Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

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Marching into madness…

Well – not exactly marching. Sitting, is more like it.

I’m here at the shop just recharging my batteries. Nah – not a figure of speech. The battery on the camera croaked and the cordless power drill has turned its last screw.

For now. The batteries are out and plugged into the outlets.

Oh, I guess I am doing a little recharging of my own. A little bit of NCAA madness on the television in between scaling the too-tall ladder to change out light bulbs and moving stacks of books.

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A busy week is behind us. No complaints about the catering job that wound up at the end of one of our busier weeks, but it feels good to be working on side projects and meant-to-do-that-earlier-jobs.

Dustin spent the early part of his birthday prepping box lunches for a Broken Arrow History Museum bus tour. That was in addition to the daily prep getting ready for the Saturday lunch service. Lots of bread and boxes later, the catering job was sent on its way. It reminded me of all the sandwiches I helped make back in high school as a young employee at Allen’s IGA in McAlester.

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As it turned out, Mr. Allen’s store was the closest to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, and when prisoners staged a massive riot back in the early 1970s, we were recruited into service preparing sack lunches for all the Highway Patrol Troopers, corrections officials, and who-knows-who-else. We made cold-cut sandwiches for days.

They were nothing like the meals we worked on Saturday morning. Back then, it was mostly slap a slice of bologna between slices of white bread with a squirt of mustard. No fresh-cooked bacon or provolone cheese. Certainly no fresh-baked cookies to go along with.

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We’ll be serving it again Monday, but there is enough sunshine today for a quick Rose District update.

We’re still flying the St. Patrick’s Day flags on the awning outside – not so much for the sake of celebrating, but mainly for lack of time to get the ladder outside and take them down. A little shamrock fringe never hurt anyone, anyway.

I’m hoping we won’t be hurt by the upcoming construction project across the street. First National Bank has announced a remodeling project that got a little press in the Tulsa World this past week. I noticed the advisory sign on the front of the bank earlier in the week.

The artist’s rendition (click on the image for a larger view) shows an attractive new front that will fit nicely in the Rose District architectural scheme. I just worry about another squeeze on the available parking. They are coping down the street (where a large crane is currently parked sideways across any number of parking spots), so I guess we’ll have to just grin and bear it.

We survived having the sidewalk in front of the store ripped out and replaced. We managed through the orange fencing and the similarly-colored barrels. Even the closed street sections for utilities renovation. We’ll manage through whatever they throw our way, and look forward to having a beautiful new bank building to look out at from our front windows.

We’ll provide safe haven from any hardhat zone, so…

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers and Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

Storming into Springtime…

Is it dedication to the task to be out refilling the water jugs during a tornado warning? Or is it simply foolishness?

The TV weathermen were citing activity near Catoosa “at this particular moment,” so I figured what the heck? We always use pure filtered water in our tea brewer and for cooking, and we were fresh out. It wasn’t raining at the shop, and I figured I had time to pick up some gallons and get back before the rain began.

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The water was just about loaded in the back of the car when the wind kicked up. I looked up and was a little unsettled by the clouds swirling around overhead. I wasn’t the only one. As I was pulling out onto Kenosha, I watched a driver launch his pickup over the center median in a mad dash for the QuikTrip – for what purpose, I can’t imagine – but it was clear he didn’t want to sit at the stoplight waiting for it to change.

It turned green for me as I approached and I made my way back with a few sprinkles beginning to gather on the windshield.

By the time I got the water unloaded and into the kitchen, I wasn’t exactly soaked, but was well on my way there. But I wasn’t sucked up into the clouds.

And that’s a good thing.

So, Springtime has officially arrived in Oklahoma, the season meteorologists look forward to all winter. Spotters in the field. Choppers in the sky. Raindrops falling on our heads. They keep fallin’.

Thunder is booming as I write this little update and it makes me think of the tornado that struck homes in the eastern edge of Broken Arrow during a storm that cruised right over the bookstore. I was sitting in this same chair and hadn’t a clue (it is a well-insulated building, and that’s my excuse for obliviousness). This storm is a little more vocal.

Just felt the chair rattle.

I can’t vouch for the retweeted picture (some folks are notorious for sharing old photos with new captions), but my own snapshot out the rainy front door gives a good idea of how dark it got in the Rose District as the storm approached. The image was taken long before sunset. Plenty of lightning flashes, but I’m grateful the giant ice-balls decided to skip our little area, and my sympathy to those of you who might have experienced some car-dinging hail stones.

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We’ve been Springtime busy at lunchtime and Dustin prepared a great many chalkboard specials today (bacon, turkey & guacamole on soft-crust sourdough bread, with soup, tortilla chips, and his own hand-crafted salsa). Dee-licious!

Here’s hoping the Springtime Kickoff will roll on out this evening and you’ll have a chance to get out and join us for lunch tomorrow!

We’ll be cooking, so – Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

We did it and Amen!

Another St. Patrick’s Day is in the books, and a big thanks to all who came out and partied with us on Saturday or had lunch with us on Tuesday. We served a lot more folks this year than last time ‘round, when the Rose District was still recuperating from the street-renovation project.

It doesn’t matter how many times the drill has been run, it seems to be a bit like trotting over a frozen-over creek – half way across you hear a little ice-cracking sound and hold your breath looking for a place to jump off on the other side.

And we’re that much more experienced for next time!

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My intention was to have a snapshot or two that I could post for those who couldn’t make it in. We were in the thick of it quickly and no time for photographs, so you’ll just have to close your eyes and imagine a person in each of our chairs and parties waiting to be seated. Green beers on the table and corned beef on the plates. Some Irish jigs and reels playing on the speakers.

We’ll work up to having bagpipers and those high-stepping river dancers. This year it was mostly Kristen and me racing up and down the aisles hoisting plates and glasses and trying to keep up with running orders to Dustin in the kitchen.

There are twelve months between now and the next edition. Plenty of time to plan – and rest up!

In the meantime, in lieu of a picture from Tuesday, I’ve had to settle for a St. Patrick’s Day flashback, in the kitchen at the old haunt: Paddy’s Irish in Tulsa with the evening crew on what may have been my first St. Patrick’s spent there. (I know it’s an early snapshot – I an’t wearin’ the puffy sleeve shirt that went with me kilt!)

Some memories there – and some good old-fashioned googly eyeglasses!

We’re serving our regular menu tomorrow, so…

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

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