Who knows what kind of business I could've done...

Apparently, for several days, I was flipping the Closed sign to Open when I left at night, and flipping the Open sign to Closed when I arrived in the morning.

Got an e-mail on Friday, which I didn't see until Monday, saying my sign was 'Closed' but my sale table was still on the sidewalk. (Thanks to whoever did that.) But I was just puzzled, and thought I must have got the sign wrong on that day.

Then, on Tuesday, a woman asked, as I was ringing her out, "Did you know your sign says Closed?"

Oops.

Reminds me of when sales are really, really slow, I'll check the Open/Closed sign, then laugh at myself for clinging to such a thin hope.

Heh.

Had my best day of the summer on Friday, so it didn't occur to me.

(Meanwhile, my neon sign was correctly OPEN.)

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If I may point out the obvious, the spectacular growth that Cascade Bank enjoyed for a few years came from risk-taking. The spectacular collapse of Cascade Bank came from risk-taking. Any questions?

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Got a Superman symbol neon sign in, and it's a dim bulb. All the dealers are reporting this as damage; I'm sort of hoping a get a good replacement for the guy who pre-paid, but that I get to keep the dim one. Not beautiful, not even nice. But adequate good if it's free.

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Speaking of pre-paid, almost every time I've taken money on a pre-order lately, I've had a bad experience. Often having to give the money back. I'm going to just order stuff for people but not take their money until it arrives. Ironically, this is my preferred method. It's usually the customer who insists on pre-paying, and then I can't resist.

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You can tell by this blog that I'm a talkative guy.

But I can't for the life of me figure out what everyone is chattering about on their cell phones -- while they drive, while they're in my store, while they walk down the street. Really, what's so important?

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I have a pile of cups in the sink that people have left around the store or have handed to me. "Would you throw this away for me?" they ask.

"I don't want your garbage," I say with a straight face. Then I relent. "Sure...hand it to me," I say with a smile.

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I'm halfway to my average in the first two hours. (yesterday) I've had 36 people in. 3 of them spent all the money, and all three said basically the same thing: "I visit Bend every year (or two) and I always come in, because you have such good stuff..."

THAT's why I've never wanted to move from here.


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Fact: Car people don't read comics.

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I carry some non-fiction, but not enough to encourage browsers to look for a specific book. So when they ask, I'll say, "I carry mostly fiction. Very little non-fiction."

It seems like no one, absolutely no one, hears what I say. I've taken to reinforcing it with, "I carry mostly fiction. You know, novels."

Still, I get mostly blank looks. Is it because they don't expect it? Don't know what the word 'fiction' means? I gave up using the word 'genre' years ago, and am very careful not to use the word 'cult' books unless I'm pretty sure they know what that means.

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3/4 page ad in the Source for the new "salon" Azura Studio downtown, the ad line just under the name.

"22nd Century Healing Fusion "Star Trek" devices*Anti-Gravity Chair*02 Zero Point Chambers*Solaris Healig 'space suit' Blanket"

Um.......

WTF?!

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