by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

Last winter was not one of the more pleasant in recent memory, and it started off with a snow storm on December 4th. (I know the date 'cause our comp store numbers for that date were really, really low.) Well, this year the storm is December 5th and 6th. I got a call yesterday telling me that the store was closing at 6pm and would not reopen this morning until 11am. I got a call this morning (from the Asst. Mgr. who lives...a good 1/2 hour away on a good traffic day) telling me that the store would not open at all today. I think that means I lose a full day's pay, but it also means I don't have to walk 3/4 of a mile in a blizzard to get to work.

And why, you might ask, was I going to walk to work? Well, because my wife has decided that we are getting the driveway plowed this year rather than have me shovel. This is a new service, and I am still of the opinion that a snowblower would ultimately be the less expensive and, in many ways, the better way to go. Of course, I should have bought the damn thing a month ago rather than wait until now because we all know that, with about a foot of snow on the ground, there ain't gonna be any sales on snow removal equipment anytime soon! While we can call them to come plow us out at anytime, normally they don't start plowing until after it stops snowing. That is the least expensive option and the one we will be taking. Consequently, though, this means that I get to walk to work if it is still snowing. Personally, I'm still considering the snowblower option...

Break whilst I go shovel the front walk. Snowplowing service does not include the walkways to front and back doors. If all goes according to the predictions, shoveling now means that I'll probably have to get rid of another 2-3 inches of the stuff tonight when it stops. ... Whew! That was...exercise. And the front walk is done. I'm gonna defrost for a while before tackling the back walk. It's short, but one has to throw the snow over the bushes, and that is what makes doing that little walk a chore.

As one might surmise by now, we did, in fact, survive the Thanksgiving Holidays. My work schedule is such this year that I get Wednesdays and Fridays off so I missed both the day before Thanksgiving and Black Friday. And, while we are doing better, so far, than we did last year, the crowds have not been all that killer. However, today was supposed to be one of our biggest shopping days of the year, and the store is closed. It is going to be very difficult to make up for this weekend as we lost last night, today and will probably lose a significant amount of our business tomorrow as people shovel out rather than shop for books.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. ©El Zorro Viejo 2002-2005