  He seems to have a new-ish hat.  No sweater today and his white pants were, as always, dragging on the ground.  He carried a newspaper and a big paper bag.  People in Davis are often carrying bags these days, now that there is a ban on bags and stores have to charge if you want your items put in a bag.  He didn't buy anything this time, though.

A short man who looked like a character from a sit com came in.  He had a blue ball cap, pulled low over his eyes, oversized black glasses hiding his bushy eyebrows.  He had a thick moustache atop a mouth that seemed to be permanently pursed, and long side burns.  He had a stooped, loping gait with his head thrust forward, giving him the look of a character from a cartoon.  Too bad he didn't buy anything.

It was now 5 p.m. and my friend had not showed up, nor did he in the last hour either.

A woman bought some books from the bargain table, but then went into the children's room and came out thrilled that we had "Caps for Sale," her favorite book as a child, which she bought for her 3 year old niece.

The day ended when Susan started lugging in box after box after box of books, from her car.  I offered to help, but she said "I'm not insured for you," so I sat there and watched her make about a dozen trips, and I felt guilty.
Walt arrived and we said our good-byes to Susan and headed on home to find the messages from Char and from Linda, of Linda and Bob, folks we made friends with on the Ukraine trip last year. 

Now we are re-thinking the Alaska-for-our-50th plan.   I maybe giving up on the lifelong desire to do the inland passage after all.   Linda and Bob say they are taking a Viking ocean cruise in October of 2015.  Char and Mike talked about it and they are ready to sign up now (you have to).   Walt and I talked about it and decided we want to go too and will consider that our 50th anniversary celebration.  It's 6 countries in 13 days (yeah...yeah...If this is Tuesday...etc.  I hate that idea, but realize that at our age and level of activity, it's the best way for us to travel).  Ports of call are Barcelona, Spain; Toulon, France; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Florence/Pisa, Italy; Rome, Italy; Naples, Italy; Corfu, Greece; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Split, Croatia; and ending in Venice.  I read the itinerary and they had me at "Sagrada Familia" in Barcelona, which I've wanted to see since I watched a PBS special on it. 

Char is calling Viking tomorrow to start the ball rolling.   She's our official travel agent.

Day 39:  Happiness is thinking of swimming in this pool next year!

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