"Let the boat pull you up."

Snow? Snow!

Looks like I'll be busing to work today--the snow is due to turn to rain later this morning, and I'm not keen on biking in cold rain.

My art-college pal who researches sheet music emailed me: his sister died this week, after a long illness. Seventy years old, like Hilary Mantel.

He included the obit his nephew wrote.
What had he learned from his mother in her final season?

"You can't do it alone, no matter how hard you try.
Or, to use a phrase that folks learning to waterski with Mom around have heard before, 'Let the boat pull you up.'

I love you, Mom. I wish we had more time together. More boating, more beaches, more food, more laughs, more hugs. More everything.
But I'll be ok. We'll all be ok.
Let the boat pull you up."

Let the boat pull you up.
I love that. That's a good example of how grace might work.

At the Store

Phwooofffff.
Keeping a bookstore diary is harder than I'd expected.
There's so much material to sort through on any given day. What to choose? How to present it? How much to show other people? (I don't use their real names, but how anonymous is anonymous?)
What am I going for?
I'll just continue on and see...

Meanwhile. What's been happening?

Glum cashier announced yesterday that she is leaving for a new job.
Good for her, and for us (me). She continually shows how much she hates her job in a variety of passive ways. Eye rolls, exhalations, facial expression. "I've never seen her smile," Manageress said.
She doesn't enjoy the customers. Yeah, one threw a stapler at her once, but a lot of them are nice, or funny, sad but sweet, or just plain interesting.

Mr Furniture was complaining last week about how Glum brings the store down.
I agreed, but added, "She's having a hard time" [. . . always].

"I'm having a hard time too," he said. "I'm a Black man in America!"

I laughed. He isn't always a bundle of cheer--but, who is?

Glum is going to be a manager in her next job. Maybe a little power will be just what she needs? Be the boat that pulls her up? I hope so. She's young, has time to learn.

People with energy and skills tend to move on from the store, if they want to. Staff stay either because they have a vocation for the work (Big Boss, me, & Ass't Man) or because they have no choice--they are... hard to place.

It's a revolving door.
Samantha who has just come in is the Crackerjack Cashier. 
Smart, smart, smart, capable and creative, and raised in the wild.
I love Crackerjack already, but I'm keeping my distance. Girl's got trouble; Girl looks for trouble; Girl could very well be trouble.

Some workers are resting here, like migrating geese on a passing lake.
Grateful-J is one such, I think.
He was telling me the other day that he wants to work for the state forests. He's suited for it. The guy is already practically Smokey Bear. Ask him how to grow mushrooms in your basement or what kind of tomato is right for your backyard, and he will light up like you’ve thrown a match in dry kindling.

He didn't think he could get a job with the state, he said, because he has a petty misdemeanor on his record.

"How old were you?" I said.

"Twenty," he said.

He's well past that. "I don't think that record matters," I said.
I got out my magic little box and looked up "state job criminal record."
Right.
No felonies, and no convictions in the past seven years, that's what they require.

I sent him the link to the state's career site.
I love Grateful-J. "I'd miss you sooo much," I told him, "but I sense your destiny does not lie here with us."

Snow = Soup

The snow has stopped, and it's dry for the moment, so I'm going to bike after all. Biking elasticizes my mood and my hamstrings too.

Earlier, I threw together some soup ingredients, and set it to simmer for a while before I have to leave.

Squash soup
baked acorn squash
coconut milk (low-fat)
one guajillo chili (it's not hot, more like cherry)
a couple lemongrass stalks from the farmers market (hit the lemongrass with a hammer to activate it)

What's this? Another enamel pot? The robin's egg tea kettle has a big dent in the side that chipped the paint inside. I'm not sure it's safe--I use it to water my plants.

Have a lovely day, whatever your weather is!