McHuston Booksellers

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Tag: oklahoma (Page 104 of 115)

Spittin’ and Sputterin’

July 2, 2012 /

When droplets of water began appearing on the windshield while I was driving to work, I naturally assumed that a hose or some other part of the car had broken. I mean – it couldn’t be rain, could it?

I was still trying to figure it out when I noticed that the morning sun was, in fact, shielded by a cloud, the sort that looks like rain, or at least a hint of a possibility.

That’s probably what fell on the car, that little trace of a hint.

In a matter of seconds, the sun reemerged and the drops on the front glass had evaporated. There wasn’t even enough time to think about turning on the wiper blades. Thankful that the car was still running just fine, I tooled on in to the store.

Usually, the extreme heat comes later in the summer. Truth to tell, we are barely into the summer season officially and we’ve already had a long taste of triple digits. Broken Arrow officials scrambled over the weekend to repair a water pump that forced mandatory rationing for part of the day. Leaves are falling from underwatered trees and areas of grass that aren’t sufficiently hit by irrigation system watering are beginning to yellow.

We’ve had some rain over the past months in northeastern Oklahoma, enough to green up the plants over the spring months. Other parts of the country are still suffering drought, and Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas residents have faced raging fires that are the result of the dry conditions and the arid winds.

The 4th of July always produced some fireworks-related fires. Hopefully, those who plan to celebrate in that fashion will keep in mind the particularly dangerous enterprise it will be this year.

The up-side of the dry weather is the estate and garage sale season can proceed without rain-out. If you’re winding up your sale and find you’ve got books left over and don’t want to stack them back in the house, bring them by the store.

We’ll find a home for them.

Something new under the sun.

June 26, 2012 / / 0 Comments

It is certainly hard to miss now, at least if you are driving down Main Street in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Them’s some big letters.

The first bit of official advertising for the new location is courtesy of an alteration to the storefront awning.

I’ve been asked why I didn’t put the name up there instead of Books & Bistro. There’s a pretty simple answer: When someone says “I’m going to McDonald’s,” there is no question about what they’re after. I don’t anticipate ever getting to that degree of notoriety, so I figured it would make more sense to describe what is inside the store rather than who owns it.

Besides – when paying by the letter, “McHuston Booksellers & Irish Bistro” adds up to a pretty penny.

As for the looks, I could not be happier. The letters are larger than I had imagined they would be, a pleasing surprise, and already someone has come in after parking to check out the inside of the place.

Sometimes I ask how a customer found the store and sometimes I don’t, but I know from visitors at the old location that the sign out front was my best advertising expenditure. Compare to the sign expense, I paid a lot more for newspaper ads over the five years at Oak Crest shopping center, but it might have been a better idea to just put that money toward a newer, bigger sign.

Did you ever spot one of the newspaper ads?

Goes to show ya.

I am in hopes that the awning will do the same thing toward drawing in customers as the vinyl lettered plywood sign did. (That’s now parked at the back door, slightly faded, but doing what it can from that vantage point.)

Maybe I’ll take down the HP printer paper sign that I taped up to the inside of the glass, the one that inspired a woman to tell me, “It looks like it was made on a computer.”

The lettering on the awning, on the other hand, looks pretty official.

Is that for here or to go?

June 25, 2012 / / 0 Comments

In a way, it was for the best. The lady at the counter had no idea she was to be the first customer for the Bistro. I didn’t tell her, either. I had no firm idea how the first transaction was going to go.

I had set the sign out on the sidewalk earlier with some trepidation, flying solo, wanting to serve some lunches but – obviously – not wanting to be overwhelmed. It was for that reason I decided to limit the lunch hour to just about that long: 11:30am to 1pm. I figured that would let me get an idea of how the system should work out.

Right off the bat, she had a question about ingredients: did the tortilla wrapper have sesame flour? Food allergies. I checked the package: no sesame flour. The Ham and Cheese Culchie was on (it’s my Irish-style wrap with sautéed bell peppers and onions).

You have to understand, I haven’t had any dry runs on delivery time. I’ve prepped the menu items, of course, to insure the taste and appearance, but as far as putting it on a plate for a customer – had not done it. Not even for family or friends.

She wanted it to go.

Fortunately, I had anticipated that possibility and had set out a couple of to-go boxes, just to be prepared. Had pre-portioned the ingredients. Opened the box of deli-wax paper to have it at the ready – in case it was needed.

I am guessing from opening the refrigerator to closing the snap-tabs on the foam box maybe three minutes passed. Maybe a lot less. It was in the bag complete with napkins, and rung up on the register inside four minutes. Again, maybe less. Granted, it was a straightforward order with no distractions – there weren’t any other customers in the store at the moment – but I’m happy with the way it came together. I’ve waited longer at a fast food counter.

It was smooth enough that I’m certain my first customer did not even realize she was the ice-breaker. That’s a good thing.

The only downside is, since it was ordered for carry out, I couldn’t ask her how she liked it. Not that it is some sort of fancy, delicate, rare culinary delight or anything: I just would have liked to have the feedback.

Tomorrow is another day. Part of the nervous anticipation should be gone by then.

Meanwhile, the lettering is scheduled to be added to the awning this week, another step in getting the store to that fully-realized and ready for anything stage!

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