After a Long Day

We should have been closing the deal the day after tomorrow but I'm still waiting to hear back as to whether or not the business plan is enough of a go to actually take to the bank. Hopefully that word'll come tomorrow. I've got calls out to the bank, to restaurant equipment joints, reps from food companies.... always calls out.

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We had a new faucet installed a couple of days ago... one of those things that needed to happen before we transitioned ownership. A local guy who does odd jobs for the current owner is the one who ordered and installed the faucet. The day after it was put in, I came in to a note on the counter that we needed to keep the sink somewhat dry for a day or two while the caulk dried... and then to trim off the excess after that point.

So, today I drove to the local farm and garden to make copies of the key for our new employee and to buy myself a straight edge blade.

I've never caulked a sink, nor have I ever had to trim excess caulk after the job was done but after forty five minutes of scraping this shit from around the edge of a three bay sink I was able to confidently determine that this guy went absolutely ape-shit with that stuff. It wasn't a terrible job. Minus having to break to pour lemonade or iced coffee, it was rather meditative... almost a bit of a metaphor in itself... like taking a certain kind of stock in the value of scraping away all that goopy, unnecessary shit from around the edge of things. Oh, so many places to take that metaphor! Forty five minutes was about half the time that it took to finish the job.....

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Ella had her friend Acadia at the shop today. They spent way too much money on penny candy and I was glad to shuffle them off to the riverside for the rest of the day. They came back in one- hour intervals to check in with me, dripping wet and hungry. They're both home now with Bill, building a fort over the expanse of Ella's room with all of the sheets from my linen closet and there they'll stay for the evening, finishing up their penny candy and watching movies. Life's tough when you're ten years old....

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After driving the girls to the house and making them dinner, I got back in the car to come into Johnson again. As I was veering onto the north end of Hogback Road I got a call from Acadia's mom, who was veering onto the south end of Hogback Road. We met in the middle, sat on our cars in the setting sun and caught up for a bit. She's an amazing lady who practices reiki and has a small essential oil business on the side. After reciting my list of things to do and my unmet deadlines and my determination to come in here and clean and tie up some loose ends, she dives into her car and comes back out with what looks like a big CD book... except it's filled with about fifty different essential oil blends. Before our visit was over I was dowsed in a dozen oils, all for specific purpose, and I smelled like a queen. The lemon oil, dropped onto the center of my palm and rubbed in a counter-clockwise position three times, might just have been the most effective of them all. I don't know what medicinal purpose it has, exactly, or why the direction or number of times I rubbed it in will help me, but it smells sooo good.

So here I am, at the shop, writing a blog post instead of working, having just finished the first of my two ales... a new favorite called Wychwood... listening to the second cd mix i've ever made (see below for list of tunes it includes~thank you Shannon for your itunes playlist)

The window is open, no breeze, just the sound of random passing cars and trucks coming in through it's screen. Sun's gone down an hour ago and dusk is heavy like the humidity. My bags are sitting on the table beside me, waiting like my old farm dogs with needy eyes, wanting to be scratched and given some attention. Here goes......

Currently Playing
I ordered my very own, brand new laptop last week. A dell.... and it should
be delivered via FedEx sometime early this week... at which point
(after I come up for air after learning Quickbooks)
I can get set up with Itunes and download all the scratchy, near death cds I have.
In the meantime,
I've had the great experience of making mixes from other people's music collections.
This is the second in what I hope will be a long history of making mixes, compliments
of Dave and Shannon's Itunes collection.

Bittersweet ~ Big Head Todd.... totally cheesy, I know, but such a good song!
How many roads ~ a duet by Dylan and Joan Baez.... in their early years, before the tension.
Dirty Old Town ~ The Pogues.... gotta love Shane McGowen
Arkansas Traveler~ Garcia and Grisman
Some of my Favorite Things ~ by an artist I don't know... some killer female vocalist
"cashing in on the glory of my biggest mistakes...
to kiss until my lips are red....
these are some of my favorite things...."
Some random tune from the Bostones... thanks to David! I felt like I was at the Staircase
in Pittson all over again... seeing the Bostones for the third time
G-Love ~ Special Sauce... for my Ella
Some random tune by the Go-Go's.... for Dana, who never reads this blog, anyway.
In the Morning~ Nina Simone... I think it's clear by now what Meg's favorite song is?
Lay Lady Lay~ Dylan
Irene Goodnight ~Leadbelly... doing an awesome Guthrie tune
some duet by two dudes and the chorus goes something like:
"what's so funny about peace, love and understanding"
I don't remember putting it on there but it's not too bad
Unbroken Chain ~ quite possibly the best GD tune ever
Give up your light ~ Morcheeba
Video Killed the Radio Star
What I am ~ Edie Brickell

The novelty of ice

I'm sitting here making a capital purchase list to present to the bank. It'll appear somewhere in the appendix of the business plan... basically telling them what smart purchases I'll make with the money they give me.

I'm about ten minutes from being done and the five discs that have been rotating all day in the in the stereo have repeated themselves almost twice just in the time it's taken me to do this work. And the one thing that has gotten me up from this work, and my Long Trail IPA, is the fierce astonishment that there is not one damn icemaker on the market for less than $1,200.- And that's a low ball figure.

I'm sorry. It's a machine that turns water to ice. Is the technology really that advanced?

I'm sick to death of running out of ice here and having to take the money we make from our "rent-a-mouse" to run across the street to the Grand Union in my greasy apron and come back with two bags of ice. But I just don't know that I'm sick enough of it to spend twelve hundred dollars on a god-damn ice machine.

Can someone please explain how one can go out and purchase a ten year old Surburu for the same price as an ice machine? I'm baffled here.

Speaking of those five CD's
I'm afraid there's a serious lack of creativity and motivation here.
It's almost the same, if not totally the same, as yesterday.
Total lack of ingenuity here, I apologize.
Bob Dylan ~ Blood on the Tracks
Jim's Just Listen to It Mix ~ the one that starts with that great Shane McGowan christmas song duet.
G Love and Special Sauce ~ The Hustle
Billy Bragg and Wilco ~ Mermaid Avenue
Leslie Feist and Neko Case mix from Jocelyn

and all of that... playing for twelve hours now.
Tomorrow is a new day.

More Gratitude

I walked into work yesterday and the bookkeeper was sitting at the bar with her laptop open and a big, fat stack of invoices spread on the counter. She comes in twice a month to do payroll, pay bills and file things into Quickbooks. She has an amazing energy to her, shoots straight from the hip and every time I leave a conversation with her, I'm left reeling and terrified about this project I have looming before me. About five minutes into dialogue with her my eyes start to lose their focus and I find myself at least three sentences behind where she is... trying to catch up. There's just that much to do. And she knows so much!

After she left and my lists were made and stacked into the 'to do' pile, I had to work really hard on not being overwhelmed with that list. It took me the better part of the afternoon to center and focus on just being where I was, while I was there. Behind the counter.

Mid afternoon rolled around and things quieted down in here. The sun was finally shining outside and for the first time in three days a nice breeze was coming in through the old screened windows.

A great, conversational guy from Bakersfield named Harry came in on his way home from Maine. He sat at the counter eating a panini and drinking some iced black tea and told me about his big fight to keep Walmart out of St. Albans. Yeah, Harry.

Around four o'clock I pulled out my bag and unloaded my folders, lists, phone numbers and financial plan. On three loose sheets of white paper were my notes from the past two days and so I picked up the telephone to call Sarah, who owns the beautiful book store three doors down.

I asked if she had any day planners and could she could please put one aside so that I could run down to buy it before she closes. I joked that if I didn't get one today everything was going to fall apart.

Two and a half minutes later, Sarah comes walking into the coffee shop, day planner in hand, and passes it over the counter to me.

"It's yours. Someday I'll need a sandwich." And then she turns to walk out.

I'm still just totally awestruck by the kindness of people. I hope that someday she needs a hell of a lot more than a sandwich.

After I finished closing up shop, my big plan was to turn the music up loud, put on some old clothes and clean the bejesus out of this place. As I was finishing counting out the drawer and writing out the day's deposit, another good friend (God Bless You, Annette) came in... long yellow, rubber gloves in hand... and offered me one hour of her time. That was at 7pm. At 10pm, all the woodwork and furniture in the big sitting room sparkling clean, our heads full of Roots Manuva, she threw in the towel. Thank you, thank you, Annette.... and a special thank you for your sound advice on the potential disaster of painting my coffee room split pea green. I will heed that advice. Much as it might pain me.

What a day of absolute giving. I feel so damn loved.....
And...my windows are clean, to boot.

Yesterday's Playlist
Arabic Groove ~ Putumaya
Brazilian Groove ~ Putumaya
Flaming Lips... Recently, a good friend downloaded three and a half days worth of music onto our computer. There's still easily about two and a half days of music that I've never even heard of, let alone listened to yet.
I put two Flaming Lips albums onto my Ipod and was eager to check it out.
Of all the artists I've played here at the shop, this band drew the most response.

What great energy the music has. Keeper.

I think the Flaming Lips actually carried me through the better part of the day.

The only other album I remember playing was the soundtrack to the
Jack Johnson and Malloy brother's surf flick ~ Broke Down Melody. Great movie. Amazing Soundtrack.

And then it was Sizzla and Roots Manuva for Annette... who requested good reggae to clean to.
And clean she did.

MondayMonday

I spent the last however many hours at the shop today not knowing that the register tape was flapping in the breeze under it's little plastic cover. At the end of the night, when I went to run the X and get my totals, I realized with a thud in my gut that I was destined this night to learn how to replace register tape......Alone.

The shop closes every night at 6pm. Doors locked, music turned up, bleach comes out. The place was cleaned and tucked neatly away for tomorrow's morning staff by 6:50. It was 7:15 and I was still figuring out that fucking register tape.

The fact that I stuck with it and figured it out "by my own self" (as Bean used to say) is evidence that I can do this.

When I finished counting the drawer, sealed up the deposit bag and filed the paperwork for the night, I untied my cute, little green calico apron and went to take the leak I'd been holding in my bladder for forty five minutes.

The bathroom here isn't much bigger than a Job Johnny. It's a little box that breaks all handicapped accessible codes (ssshhh). It's painted a weird blend of citrus yellow and papaya orange (like the other walls in the building) and has a round heating duct (papaya orange) running up the length of the room. Sitting there taking my wiz, I peer down to where the duct meets the floor and find one small, green sprout growing up from the floor. Really. One small, green sprout with two small, green leaves growing up from my bathroom floor.

And like mastering changing the register tape, this little green sprout is going to be my big metaphor for endurance.

Today's Playlist

Dawgwood ~ Grisman
Prairie Wind ~ Neil Young
Thievery Corporation ...can't get enough of this album!
Erika Badu .... thanks Shannon for burning this for me!
Nina Simone ~ Best of.....possibly/probably/definitely THE best album EVER.
(i forgot to mention that, T, when we were going over favorites:))
Garden State soundtrack... never saw the movie but thanks Tibs for the disc. Loving it!
Billy Bragg and Wilco.... daily dose of Mountain Bed.
High Lonesome Sound ~ Old and in the Way.
(i've got banjo and fiddlers on my porch at least three times a week. Must pay homage)
and then
Iron and Wine... to finish the day appropriately.