Just dropped my 88 year old Dad at the Tuesday's retired Dr.'s coffee clatch at Jakes. It's the highlight of his week; the other doctors are very nice to him. Jake's seems to be hoppin', which is good to see.

My wife is at the bookstore waiting for a huge shipment of bookshelves. Staples had one of their half price sales which we jump all over. We simply couldn't buy the raw material for that price, much less the cutting and hammering and cluing. It really made our used bookstore look much nicer, white laminate just cleans up the books, somehow. I've slowly but surely made a transition at my own store, using these shelves whenever possible.

Last time we ordered a bunch of shelves, they only partially delivered. I'm sure we aren't what they had in mind when they put the sale together....

If we get the full complement, I'll be set to do 2/3rds of the changes I wanted to make at my store. I can do a switch with some of my wife's smaller shelves; the last 1/3rd of the changes will have to wait until Home Depot -- or someone else -- starts carrying the size I need.

This is the stage where I wish I could just wave my magic wand and have it all done. I love the planning, I love the results, but actually moving things is hard. Like that game where you stack wood blocks; I can't just take one out without risking the whole thing tumbling down. I used to kid myself it would be easy, and then I'd get halfway through the mess and remember....oh, this never works.

I'm less likely to make random changes. I plan much more. I try to have excess labor. I try to give myself time (this is hard, since I can't afford to close.)

I seem to have an inner timer, that I simply must make changes. It used to be every 3 or 4 months, then every 6 months, and over the last decade, I've pushed that into once every year or so. Every change I've made has been an improvement. This change should actually give me more display space, but look less cluttered, more clean and streamlined. I hope.

I think this time, I'm going to go and get the best conveyance I can find for the big shelves--something with lots of straps, and big fat wheels, that I can cart stuff up stairs.

I hadn't really planned to do anything until late May, thinking I could afford it then. But the Staples sale came along, and I couldn't pass it up.

So...a big breath, and some planning, and I'll be ready to move things around.

Shudder.