Monday, November 12, 2007

Oh yeah, I have a blog...

I've been out of the habit of posting regularly. Life gets in the way of even our best intentions, it seems.

I'm still trying to pull together the kitchen space in the back. Right now, it's a matter of making the place warm. Whoever insulated the place must have used Q tips and toilet paper.

Bill spent the weekend crawling on all fours under the porch out there and into the space under the kitchen. He dragged in one of the bright work site lamps so he could see and, one by one, brought in long pieces of blue board insulation which he screwed in above his head, while lying on his back. He then used that funky foam insulation to seal around it's edges. It's not like radiant floor heating in there, but eventually, I'm sure it'll help.

Next on the project list comes the endeavor of building a new door into the kitchen. The one that is there now is probably about sixty years old and light comes in through the cracks between the wooden panels and around the door frame, along with twenty degree temperatures. The new door won't be as pretty and suited to the historic look of the house but it'll serve it's true purpose. Right now, we're almost drawing straws when it comes time to have go back there and pull pastries or grab foccacia bread. I can't imagine what it's been like back there in winters past, when it gets below zero. I think it used to be a mud room. I'm hoping and praying that with a new door, an operating stove and an insulated floor (and the help of an energy efficient space heater, I'm sure) that we can function back there without the aid of mittens and ear muffs.

I've picked out the colors for the coffee bar room and possibly for the room with the computers, as well. Tonight I may nail down the dates I plan on locking the doors and repainting the place. I think if I don't commit to the calendar soon, it will never happen.

It's officially stick season in the hills. Naked trees and brown earth. The long cornfields are freckled each morning with Canadian geese, crows and wild turkeys... each in their segregated little flocks, picking away at the mowed corn shafts for forgotten kernels.

The mums on the porch have died from too many hard frosts, my pumpkins were finally stolen and the front steps got egged on the night before Halloween. Summer is definitely over now.

Once we set the clocks back for daylight savings, I started closing up at 5pm instead of 6pm. It's still dark when I leave here for the night but it allows me some extra time at home and less time on my feet!

I still haven't gotten to the point where I'm wondering why the hell I decided to do this. So far, I still like being behind the counter and haven't had a nervous break down about getting taxes paid on time or about the constant grind. I've had near nervous break downs about plenty of other things but that's life....

Floor's mopped, drawer is counted, brewers are shut down and the pastries are wrapped. I've got a rooibus tea for the ride home. Cheers.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Costco Mentality

I took a trip to Montreal this weekend and revisited an Italian coffee bar that I discovered a few years ago. I remember it being the absolute best latte I'd ever had and wanted to go back to see what the trick was.... now that I'm in the realm of lattes myself.

I think now that I wanna hang with some Italian men for a while and learn the ropes.... maybe get the inside scoop on espresso machines and grinds and roasts. Being the consumer oriented Americans that we are (more, more, more), we serve a double shot latte in a 16oz cup. That's an awful lot of milk drowning out the coffee. The Italian shop in Montreal serves it in an 8oz cup. I came home and tried it here the next day.... my own beans, my own machine, my own 8oz cup.... it was better but it ain't that.

I think, though, that folks would riot if I tried serving them a $3.16 latte in an 8oz cup.
Maybe I should get some good looking Italian men in the shop to make it more convincing.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Duh

I named a recent post Dope Move #42.
I should go the extra mile today and name this one Queen Dipshit.

I drove off last night with my business checkbook on the roof of my car.

This is not the first time I've done this kind of thing. In the past, though, some honest citizen has called me or mailed me my wallet or organizer. This time however, my checkbook fell into the hands of some punk kids (I'm guessing) and they proceeded to tear my checks out of the book and distribute them in clumps up and down Main Street here in Johnson. The checks and their carbon copies. I found a page of them when I pulled up this morning at 7:30am. I found another page in the muddy curb water in front of the shop. I started looking around, walking around, and it was like a sick, twisted scavenger hunt....I found some around the corner by the bridge. I found more in the Grand Union parking lot. More in the dried up perennial beds of the health food store. Some more on the corner of Railroad Street. A few customers came in with stacks of them in their hands. Two local businesses called about some they'd found in their yards. Hannah, who opened the shop this morning, found a crumpled pile just inside the door.

The account has been closed, with allowances for the checks that haven't yet been cashed, and a new account has been opened and a new checkbook is on the way. Bill, being the eternal optimist, suggested that the wind may have ripped the pages out of the book ("it was pretty windy last night").... but I disagree. If I ever find the punks who opted to play scavenger hunt with my business checks, I think I'll opt to hang them by their toenails from the flagpole outside my bank. Fuckers.