My family

Family Stories Vlog

9 Dec 2016

The day started very early for me.  Actually the previous night never ended, since I could not sleep.  So at 7 a.m., despite the rain, I went out to Sutter...today was pie day.  I was sorry I didn't have a camera with me.  Really impressive this tiny room with Marie Calendar's pies (apple or pumpkin) in boxes piled halfway to the ceiling, and a line of employees and volunteers waiting outside to sign up to get their free pies. 

I brought my pumpkin pie home, left it on the counter and headed for the recliner, hoping I could sleep some.  And I did--about an hour and a half (until my daily alarm woke me up to tell me to take my meds). 

Walt went off to his office to work for a bit and took the car, since it was raining.  I was guiltily happy that I had an excuse not to go to Atria.

it was Sandy's week off and the other woman who works Thursday morning is becoming more friendly, but there are no sparks there (I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember if she was at the recent Logos party because I can never remember what she looks like!).  She seems nice, but we never chat.  She had a very slow morning with only 5 sales, two to herself!  Fortunately, my afternoon was a bit busier.

My first customer was a short unisex person whose gender was hidden under a thick jacket, padded pants, a big yellow backpack, heavy gloves and a bike helmet that not only covered the head, but the face as well (can you tell it was cold out?).  From the walk I guessed it was a man, until she talked with me, but she didn't buy anything.

A young-ish woman with black hair streaked with blue and wearing a fur-lined hood and shorts over black leggings bought an Ogden Nash book.

A boy and his mom made a bee-line for the kids' room.  She was wearing a shirt with a unicorn and field of stars that said "I don't care' and he had a shirt with Olaf (from Frozen) that said "I give warm hugs."  She was looking for books in other languages.  She said they were trying to learn n new languages.  She was working on Italian and he was thinking maybe French o German.  She found a really nice book in French which would have been perfect for him (she couldn't tell what language it was) but they ended up leaving without buying anything -- I didn't see them leave.

A customer who had been there when I arrived and spent an hour browsing before buying a 2-volume set of Les Miserables, a book on Sexology, and 2 books from our "old books" shelf.  One was a book that had pictures like postcards of Paris, probably around the turn of the 20th century.

A stooped, old, white haired ?man ?woman came in, rubbing hands to warm them up  S/he carried a purse/murse.  She--it ended up being a woman--bought a National Geographic coffee table book on animals with a gorgeous picture of a gorilla on the cover and the "Tao of Pooh."

A colorful couple, she in an aqua colored jacket which blended well with his chartreuse colored jacket.  Reminded me of a set of dishes we had once (or maybe it was a dishes that my old roommate Gerry had -- I remember the days when to mix blue with green was unheard of).  They bought a contemporary fiction book, one on skiing, and a sci fi book.

A woman in a hot pink Seattle sweatshirt rushed in, plunked down $1 for a bargain book, and rushed out again.

Why am I so sleepy, I wondered?  Then remembered I was going on no sleep.  No wonder.

My friend came early today 3:45.  I almost didn't recognize him because he was wearing a knit cap.  Today he bought a hat.  We talked about the change from Logos to the Davis Friends of the Public Library and how I was not going to work after the change.

A woman came in to look for specific cookbooks -- she was going to find a Best of Weight Watchers book, or a Mennonite cookbook. We had neither, so she went off to the "new" book store down the block and later returned to buy the Mosswood cookbook.  Her husband. who waited outside for her, found a bargain book he liked and bought that.

A guy was looking for books on meditation or yoga and fund one of each, so bought them both.  He told me he worked at Watermelon Music around the corner, but had never been in the store before.  I asked him if he knew Ned, who may have been in Watermelon regularly during the Lawsuit years (or maybe I'm thinking of another store) but he said he was a drum teacher there so never saw other customers).

Bruce had come in at some point and was sitting at the front table drinking what I assume was coffee or tea.  His white outfit was covered with a green blanket.  I mentioned that I was surprised he was not wearing his hat because he was so cold...and he has a bald head.  He said he had to make a new one.  He didn't buy or reserve anything this week.  I think he just came in to get warm.

A tall white haired man looked at cookbooks, but didn't buy one.

Another man, a professorial type, bought four Physics books.  I thought of asking if he'd ever heard of Fred Reif, but I didn't.  At $30.38, this was the biggest sale of the day.

A guy who was someone I think I knew and I kind of greeted him in a 'nice to see you again" way, but since he didn't say anything personal and since he had longer hair than what I remember I thought maybe I was mistaken so I did not ask about his wife.  He was pleased to buy a Clavell book on the bargain shelf, but when he left he spied a kids' Christmas book and bought that.  If he's who I thought he was, the book was too young for his grandchild, so maybe I was mistaken.  I hate it when that happens!

A tall guy with a leather jacket, over a black hoodie (hood up covering his head).  He had a plaid flannel shirt was under it all, which I could tell because the tail of the shirt hung down like a fringe under his jacket.  He was carrying a Trader Joe's bag under his arm and looked at the sci fi books, then asked me about the future of the store and I told him about the Friends taking over, which pleased him.  But he didn't buy anything, and left.

At 5:15 I had the big rush.  Five whole customer in the store, "customers" being a misnomer, of course, because nobody bought anything.

Walt came to pick me up at 6 and we came home to watch last night's Jeopardy before tonight's episode aired (he had been visiting his friend Malcolm the night before and we had missed watching the show because when he came home I was involved with the live broadcast of Hairspray.