The Art of Falling Apart

 Good morning people!  Our outside temps are actually in the low 60s (F), now how nice is that.  We also have sunshine!  I don't know if today is going to be glorious or not, but it's starting off rather nicely.  This is, unfortunately, just a brief respite from the rain.  Late this afternoon clouds will again be rolling into Central PA and the drizzles will once again commence.  As we move into June next week, the weather does look to be more summery, with consecutive days of sunshine.

I worked yesterday, but not as a flooring specialist.  Nope.  When I got there I was surprised to find out that I had been scheduled to work in the Paint Dept.  Nice.  I like working with paint.  Colors are great. I always find it amusing that so many people believe you need to have a neutral wall in order to hang and present art.  I suspect too many designers take their inspiration from galleries where shows and exhibits are only for public consumption for few weeks or months at a time, where white or neutral walls make quick changes easier. These designers have evidently never, ever been to the Louvre. 

And, of course, today I need to get back to the chaos which is the Trump Administration, and chaos might be too light a term to describe this shit show.  This whole thing has become a bubbly stew of fecundity, a soupcon of salaciousness.  

Let's see... the fascist Stevie Miller's wife, the mother of his 3 children, is leaving him for a DOGE hacker.  

The tariffs were off, then on, then off, and then... maybe on, though they maybe illegal and so they're on again while an appeal makes its way through the courts.

And, it turns out, that now everyday is TACO day.  I do hope I don't have to explain that to anyone.  

Orangie verbally attacked the ultra conservative Leonard Leo because it was one of Lenny's pet judges that shot down the illegal tariffs.  For those of you who don't know, Lenny is Clarence Thomas' sugar daddy, so by attacking Lenny, Orangie maybe have thrown a bucket of cold water on his chances of getting the Supreme Court to give him what he wants.

At this point, I think it's safe to say that things will continue to fall apart for Orangie and his cult, the Republican party, in fact, one might say the GOP has turned falling apart into some horribly abstract piece of art.

Delphi

 Hello from Delphi!  We had showers when we left from Olympia, I even snapped a pic of a rainbow out the window of our bus, but by the time we arrived at our destination point, it was sunny and hot.  While I've grown use to sunny and hot weather, if I ever do decide to buy a 2nd home here, it would be in the north where winters are cool.

For those who don't know, Delphi is located on the side of Mount Parnassus... literally.  There are only 3 streets running through the town, and instead of side streets there are staircases.  I will definitely need to revisit Chapter 2.  The Delphi I was picturing was more of a level playing field, not a town sloping steeply up a hill.  Of course, that's just a minor issue.  The bigger problem I have is with the floor of Apollo's temple.  It's not exactly smooth.  So, tell me, if you were going to stab someone to death in the temple, would you do it in the front, or perhaps closer to the rear. There will be blood, stabbing wounds always have blood, and because the victim isn't that tall, it doesn't need to be a big area, but it does need to be level.

One myth that needs to be dispelled is that all Greek statues are white marble.  The truth is that ancient Greeks loved color and everything was painted, even their statues.  They wanted to make them as lifelike as possible.  Here's a pic where you can see some of the original paint.

And here's some original Greek music.

And for those needing it, here's some gratuitous Greek nudity.  It is important to note that Greek politicians and important people were clothed, only the athletes were naked.

And for those interested, there are eleven people on this tour, from the UK, from New Zealand, from Australia, and California, and everyone is laughing at Donald Trump.  He truly is a joke to the world.

Also, this will probably be my last entry until I get back to the states. Though, if I get bored waiting for my next flight at Heathrow, I might pull out my laptop and jot down a few lines....

Nah, that ain't gonna happen.

 

Yes

 We're having wonderful weather here in Central PA:  days are in the mid 70s (F) and during the night the temps drop down into the mid to upper 50s (F), which is great sleeping weather.  Nothing is supposed to change until the weekend, when once again we're going to be hit with rain... for the entire 2 days, so if you're one of those people who's workin' for the weekend, you're probably going to be disappointed.

I went to the store yesterday and bought paint for the cabinets and some floor leveling compound for those areas not so much because there are places where my kitchen floor needs leveling, rather I'm going to us it to fill in the cracks of the plywood which might, at some point in the future, create a problem.

My brother and I are going to see Yes this evening up in Bethlehem, PA.  That's a 90 minutes drive up and then back.  I'm hoping we'll be home by midnight.  I had thought I'd seen their last show back when they played in Hershey, before the pandemic.  Looks like I was wrong.  Hopefully they'll play what most people believe to the their greatest song, Close to the Edge.

And Tommy Tuberville, the Louisiana senator who doesn't live in the state he represents got his comeuppance yesterday, and what a joy it was to behold.  You see Tommy's been holding up military promotions because he's a hard line anti-abortionist who doesn't like the Department of Defense's health policies for women.  He's held up over 300 promotions because he thought every Republican senator had his back.  Well, yesterday he discovered otherwise.  In a vote of 83 for and 11 against, the Senate approved a new Joint Chief of Staff, the guy over the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marines.  The idea that 32 Republican senators would vote against his blockade was something Tommy never thought would happen.  This was a serious smackdown for the anti-abortion hardliners, and one more example of how much those 11 dissenters, including Tommy, are out of touch with America.  Could it be that some members of the Republican party are realizing that they need to reconnect with America?  I don't know if I'd go that far. 

Paint Job

 Hello, Monday.  What's on tap today?  For me?  An 8 hour shift at work.

Outside the skies are overcast.  There's a 90% chance of thunderstorms, though there doesn't seem to be a solid band of rain heading towards the region.  The air is humid, so I guess storms are just going to start popping up here and there this afternoon.

Work was slow yesterday.  I'm expecting the same thing today.  Business is down all across the region.  They finally, at last night's store meeting, said something to the effect that we're suffering through the retail version of the downside of Covid.  Honestly, I don't believe anyone in corporate America gave it a thought, that would be their greed blinding them to the truth.

They painted my neighbor's house yesterday a light gray.  They sort of left the white trim (there's overspray which they're not cleaning off).  Everything is gray, even the porch floor, and it's all tracked up with dirt already.  They painted over aluminum siding that's close to 40 years old.  Aluminum siding lasts between 20 - 40 years.  That coat of paint is not going to keep it from breaking down.  Even the porch light got painted.

As for the rest of the world?  No one quite knows what to think about the Russian nearly, almost a coup.  There are so many theories out there.  I'm suspecting Moscow is happy about that, but everything else?  Well, the Orange Anus' blow bro did not come out of this unscathed.  One of the ideas being floated is that Putin's going to tell the world that they've achieved what they wanted in the Ukraine and go home.  Sadly, I think that's not going to happen.

And it seems as though the Moral Degenerate can't open his mouth without mentioning Jesus.  Like the little Christian robots they want to be, Evangelicals are bowing to him.  The idea that any deity who'd use Trump would be on the same par as George Santos doesn't even occur to them.

Derision

 Well, here we are heading into a new week.  The temps outside are a cool 38 (F).  We were sitting under a freeze warning.  That didn't happen.  What is going to happen is a mini-heat wave.  Our temps might climb as high as 88 (F) on Wednesday.  That's way too warm for April.  It's too early to break out the air conditioner.  I am scheduled off though, which means I'll get to enjoy it.

Yesterday was slow at the store.  I did get a lead for blinds and hit both my sales and measure goals.  Management will be proud.  

I work 8 hours today... in the paint department.  I like mixing paint.  Thanks to a computerized measuring system, it easy.  After the early morning rush of contractors, business is what I call a slow steady.  

My next book, The Body in Motion is coming along fine.  No characters have been dropped yet because they've become unnecessary and two have been added, include Doorman Phil who will be giving the team advice.

FedEx sent me an update on that little statue I bought for the big aquarium, it's shipped last night from Crete.  Now, isn't that exciting?

My tulips are beginning to bloom.

And now that Easter is past, I'm sure the political scene will return to normal.  I will tell you, I got a little sick of Republicans posting their phony religious comments on Twitter.  We know exactly what's in their dirty little hearts and Christianity has nothing to do with it.  They do point out the gullibility of Christians in that all some of them need to see or hear is a statement of Praise for them to believe Republicans are divinely inspired.  Again, we know that's not true, but they are very good at manipulation.  Their Faithless slight of hand snockers true Believers every time.

Finally, shall we celebrate the shit show that is swirling around Clarence Thomas.  Every time he opens his mouth he proves how selfish and self-centered he is, and the more dirt that comes out about his white, neo-Nazi billionaire owner the worse Clarence looks.  Isn't it nice to know that he's fuming because people are calling him every name he derides in not only People of Color but people in general.   He is trash boiled over.

Stumbling out of the Starting Block

 Well, it's Sunday.  I'm not in a park, nor planning to go to one.  And there is no one around named George.

I did work yesterday.  I was surprised because we were busy.  It was almost to the point of being hectic.  There's nothing wrong with being busy.  Time does fly by.  On days when it's slow, I spend a lot of time looking at my phone.  That didn't happen yesterday. I did work until 5 PM, however, and when I walked out of the store the sun was still above the horizon.  This is a good thing.

Biggie's new bed arrived yesterday.  As you might expect, he didn't sleep on it.  He did walk on it a few times, but that's about it.

Later this morning, I'm going to head to my neighborhood Giant supermarket.  I need olives, as well as a few other sundry items.  There is one large chore planned for today.  I want to wash down the kitchen ceiling.  Prep work prior to painting.  It's going to be the same color as the rest of my ceilings, Garden Rose White.  That's a nice way of saying that it's going to be a shade of white.  Here's a hint for you wannabe ceiling painters:  a touch of tint softens the harshness of pure white.  You want a creamy white.  Pure white is sterile color.  This is what mine looks like.

The headline this morning from the Hill is:  Republicans stumble out of the starting block.  That's rather an understatement.  As someone said a while back, they live in a universe of their own creation creating truths that fit their own selfish needs.  Criticism is being heaped on them from just about every side and they honestly believe that if they say nothing it will go away.  They also desperately believe that if they can create a big enough diversion people will ignore the fact that they are devoid of leadership of governing skills.  Their main goal is to say "shut up, we're in charge."  

Their second goal to so satiate the hunger of their base.  Knowing this, I was not surprised to see that their first piece of major legislation will be to stop the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents.  Their base hates taxes.  They hate the IRS.  This is why the new Speaker of the House, Marjorie Taylor Green, has announced that their first thing this new congress is going to work on is the elimination of those new agents.  The fact that any bill they pass regarding this will be DOA when it gets to the Senate doesn't phase them.  It's not about governing, it's all about shoring up their party for 2024.

The Wheels of Justice

 Well, it's Monday morning, it's 17 (F) outside, and I have to work  in the paint department on what had originally been scheduled as a day off.   Being part-time is nice, however, if I hadn't been a paint manager for 4 years they would never have asked me to work.

My air-fryer arrived yesterday.  So far, it's been through the test run, nothing has been cooked yet.  There's a preset for shrimp, that will probably never be used, I like my shrimp steamed with port wine and Old Bay seasoning.  Using port makes it easy to flambé  the little suckers.  Very tasty, let me tell you.

I had thought I'd drive down to That Fish Place to pick up some plants for the aquarium this afternoon, now that's not going to happen.  Maybe tomorrow morning.

And, since The Body in Repose is with my first reader / editor, I've begun to doodle around.  Here are the characters for The Body Under Ice.  The victim is pretty obvious, but which one of them is the killer is anybody's guess.   Well, that's not quite right.  I know who kills Charlie Beechum.

As for The Body in Repose, I asked how the reading was going... in fact, I had to ask twice, and received this 2 word response.  Really good.

Oh, and the Orange Anus gave a speech down in Texas during which he talked about his pending lawsuits.  Well, he didn't really talk about them, just asked his followers for there to be protests if he was 'illegally' charged.  Big Protests, like the one from January 6.  Basically, he just threatened the prosecutors.  This is the sort of thing you'd expect from a criminal, wannabe dictator who feels the wheels of justice are coming to roll over his ugly orange ass.  This man doesn't care how many might die to save his ego.  Remember, in his mind, nothing demonstrates loyalty more than sacrifice.

The White Gloves

 So, it's Easter Sunday and I'm quite pleased to say I slept in a bit and already have one load of laundry in the washer.  Work shirts.  Now, if you'll excuse me for a few minutes, I'm going to put them in the drying and pop in my 2nd load, sweat pants.

There, that didn't take long, did it?

I had a customer stop by the Flooring Desk yesterday who frequents the Paint Desk.  He took up about a half-hour of my time asking questions which always ended with 'don't you agree?'  His behavior hasn't changed since I used to talk to him about paint.  He never bought paint, but wanted to reassured his viewpoints had validity.  I don't remember him every buying paint, but he still shows up over there at least once a week.  He will never buy carpet.

There was also a couple who were interested in Plantation Shutters.  I set them up with an appointment for a representative to talk to them.   Shutters are very expensive.  They will never buy.

A few months back I purchased a small, inexpensive table to put beside my desk downstairs.  As I unpacked the parts and readied them for assembly, I found a pair of white gloves had been included.  I didn't use them while putting the table together, however they do come in quite useful when I'm handling the photo paper for printing off color pictures.  No finger prints.

And for some, today is important for religious reasons.  Notice, I didn't call it a holiday.  Holiday infers to a day that is supposed to be fun, a vacation away from work.  The Cracker Jack Crazies take today very seriously.  Me?  I'm going to drive over to my local Giant supermarket, and then clean up the dog crap in the yard.  I want to get in a ride or a run, it's been too long since my legs have done either.  For me, there is nothing holy about this day.  The fact that Easter is not a fixed day, but rather changes yearly should be an indicator it's not nearly as important as they want to believe.

After Lockdown

Well, it's Thump day, a Thursday which just happens to be my Hump Day.  It is Thursday, isn't it?  I'm not scheduled Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday - a three day weekend which just happens to be the Memorial Day Weekend this year.  No hot plans.  Well, I'm planning on mowing the lawn on Sunday.  I will also spend some time that morning at Giant - I have a $3 coupon that's going to expire on 5/24.  Right now the only thing on my shopping list is Vitamin D.
The store was relatively slow yesterday.  I am not surprised.  Tomorrow our country goes Yellow and there are those associates who think this weekend is going to be busy.  Not me.  Two weeks after that 'Stay at Home' order was issued, people started breaking it.  For many, the definition of Essential was 'someplace to go.'  This is why we were making money hand over fist.  Our problems are going to start as the lockdown restrictions are loosened.  Just about everybody and his brother painted at least one room in their house, and that room is not going to be painted again for at least 8  or  9 years.  People tiled backsplashes, and floors, and showers; they did it, their done, their not going to do it ever again.  We sold a lot of Closetmaid wire shelving to customers who were revamping their closets... a once in a lifetime project.  I think things will likely pickup again heading into the holidays.
Isn't it fascinating how quickly the Idiot Jerk and his minions pivoted away from talking about Covid - 19.  Oh, sure, they still mention it, but their attitude has now become "if we don't talk about it, it will go away."  But it won't.  The ugly truth is he never wanted to shut the country down in the first place, which is why he downplayed it, said things like we had shut it down, that it was no worse then the flu.  Word is he desperately wants to start holding his white supremacist rallies again.  He sees them as one of the keys to getting his ass re-elected.  I say, let him have them, the virus knows how to spread.  The things that will spill out of his mouth are going to be crazier and crazier.  He believes all he needs to do is solidify his base to win and second 4 years in the White House.  His base is a minority group of crazies who will soon be putting on their war paint and dancing naked around the fire.  He's an unsuccessful businessman who has always made bad decisions.  He is a walking failure.
I understand he had some sort of meeting with Congress where he told them that if they didn't stick with him they were going to lose their majority in the Senate most of them, however, are prioritizing getting their own scummy asses re-elected.  Get ready for the shit show.
Finally, I took a picture of the purply thing I have growing in my backyard.  I have no idea what it is, but is sure is purply.

The ceiling, the NRA, and the padding

Saturday morning - I'm off.  I'll have to work Sunday and Monday but then I'm going to have off for another 2 days.  Right now I'm working 32 hours a week and that's fine with me.
As for yesterday, I got everything accomplished that I planned on - this doesn't always happen.  Usually my 'to do' list ignores time constraints and not everything gets finished.  Yesterday?  Everything ran slick.
The dining room ceiling is painted.  Counting a primer coat to help cover the different shades for green, I used to more coats of Behr Premium Plus (flat) - the color is Garden Rose White (sort of a very, very pale peachy yellow).

You can see where I started ripping off some of the boarder - can't wait until that's gone.  And the ceiling fan is going to be replaced.
And the Idiot Jerk in the White House spoke at CPAC yesterday - after Wayne LaPierre's ranting the day before, these crazy conservatives seem more bent then ever on isolating themselves away from Centrist America.  Of course, our phony president lied about all of his accomplishments because this fool is a serial liar.  What's even funnier is that those morons applauded his lies.  These people are so out of touch I find it amazing that even one of them can wipe his ass without getting it all over his face.
Florida wanting to raise the legal age to 21 for gun purchasers is a small step in the right direction.  You do have to remember that there are a lot of seniors living in Florida who have been brainwashed by the NRA into believing any from of gun control is an attack on their 2nd Amendments rights.  Of course, that's bull shit.
An interesting thing about that NRA - by their estimates, there are only 5 million members.  In a country with a population of almost 330 million where do they get those very major dollars they give as campaign contributions to Republicans?  We're not talking about small change here.  If each one of their members gave $100 each they'd have $500 million in their coffers - until you started deducting wages and business expenses.  However, most of their funding doesn't come from members, rather it's the gun manufacturers and those who sell accessories are those who provide the bulk of the monies. 
Anyway, I ordered a new pair of bicycle shorts - they should be arriving tomorrow.  Bicycle shorts, you ask?  Yepper.  Bicycle seats are not the most comfortable and if you're planning on spending more than a half an hour riding you're going to need a little extra padding.  This comes in the form of 3D chamois (not the real chamois, the fake stuff) which looks a lot like a splayed Kotex (if you know what a Kotex is).  If you don't, here's a picture.

Maybe Kotex isn't the right word....

The Return of Nick

Yesterday was Good Friday - I don't know how good it actually was, I can tell you we were busy at the Flooring Desk - sales going through, measures being scheduled, and the return of Nick, one of the twins I've been working with as he and his brother rehab a house.  Oh, and I got to meet their mother.  She's making the color decisions for this rehab.  She thinks she's color savvy.  She isn't.
On Thursday Max had come into the store, changed the color of the carpet to something a bit lighter and paid for the installation.  Mom evidently didn't like the color even though it was more neutral than the color Nick had chosen previously.  You see she didn't like the way it looked with the color paint she'd chosen which was what you might call a muddy, steel grey, brown which has the potential for looking very dark.  Standing there in the glaring fluorescent lighting, she chose a color just as muddy, just as steel grey, and darker than the painted sample she was using to make her decision.
Now, as part of the measurement process we have pictures taken of the rooms that are to get new flooring; often we see potential problems homeowners do not.  That room is an upstairs bedroom in a Cape Cod, and has one small window at each end, and after that carpet goes in, and with that color paint on the walls, it's going to look like a cave.  That's not the way you entice potential buyers.
Anyway, I Googled Nick and got a pic - he's below, and he is, unfortunately, his Mom's favorite.

At one point I mentioned that the brother, Max, had taken a pic of the carpet color he'd chosen and sent to both his brother and his Mom for approval and had received no response from either.  He then called Nick on the phone and talked over the change of color and got his 'okay.'  Their Mom said, "well, it just doesn't go with the color of the paint," at which point Nick said that Max was "an idiot."  She said nothing.  And I just kind of smiled as I saw failure written all over this project.  Why is  it that some parents are the worst thing that can happen to their children?  

Sunday Chores

Today is Sunday, supposedly a day of rest, but not for me.  This is my first of 3 days off - that's right, I was scheduled for a mini-vacation... right.  Think I'm going to spend the next couple of days playing video games?  Not quite.  I have chores to do... well, some of them are more than chores.  This doesn't mean I'm only going to soil my dainty fingers doing housework, nope, not in the least.  I've been slowly scraping the paint off of my kitchen walls - it's very, very old, and, as the Idiot in the White House might say if he knew anything about painting, a very huge project.  So, that's on the docket for today, and maybe tomorrow.
And speaking of the Idiot in the White House, there was an interesting article in the NYT this AM questioning whether he was going to embrace the crazies of the American Caucus the way they want, or move towards the center, maybe even work with the Democrats.... (that's right, some fool actually wrote that).  The idea is that with the crazies he's never going to get enough votes to pass anything, however by re-positioning himself to the center might get some of his agenda through both the House and the Senate.  To be honest, I started chortling after the first paragraph.  Right, like the Idiot in the White House is going to disenfranchise himself from every thing he loves, abandon his ego and his sycophant advisers.  Anyway, it was a funny article.
In the mean time, it's time for me to use the vacuum to suck the dirt out of the living room rug.

This is not me, both of my vacuums are canisters

And then later this afternoon I'll sit down and play video games, Mass Effect Andromeda, and, of course, I'm playing as a hottie again.

The Living Room

Leaving shortly for work, yes, it's one of those days.  Openings wouldn't be bad if I was scheduled for them all of the time... I'm not.  Tomorrow I have a mid-shift, I'm off on Friday, and then I close the store Saturday and Sunday.  There are times when this inconsistency has had a toll.
Anyway, the living room is coming along just fine.  The ceiling medallion arrives today - it's the 3rd one.  The first one?  Well, let's just say somebody thought it was a chew toy.  The 2nd was way too big.  Hopefully this one will be just right.
Yesterday I finished painting the trim around the window on the outside wall.  And the new light arrived.  Nice, huh?

Those are curtains and not drapes and will most likely be replaced in the spring.  Oh, and the table?  That's an old aquarium stand I topped with marble tiles.  Who says I don't know how to repurpose?  Also, if you look closely in the window, you can see the chandelier.  Neat.

Bits on paint, Republicans and the Olympics

Well, this is my last week running the Paint Department.  That means there will be no more paint customer stories.  Maybe I'll get one more before the week is up, but I doubt it.  This isn't paint season.  Families are either on vacation or getting the kids ready for school - no one buys paint.  We will be slow.
On the political scene I saw that one of those idiots named Bush said Republicans should endorse and vote for Trump.  I just kind of shook my head.  You would think that by now this guy would have realized that the name Bush has just about as much political value as...oh, let's say... Bush.  Now, I'm sure there is some small group of Republicans who value that name... but they are small, otherwise Hillary would be going up against Jeb.
And the Olympics are going on... who cares.  Again, I know there are people in this country who are ecstatic that we are racking up the gold medals, of course, thanks to some serious drug issues the Russians are really there in force to compete.  Me, I don't care so much.  We are a vast country with many, many corporate sponsors who fund training for those with Olympic potential in the hopes of getting endorsements down the road.  We have training camps beyond compare.  We are a country of over 300 million with a vast supply of top athletes to draw from, as opposed to, say Ireland, or Thailand, or Mozambique.  We're sort of like the New York Yankees playing against the winners of the Little League World Series... you know?
Anyway, yesterday, while I was mixing paint, I mixed this:

Squeezing one out for Trump

Before I took the picture, I showed it to some of my associates, and Cori, one of my most reliable said "wow, it looks like Trump pooping out a supporter."

Hhhm, words and pictures, aren't they amazing.

A tale of 2 Indians

We have a large Indian population in Harrisburg and for the most part, they are very nice people.  In the evening there are usually more Indians in our store then any other minority.  I have an Indian associate working for me named Ved, he's a good kid.  A lot of times they will stop by the paint desk and ask us questions like: "how do you fix a broken rung on a futon?", or "can you help me fix a leaking water heater?"  We always get them to the correct departments since none of my people can solve those special issues.
On Tuesday we had two Indian gentlemen come to the paint desk with 3 gallons of paint, one of which was old, the other two newly tinted.  They were upset because they'd been to one of our other Harrisburg stores and had gotten what they felt was really bad customer service.  Their problem (and let me tell you they were really upset)?  The paint in the old can, which had been color matched in 2009, no longer matched the color on their walls.  Hey, sunlight will fade the paint on your walls, if you don't clean you walls the color may change, most people don't know this, but it happens.  Because the original can had been mixed in 2009 neither the colorants nor the formula were valid.  Things change.  And the associate at the other store didn't do a color match, the logical solution.  Nope, that person, who ever he/she was, tried to take the old formula and convert it into something which would work.  It didn't.

The original color, tinted in 2009, was a mustard yellow, the 2 gallons of new paint were a purplish taupe.  Not even close.  And these two gentlemen left that store in a very agitated state and brought their ire to my paint desk and we had to solve their problem.  We ended up giving them a credit for the two gallons.  We also color matched the original 2009 paint and mixed 2 new gallons, one of which was complimentary.  Because an associate at another store did a shitty job, I ended up writing off 3 gallons of paint.  If someone is willing to spend money in your store, make sure you give them their money's worth.

Of paint and plastic people

Yesterday was not a banner day for paint sales, not bad, but not great; by 4 PM we were just selling random gallons to random customers.  This doesn't mean we were without incident.  A little after 6 a couple came to the desk.  They had an old can and wanted another one, no problem.  She, however, had a picture of a color she wanted on her phone.  That we can't do.  Of course, she was not happy.  "Other places can scan the phone," she said, pouting her augmented lips.  Oh, yes, she'd had injections, and it was obvious.  I was going to explain to her how you can not scan a phone because the reflection from the screen eliminates the refraction needed to identify colors, but before I could she rolled her eyes and said, heaving her overly large bosoms, "well, I guess I'm not going to be able to finish my project today."  As she sniffed, I noticed that she'd had her nose whittled down until it looked like a tiny, round button.  I apologized and explained in simple terms the problems with cell phone pictures and, once again, the bosoms heaved.  If I was supposed to feel sorry, I didn't... well, in a way, I mean I did feel sorry she had felt it necessary to spend all that money trying to look like Barbie.

When she and her male companion had finally left the desk, one of my female associates turned to me and said, "can you believe how big those fake boobs were?  They were about as attractive as water balloons with cigar butt nipples," (she doesn't mince her words, does she?).  And, of course, I had to agree.  Plastic people, you know?  They will keep working on it until they get it right, unfortunately for them, they don't understand they will never get it right.

Cycles of Painting

Well, it's Saturday... a little after 0700 in the morning, the temp is around 70 F with a dew point around 66 - it's going to be a warm, humid day in the store.  Spotty thunderstorms are forecast, sporadic and spread out - this means we'll get a warning and the storm will miss us by about 5 miles.  Tonight I get to close the store and I'm scheduled back at work 10.5 hours later, because we have a paint sale (rebate) going on, you know?  My sales figures are okay, they're not great.  Three years ago there was the equivalent of a feeding frenzy in paint - I beat my yearly goal by over half a million dollars.  Corporate thought paint sales would continue to trend upwards for years to come.... they didn't.  People don't paint every year.  Sure, it's the easiest way to refresh a room, but paint is also laborious.  You need to move furniture, and cover furniture, and tape off, and cut in - painting a room is not a 2 or 3 hour project, and not everybody wants to do it every 3 or 4 years.  While there are those who feel the need to change the color pallet of their rooms on a regular basis, many, many more don't know this urge.  They will chose a color and stick with it for a long, long time.  I know this because people will come with paint cans 10 - 15 years old and say "I need this color to touch up."

An interesting pattern in a can I tinted last evening

I'm in the latter group.  I'm thinking of repainting my bedroom.  I needed to put in a new ceiling fan because Big Seig chewed up the remote for the old one (he thinks anything made of plastic is a chew toy).  And the last time I painted the bedroom was... about 15 years ago.  So, I'm thinking of freshening things up.  Of course, this means a lot of work (sigh), but on the bright side, I probably won't feel the need to repaint for another 15 years.

Rainy Days and Sundays and tidbit about Trump

It's raining here.  The temperature is a cool 58 (F).  And, of course, I'm supposed to be having a paint sale.  Not that we aren't selling paint, we are, just not in the amounts they were expecting.  Same thing happened last year.  What can I say besides "it's spring."  In fact, it's raining through out much of the state.  Because of this people are not buying deck stains and exterior paints.  There are parts of the country where it's bright and sunny and the temperatures are balmy - not here though so my sales figures are shitty.

Since my bank has pissed me off, I closed out the savings account and transferred all funds into the checking.  This is step one in moving my finances.  I'm off Tuesday so I'm going to pay a visit to Member's First.  If things work out, my money will be transferred to a new account with them.  The only tedious thing I can foresee is changing my routing number and account number for the bills I pay on line, but even that shouldn't take long.

I saw that another poll was released today.  I didn't read it since right now any sort of projections are totally useless.  Their sole purpose is to get people like my friend Betsy to wring their hands wailing "woe is me, woe is me."  I did see an article somewhere which inferred that Republicans are slowly starting to get behind Trump.  As they proved with George W. Bush, they don't care how big an asshole they put in the White House.

Since it's a rainy day, I think I'm going to go take a nap.  The Giro D'Italia is rolling through Italy right now so I'll probably put that on the TV and snooze a bit.

Paint, people, and problems

I'm in the middle of a 7 day stretch - that's right, I've already worked 3 days and, after today, will have to work 3 more before I get a day off, and then it's only one day off.  Just lovely, you know?  Anyway, the paint desk was steady yesterday, not as busy as they were hoping it would be since the weather is really rather shitty.  And I got to close the department last night.
Around 7'ish, a grandmother, her daughter, and her grandchild started looking at Glidden colors (we're getting rid of the Glidden Duo, replacing it with the Diamond, so the Duo is at a clearance price).  They spent over 2 hours looking at colors - a very long time since the child would cry, saying "I want to go home," and, of course, that wasn't going to happen.  Fifty minutes before the store closed they finally came to the desk to order paint, gallons and gallons and at least 8 quarts, and they wanted the clearance Duo.  So I explained to them that light colors go into a pure white base, medium shaded colors go into a medium base, and dark colors go into a dark base.  Eight of their gallons were for light, pastel colors and... of course, since most people like light colors on their walls, I had no white clearance bases left.  "I'm sorry," I said, "but I'm sold out of those bases."  Of course they didn't understand, so I had to explain to them how everything worked for a second time, going so far as to take the lid off of a can of deep base to prove my point.  And as I'm talking to them I hear the announcement going out loud and and clear that "the store will be closing in 30 minutes."

He was not part of the problem

Now, for those of you who don't know, there is a group of people out there who dally around until a store closes because, well, sometimes they can get a better deal, sometimes cashiers, eager to punch out and leave for the day, make mistakes.  And sometimes they're just dumb.  I think these women were angling for something, because around 8 they asked what time the store closed, and then proceeded to dawdle.  I roped in Tim, from Hardware, to help be track down bases in order to see what I could mix (only 2 gallons).  I showed them inexpensive, lower quality paints but that was a no go.  They needed to have paint and primer (more expensive paints).  What they really wanted was for me to mark down better paint to the clearance price in order to get them out of the store.  Of course, I didn't do that.

Nope.  I mixed 8 quarts and 2 gallons, and handed the rest of their chips back to them saying "we have a paint event starting on Thursday which is going to be a better deal than this clearance paint."  "Oh," they said, "a deal!"  I didn't tell them it's going to be a rebate.  People like these women don't like rebates, they want their discount now.  They don't want to wait for a gift card in the mail.  They see themselves as being shrewd, rather than a problem.  If being inconvenient will get them a cheaper price, they'll be as inconvenient as possible.

  

Paint... the final frontier

Well, maybe not... actually, not even close.  I did see something interesting on Customer Satisfaction earlier, so I'm posting a link.  I know people aren't really satisfied.  I talk to them daily.  Having associates who do their job well, helps.  When you have one who consistently drops the ball... that's another story.  I have one - he's the nicest person you ever met but slow as molasses in January.  And mistakes?  ooohhhh   He has sheen problems, a customer asks for semi-gloss and he mixes flat.  There are other issues as well.  Like I gave him a paint label, showed him the can of paint it needed to go on and... he put it on the wrong can... and, of course, the customer said "this is not the paint I ordered."  Instead of mixing 2 gallons for 2 people, he mixed 3 gallons for 2 people and we ended up writing off one of those gallons, simply because he put the wrong label on the wrong can.

When you talk to him, which I've done several times, his response is always that he must have gotten distracted.  He gets distracted easily.  In fact, all you have to do is wave and say "hi" to him and you'll throw him off.  These problems are going to show up on his review.  I'm going to see if I can get him moved to a department where he doesn't cost the store money.  As I said, he's a nice guy, however I had to write off over $300 in paint last week because of his mistakes.  Perhaps I can get him moved to Hardware where all he has to do is sell nail, and nailers and deck screws.