Bittersweet Nothings

Hey, my knowledge of times and seasons is only slightly more limited than my knowledge of world geography but it feels like fall to me regardless of what the calendar says. Which is great because I'm ready to break out the sweaters and jackets and put the shorts away. Yay!

In other news: The toy business is heating up. The homespun enterprise, not so much, but the retail gig is winding up to throw a fast ball. Steadily increasing freight deliveries are a sure sign of what's to come for holiday madness. I'm told it gets positively whacko for the weeks intervening Black Friday and the end of the year with crowds upon crowds crowding in the aisles picking the shelves clean for to fill wee tykes wish lists. Should prove interesting.

What also should have been interesting but turned otherwise was a trip with my regular toy store cohort, Big Don, to lend a hand to another local store with their weekly delivery on Friday. I expected a gladsome few hours of toy geek comraderie, much like I experience every week at my own 'home' store. Not.

It seems the locals at that unnamed outlet have a habit of not finishing their delivery in a timely fashion and we were more or less recruited to show them how it could be done. Not an altogether happifying circumstance to say the least. After arriving well before the home team, unloading their truck in half the time they normally take and trying to make some reasonable semblance of order in their ridiculously miniscule stockroom, it became pretty obvious that we were as welcome as a bag of marbles spilled on the dance floor.

When it became additionally obvious that our attempts at ingratiating ourselves to the natives with charm and humour were falling on deaf ears, we more or less lowered our heads and determined to make the best showing we could for ourselves and get out of Dodge, as it were.

Disappointing, to say the least.

The capper- pun intended -was the conspicuous absence of my favorite timeworn Abercrombie baseball cap at the end of the day, missing from our little stack of wearables and personal items. A search of the crowded stockroom proved fruitless and queries to the home team were met with blank stares and protestations of ignorance. I was not pleased that it seemed to have taken wing. It's not just a hat, after all, it's the principle of the matter and I determined inwardly never to cross that unfriendly threshhold again.

Since then I've gotten a call saying- Surprise, surprise! -the manager has located chapeau in question and it will be hand delivered to my store.

Still in all, a sad, sorry chapter. Tsk, tsk...

But right now I'm off to 'home turf', batting cleanup before tomorrow's scheduled HUMONGOUS toy delivery. Let the games begin! Yee haw!

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