Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Author: admin (Page 156 of 220)

Ishmael? No. Call me Manuel. Manuel Labor.

It is a bit dreary outside with the first real springtime storm dropping rain as though it will all come at once instead of spacing itself out over the season. Inside, it is snug and comfortable.

No need to set buckets in the back to catch water. The old location – with its leaks and exposed fluorescent bulbs and stained ceiling tiles – is history.

Earlier, I closed my eyes after setting the drill in place and ran the bit through the new wallboard. Hated to do it, but it won’t show and the wall shelves must be anchored for safety. Half are completed and I’m taking a break to post this update.

I’m exploring old and new technology this afternoon and both went off without a hitch. It’s nice when that happens. Being both supervisor and laborer today, I had to find a way to lift a broken shelf into place to be repaired. You can see from the pictures that I managed it, and the unit is much more solid with the new woodscrews than it was with the thirty-plus year old commercial staples.

Even though the staples gave way from the sliding, wrenching, lifting, and tilting, the wood is solid. Heavy stuff. The section is six feet long, and you can check the construction in the picture (it’s the nearest light wood fixture). I was able to lift it onto the base by stacking a series of steps using extra shelves. I could raise one end, slide the lift underneath, and then move to the other side to repeat the process.

Eventually, I had raised the top to a level where I could slide it over onto the base. Drilling pilot holes and running in the screws was the easy part.

I’m wishing I could clone myself to give myself a hand (not applause, silly – just a little extra lifting power).

Raising something heavy is ancient technology – pyramid stuff.

I’m able to post pictures using something I’ve just discovered. My cell phone is equipped with Bluetooth technology, something I’ve heard bandied about, but never had occasion to investigate. It turns out my laptop has the same capability.

It took a few minutes to figure it out, but I got the telephone to talk to the laptop and transferred the pictures from my phone to the computer. Bam! There they are, without so much as a wire to carry them from one place to another. And I love that fact that it worked on the first go ‘round without a frustrating learning curve.

Now that the images are here and this note is ended, I’m back to the drill and electric driver to run a few more screws into the remaining shelf units. The last wall anchors will complete the installation of the newly acquired shelves.

A break in the rainy weather will allow me to start bringing the books out of storage.

Here we go!

Let the Books begin: McHuston Booksellers on Main.

Let the work finally begin.

Not that there hasn’t been a lot of that going on already, at the site of the former Francy Law Firm on Main Street. It’s just that the work from this point forward is a different kind.

There won’t be professional carpenters, contractors, plumbers, and HVAC workers. Just me. And the volunteers. And there aren’t many of those.

But that’s okay.

It’s been a labor of love all along, running the bookstore in Broken Arrow. The book industry is changing almost every day, what with electronic readers, authors posting chapters in their online blogs, store closings, and a general decline in reading habits. There are still plenty of things being read, but a lot of the reading is online: blogs, websites, tweets, news aggregators, and Facebook updates.

That piece of paper, the final page of a small stack of numbered papers, has my signature on it. The lease is signed, and the official okay to begin moving items into the new location has been given, as of Tuesday, March 12, 2012.

That’s just shy of five months since receiving the official heave-ho notice from the previous landlord, who declined to provide a month-to-month rental arrangement to allow the bookstore to remain in operation until the new location was completed.

No hard feelings.

It just amounts to more work, moving for a second time those items carried into storage five months ago. And that work begins Tuesday.

Well, in all honesty – it could. Due to the timing, it won’t really get started until Wednesday to avoid a scheduling conflict – of all things.

Then, the shelves may be hauled out of the church where they’ve been stashed, to be reconstructed in the new location.

Books to follow that – but, all things in due time.

Let’s get the shelves rebuilt first. In the meantime, I snapped a couple of pictures of the exterior on my way back from signing the lease, showing the brick front without awning, and the trusty old Firebird parked in front. Click for a bigger view.

PS. The old Pontiac doesn’t look too bad for 16 years on the road, eh?

An update with photo.

I’ve run into more people in the past few days than I have in the past four months – asking about the bookstore and its current status. It’s a pleasure being asked, and I only wish that I could run into every first-time, occasional, or regular customer to give a personal update. I know there are some folks who likely believe the store folded up the tent. Not true!

We’ve moved into March and are about a week out from St. Paddy’s Day, another calendar date I had hoped would find McHuston Booksellers ready-stocked and open for business. I’m doubtful that date can be met, as the occupancy of the new building has not been green-lighted.

From the photo, taken from the sidewalk and looking in through the front windows, you can see that the building has every appearance of completion, looking in through the front windows. There are a couple of things that are apparent, such as the front awning, which has seen the frame installed, but not the canvas.

The interior is a beautiful thing to see – high-ceilinged, suspended light fixtures, wood centerline columns with counter-height desks. The tile floor has the appearance of wooden planks, but will be so much easier to care for.

As noted in an earlier post, shelves have been acquired from a now-closed Tulsa bookstore that originated at the Novel Idea location of so many years ago. Those, and another set that came from a Barnes & Nobel location, are currently hiding in my sister’s church until the official go-ahead is signaled (with immense thanks to her and her pastor).

Books are still being acquired, although – without immediately shelving on which to house them – the purchases are quite a bit more selective. It will not be too long now before the shelves can be reassembled and the books restored.

To answer the question, though – I can’t say with any assuredness the exact date. The building looks finished to me, but then, I’m no contractor and I don’t know the process. Inspections and such are out of the control of everyone except the inspector. I hope they’ll be wrapped up in the next week or so and permission to move in will be granted.

In the meantime, behind the scenes work continues!

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