Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: bookstores (Page 106 of 107)

Waking up the coffee maker.

A complete month! The first in the new location, and WOW! how time speeds along. Here it is, a rainy end to April, and the occasion is being marked by the official fire-up of the coffee-maker.

We’ve had some test runs along the way, but no way to accommodate those of you who might want cream or sweetener. Those are laid in and ready. The coffee is hot. The open sign is on.

Monday is here.

The brand of choice is still undecided. This morning the scent in the air is coming from the Rainforest Alliance certified select, which – to my taste – has the distinct flavor of coffee. As I’m readily admitting to anyone who might have a passing interest, the morning cup is not my – well, it’s not my cup of tea. Or coffee.

I can pass a blindfolded taste test over sodas, with a taste discerning enough to identify Sprite as compared to Mountain Dew, or Diet Coke from Dr Pepper (or even Pepsi). Hot coffee, hot cocoa, hot chocolate: not for me. Something about the burning sensation on the lips and tongue do me in. I have a cup of this Rainforest Select in front of me, but it is sufficiently cooled that I can drink it. As to its wake-up factor, aroma, robustness, bold-character flavor, and other java-related properties, I just haven’t had enough morning brew to render a qualified opinion.

The package is attractive, anyway.

Earlier I had intended to use Gevalia brand, a European coffee that supposedly is held in high regard. I was led to believe that it was rather exclusive but I saw a huge display of it just yesterday in Reasor’s. I don’t imagine that the coffee at McHuston Booksellers has to be one-of-a-kind, but I was hoping for something that would be a little different than the home cup. Maybe Gevalia is different enough, or even this Rainforest Select.

The taste is starting to grow on me.

The plan is still to offer a second, flavored coffee in the morning and I’m thinking the Rainforest Caramel is probably going to be the blend. Everyone who has tried it has returned a favorable opinion.

As a non-coffee drinker who liked it, that fact alone carries a lot of weight.

The pix this morning are of the kitchen and the coffeemaker. There are a lot of restaurants that don’t want you to see where the food is prepared, for one reason or another. In my days at Paddy’s Irish, I wasn’t ashamed of the kitchen, but it wasn’t a source of pride either. The equipment was older and mismatched. The space was confined and irregularly laid out due to the shape of the building. It passed the health department inspections.

The kitchen at McHuston Booksellers, on the other hand, is one that I am proud to show off, although it still isn’t quite ready. Still waiting for the installation of a freezer and refrigerator before the food service can be implemented. The office is a completely different story, as you can see in the image. I’m still working to get the last of the boxed books out on the shelves, and the office-related items put into some kind of order.

My son Dustin and I finished off one of the two storage units on Sunday, moving extra shelving units and items out of one to combine into a single spot and bringing back a last load to the store. It’s good to have that part taken care of.

The final image is taken from the peeking-through-the-front-window vantage point, which a lot of folks have been doing. I suppose an open sign on the front door is in order, to complement the lighted sign at the other end of the glass windows. It is a little tough to see through the slightly-tinted windows, and thus, the shielding-hand peek approach. It’s okay to open the door and come on in though.

We’ve got your cup o’ coffee ready to go.

Easter eggs & dying. (Or feeling that way…)

The telephone call-list indicated on Monday morning that I had missed several calls on Easter Sunday. Here is my public admission: I surrendered in exhaustion mid-afternoon. I hadn’t had a morning shower (occupied at the time) and after several trips to storage lugging boxes to haul into the shop, I just gave out.

Not to be a whiner. There were several muscles left that did not ache.

Instead of spending the remainder of the day hauling, I took a long, hot shower, bought some vegetables and cooked up an Easter evening dinner of ham, mashed spuds, fresh green beans, Philly-cream corn, and steamed carrots.

The couch called, and I didn’t miss that one – getting positioned just in time to see Bubba knock a curveball out of the forest and onto the green to win the Masters tournament. Read a little David Copperfield and fell asleep early.

Before ten in the morning on Monday, I had already brought over another couple of loads of book boxes. (The cartons are actually liquor store cardboard which have caused several passersby to wonder whether it’s a bar going in to the space. Nope. They are just a good-sized box for packing and carrying books.)

I’ve uploaded some pictures as proof that I haven’t been slacking too much. Perspective is an amazing thing. A couple of the images show the store from the front and the back with the boxes in view. In the other picture, I’ve positioned the camera so the stacks of cartons don’t show. You may click on any image for a larger view.

Hopefully, the store will soon be as organized as it appears to be in the well-positioned shot.

One of the two storage spaces is nearly empty! I have spotted the back wall and continue to search for that last box!

Awnings and Yawnings.

The cloudy-rainy weather makes me wish for an all-day layabout in bed, preferably with a good book! But the hiatus is over and the days of lounging around while waiting for the building to be completed are gone.

I missed the awning! And I’m happy to report that it has been restored to the front of the building. It comes a little late, rain-wise, but that’s all right.

As you can see in the photo, the former law firm’s identity has been removed from the front of the canvas. Of course, if you have a hankering to see that, you can travel back in time by way of Google Earth, which has not updated its images of downtown Broken Arrow since the Main Street Tavern moved in, and the Glamour Gowns and More building was remodeled.

The new McHuston Booksellers building is pretty much completed now, with only a few minor behind the scenes things. Weather-stripping the back door, for example.

Tables and chairs are scheduled for delivery today, even though they’ll have to be pushed to the side again to allow the moving of the remainder of the book shelves and cases. Bit by bit it is coming together.

I’ve already given a couple of pre-opening tours to the curious, and I wish I could do it for everyone. There is nothing like word-of-mouth advertising, and the more folks who see the wonderful renovation of this century-old building’s interior, the quicker the word will spread that the store is reopening!

The new question is – When will that come?

I’ve been telling people that it will take some time (and cooperative weather) to get the one-thousand boxes of books moved back onto the shelves. And that’s after getting the last of the shelves installed.

The checkout counter won’t take long to set up, and the sales systems are already in place and ready to go.

April 1st would be a good target date. Whether it is realistic or not is the next question. In the meantime, blogging-break is over and it is time for back to work!

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