I kept an eye on the Weather Channel's reading for outside
temps today. When I got to Logos, it was 104. By 5 it was the
predicted temp, 106, and by the time Walt showed up it read 107. And
today was not supposed to be the hottest day this week. It's
predicted to be 108 tomorrow.
The heat sure reflected the "action" (or lack of same) at
Logos. I think Sandy had 5-6 sales recorded when I got there.
There was no one in the store and her granddaughter was at school, so we
chatted for about 40 minutes. She's always a ray of sunshine since we
talk politics and are of the same mind on everything (so far). It was nice
to have someone to rant and rave to, who would rant and rave back!
I felt sorry when she left. She wasn't going to be
riding her bike home like she usually does, but had brought her car.
But you can't park for more than two hours in the downtown area ('cause this
is such a shopper-friendly town. Not.) so she had to park about four blocks
away, which isn't far, but everything is far at 104 degrees!
There were no customers when she left and I went searching
for a book. I decided I wanted something other than the mysteries I
usually grab, so I checked out the Literature shelves and found a copy of
"Goodbye, Mr. Chips," which filled two of my most important criteria:
the print size was large enough for me to read, and it was short enough that
I could finish it during my 4 hour stint.
In truth, I think I finished it in two hours, though took a
few breaks throughout, mostly to go "shopping" in the kids' room.
Lacie has a birthday coming up and I bought a few books for her. With
the price of children's books new these days, getting "gently used" books
from Logos seems to be much more sensible, since they are in good condition
and if they are slightly less crisp than a new book, they'd get that way in
a day or two with the girls reading them anyway. Also there are some
wonderfully eclectic books to be had at Logos for children!
I settled in at the desk to read my book. At 4:15
my first customer walked through the door. He was carrying a
motorcycle helmet and he browsed for a bit and finally bought a quantum
physics book, "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat" (which I would not know
anything about at all, where it not for The Big Bang Theory).
I made a comment to him about the heat and he said he had
left his helmet out in the sun and it was too hot to put on, so that's why
he came into the store, to give it a chance to cool down in the air
conditioning.
After he left things were very quiet for almost an hour when
my friend showed up. We talked about Mr. Chips and about the weather.
He bought a bargain mystery and a book on wooden engraving. He also
showed me a book on display, "The Surgeon of Crowthorne," which he said he
had read under a different name. After he left, I went to check the
book and found the "or" title to be, "A tale of murder, madness and the
Oxford English Dictionary." I started reading it. Looks good,
"one of the most bizarre and intriguing literary friendships in history."
Apparently a true story of the friendship of lexicographer James Murray, who
compiled the first Oxford English Dictionary, and one of his most valued
contributors, who was a homicidal lunatic, confined to Broadmoor Asylum for
murder. I can hardly wait to see how this all developed!
After my friend left there was a flurry of activity, common
around 4 p.m. A total of 5 people came in within a minute or two of
each other, none of whom stayed more than a couple of minutes and none of
whom bought anything. This is just not book-buying weather.
I did a get surprise when my old co-worker Crilly Butler (we
both worked for the same psychiatrist for awhile, me as a typist, he as a
therapist) burst through the door with a friend. They were on their
way to the pub for a beer, but he came over and gave me a hug. We are
Facebook friends and he frequently comments on my Facebook posts, but I
haven't actually seen him in years.
And so the day ended. I think I took in about $20 for
the day and $12 of that was from me!
Tomorrow is my second training day at Sutter, but my stint
will be 8:30 to noon and temps won't get to 108 until later in the
afternoon. This time I will bring a bottle of water. I nearly
died working 3 hours last time with no water!
I see from "Today in My History" that 15 years ago today I
wrote my very first review of a show...since Geocities is no longer on line,
I can't remember now what it was.
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