Today at Logos

One of my first customers today was the tallest man I'd ever seen.  He had to duck down to come through the front door.  It took all my self control not to gawk at him, make dumb jokes about basketball, or make any comment on his height whatever (I couldn't resist, however, snapping this picture as he went out the door).  He was a very nice man who bought a bargain book and a philosophy book.  As he paid, his hands were large and his fingers long and slender, as befitted the rest of his physique.

I was relieving Susan today.  Sandy is on vacation again and won't be back until after Thanksgiving.  Susan and I talked theater and the news that DeLuna Jewelers, just a couple of shops down from Logos, is going out of business.  They have been in that location 47 years.  The place was filled with customers all day long.  In fact, my very first customer was a guy who bought a bargain book (a Tony Hillerman mystery) and said he had to get back to DeLuna to relieve his wife, who was waiting in line!

I don't know what I will do now when my mother's watch battery dies.  I think they are the only jeweler left in town.

I had had lunch at Atria and then rushed home to take a nap before my shift, so I wasn't quite awake when I took over at the store and felt that customers were intrusions causing napus interruptus.  But I was happy to see Bruce outside at the bargain table.  I hadn't seen him in a couple of months.  I noted he was in clean, well-fitting clothes (still all in white), with no hat.  He didn't find anything he wanted, so didn't come in.

A guy wearing a Honeydew Country Store, Honeydew California sweat shirt wandered around.  I asked him where Honeydew was and he told me it was in Humbolt County, in the northern part of the state.  He bought a bargain book on Napoleon and then looked around some more and found "Brooklyn" in the contemporary fiction section.  I saw a preview for the movie based on the book today and was sorry I didn't see the book first!

An older professorial type guy in a tweed 3 piece suit and a newsboy type cap looked around for awhile, then asked if we had any Bill Bryson books.  I took him to the travel section but he was looking for books on English, so I showed him "The Mother Tongue" and other books on the English language.  He didn't buy that, but did by the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research.  He also asked when Peter works and I gave him an e-mail address.

The next customer was an older woman bundled in grey with sunglasses and a wonderful cloche hat.  I loved the hat, but she didn't stay long and left without buying anything.  (I'm not a hat person because hats never fit on my big head, but this one was nice.)

A woman in a sweater with a quilt pattern in light fall colors, over a navy blue pleated skirt went directly to the mysteries, selected two books by Amanda Cross (a mystery writer I with whom I was not familiar) and left within 5 minutes.

A woman with a young boy (maybe 9 or 10) with a neat crew cut went right to the children's room, but they were looking for a hard cover copy of Harry Potter #3 and didn't find it.  She said they'd check again.

Another woman with a son was looking for picture books of minerals and rocks, but didn't find what she and her son were looking for.

An eager guy who obviously knew his way around the store said he was looking for the history section and ended up buying a book called "Bolsheviks."

An interesting looking middle aged woman with thick, short curly grey hair and a sturdy physique who looked at things over the top of her glasses reminded me of "Mama" on the old Carol Burnett show.  She carried two backpacks and a large purse and bought two bargain books and two English-Russian dictionaries.

An Asian guy came in very happy to have found a Mexican cookbook among the bargain books.

A guy with a bag from the Avid Reader (a store that sells new books a block away) came in to buy a bargain book.

A young woman spent a long time looking at books and ended up buying: "Back Roads of California," "Grasshopper Pueblo," "Ishi," "Ecology of Fear," "Ulysses," "Babbit," "30 Simple Things to do to Save the Earth," "Cannery Row" and "Breakfast of Champions."

My friend (who had not been in last week) arrived at 4:45.  He was coughing and said he didn't want to get close, but we talked about the cruise and he bought a bargain book and one other, that I forgot to record.  It was good to see him again.

A rotund man wearing a cap and using a cane had a pouty lower lip and looked like Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon.  He didn't stay long or buy anything.

A hobbit-y nerdish guy with copper colored John Denver style hair and a huge backpack as big as he was, was looking for a book by Francoise someone.  Each time I asked him to repeat the information he said it faster and quieter.  I finally sent him off to what I thought was the logical section but he left shortly after.

Susan arrived at 5:45 and then went out to get coffee and a baklava.  She asked if I wanted anything.  I said no, but heck, if I'd known she was going to get baklava!!!.....

Probably just as well.  My intestines were feeling funny.  I came home and had no dinner, but went to sleep early (which meant, of course, that I was awake at 3 a.m.).
 

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My heart is breaking.  Peach's husband called to let me know the priest has given her the last rites and she will be gone soon.  I told him she has been more a sister to me than my own sister was.  This is very difficult.