Getting restocked

We spent a few days last week getting restocked.  Boxes, shipping labels and wood, all were running precariously low.   And of course they were all in different directions.  

Wednesday we started out going south to accomplish 5 things.  Only one of them was accomplished on the 1st try.  We wanted to stop at a bicycle shop, because Gary threw his bike out to the curb, and definitely needs a new one.  Drove 40 miles to the listed bike shop and even though it was Wednesday, the bike shop was closed.  Tight.  Dark.  No success!

So we went onward to the grocery store in the big town for two items, edamame and polenta.   And of course no sign of either in the produce section where I had seen them before at a different big city store in Florida.  

Next stop was the shipping label store.  I had previously looked online and tried to figure out the exact label I needed without much luck.  Too many label choices not enough time.  We've previously tried Avery and they didn't stick well.  Then we used 3M labels and loved them, they went through the printer just nifty and stuck like a really really sticky thing.   The last ones I got because 3M is no longer making labels!  Sheesh, who told them they could make decisions like that?  I ordered Digi-Orange and they were ok the 1st ones out of the box.  About 1/2 way down they started to curl and I had to insert them one at a time in the printer.  Then they started to curl after we placed them on the boxes and the corners were becoming unstuck before we even got them to the Post Office.   After a few more they curled so much I had to crease the edge to get to even feed through the printer one at a time!  Too much work for a simple label!    So we stopped at the Label store and they weren't open either!  But there was a sign that said new customers stop at the office upstairs, so we did.  And they were nice and were able to figure out what we needed and even offered to send us a free sample box!  But alas it had to be shipped to us and we still didn't accomplish our goal of getting more labels. 

And did I mention that it was raining cats and dogs?  Every stop we made, it was up with the umbrellas, and quick feet into the place of business. 

Ok next stop was the box manufacturer, and it stopped raining long enough for use to load the boxes into the back of the car.  Thank goodness because by the time we got across town again and to the next big city grocery store it was raining again!  This time I was determined to find the edamame and polenta.   I had internet, so I went to the store's website and it said yes the store had the items, edamame was in the frozen section, and polenta was in the canned and bagged items area.   We looked all over the produce and didn't find anything.  Asked someone and he took us back to the place we had just looked.  Went to the frozen section and finally found the edamame but no polenta.   Stood in line at the customer service desk for about 15 minutes.  Finally talked to a lady who said she knew exactly where the item was.  I asked what was it close to, so we can find it?  She didn't answer and I repeated my question.  Finally she took off and said she'd get the item.   We followed her to the frozen vegetables section, where we had just come from, and there I mentioned that another name for polenta was corn mush.  Then she admitted she had no idea what polenta was and she had no idea where it was in the store!  We gave up, and paid for the edamame.   Gary decided to make a phone call to a machine manufacturer to inquire about us getting a new machine, and I decided to go back into the store to use the bathroom while I was waiting.  After using the facilities I decided to look for corn mush in a different place, near the meat, and followed the refrigerator section on to the dairy and finally found it above the eggs!   Success, but  a very frustrating success!.  Oh well. 

The last stop was at a Woodcraft shop where we were looking for parts to improve on our present dust collection system.  We have two areas with wood dust issues, the main work area with the machines, which we've pretty much taken care of issues with dust collection.  The 2nd area is the router area (which is presently outside during good weather) where we cut out the blanks to carve the signs on.  This one needed a big overhaul as it wasn't collecting much of anything and Gary was getting a lot of wood dust back in his face.  Even though he was wearing a dust mask while cutting he was still having a bunch of it into his nose and down in his lungs.  Most of the time this doesn't cause any issues, but during our Father's Day rush and at Christmas, he actually has health issues because of the dust.  We were able to buy a lid for a barrel we bought 2 years ago, but failed at finding the fittings that would allow us to connect the tubing from the fan and back out the other side of the barrel. 

So all in all, a fairly disappointing day, but we bought enough boxes to fill the car so if we had been successful at everything else, it might have been really tight indeed.  Two days later we reenacted the day with a trip north to buy wood, and had about as much success.   Luckily enough success to keep making signs!

That's all for now.  We are definitely looking forward to a little slower season for the next 4 months so we can get back to having a life again!  Onward!