Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Author: admin (Page 212 of 220)

Need a Finger!

Sure could use one of those wooden fingerposts from the old days – the ones that pointed in different directions with mileage figures painted on them, like >London 100m –>

The reason being: the bookstore sign out front must have a subtitle that reads “and geography information.” I’m happy to direct people six doors south to the OK Department of Public Safety, the business with the same-sized sign as mine, the office near the area of the parking lot that is always filled with cars.

If I could just sound authoratative when I give directions, though. I say, “it’s six doors down, that way,” at which point I indicate with my finger the direction. People always reply: “Six doors down?” And I answer: “Six doors down.”

Now that is settled…

Price of Progress

Should have learned by now… It’s not always best to be on the cutting edge (the Bleeding Edge, as opposed to the Leading Edge) of changes. Like the time I paid through the nose for the VCR recorder that did nothing but record and playback: it couldn’t even be programmed to record later. I might have been the first on the block to have one, but I wasn’t the happiest for long. The WordPress software driving this website has been successfully (I think) downgraded to the older version. Scary when technology doesn’t perform just like it is expected. (Like the time I zapped four chapters of a manuscript into the ozone when I demonstrated my new computer to a friend. Oops!)

Bookstore? Sure!

I answered the phone with “McHuston Booksellers,” and the lady quickly replied, “Is this – like – a bookstore?” Momentarily baffled, I started in with “…well, book sellers usually implies-” before she cut me off. She was calling from Tulsa and was parked in front of someone’s house.

“I Googled for Tulsa bookstores,” she said, “and just typed the address into my GPS. I’m parked in front of someone’s house.”

She told me she was looking for a real bookstore, but couldn’t tell from the Google search results which were real and which were simply individuals selling books online out of their bedroom office. I was glad I didn’t have a chance to finish what might have wound up as a sarcastic reply to her initial question. Her confusion was immediately clear.

I assured her that McHuston Booksellers is a brick and mortar store in Broken Arrow (a Tulsa suburb, for you out-of-staters) and that if she typed the address into her GPS she would wind up in the asphalt parking lot of a real shopping center, with an open sign, shelves of browsable books, and – perhaps best of all on this day in June – delicious air conditioning!

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