Orders weekend.

Doing my monthly orders this weekend, so that --plus it being cold and wet -- just lets me off the hook for gardening work. These orders are for July, so I'm over the hump as far as seasonality is concerned. While Sept., Oct. and Nov. are always pretty slow months, July, August and December are my three busiest months. It's that long stretch from January through most of June that is hard to get through without ordering too much.

I have one more two week non-ordering period before I get back onto a regular weekly schedule. So far, I've fallen off the wagon twice. Once, for ordering a couple of statues that I'm pretty sure I'll never sell. (One of them is a life-sized bust of Venom with a huge red tongue hanging out; so far every ten year old boy (and ten year old boys at heart) has exclaimed "Cool!" If only it didn't cost 375.00.) And the second time I lapsed, it was for an order of Magic the week after the new release. I probably didn't need to -- but I didn't want to run out.

I'm waiting to see what the 'unintended consequences' --both good and ill -- will be from the changeover downtown. Many of the regulars don't even notice, which only goes to show they aren't using that side of the store, which I knew. I got my first negative comment, a regular who thought it made the store smaller, but most have thought it made the store more roomy. I know what he means, though, because the bookcases are more of a solid wall down the middle than I expected, even if the aisles on both sides are wider than before.

It feels a little strange to me -- not quite lived in, if you know what I mean.

I will be open for the Memorial Day weekend, usual hours. I could speculate that maybe more shoppers will visit downtown because the woods are wet -- but, you just never ever know.