The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

THE GOOD

One of the many things we discussed was her re-upholstery of
this wonderful chair. She did a superb job. My mother did several
upholstery jobs when she was a seamstress. She hated them. She
would have loved this chair, though. So beautiful! 

Yesterday morning I had a lovely breakfast with Drummerwench. As usual, it took less than a minute for us to settle down and start talking and we talked for almost 90 minutes between bites of a lovely breakfast and beverages (coffee for me, strong tea for her). The food, at least my choice, was totally amazing. We talked about a variety of subjects including our activities within fan fiction and the amazing and beautiful job that she did when she recovered the chair in her house earlier this year. She usually gets to town about once a year and I hope I'll have the chance to see her again when the next visit arrives. So good and so much fun! 

THE BAD 

Nothing can match the shine of a Swarovski crystal. I looked for
quite a while to find an example of what they are making, but
this is the closest I could find and their work is SO much prettier. 

Three of my better customers were in yesterday. These ladies make Swarovski crystal necklaces - very elaborate and running in a color range. Only one of them speaks any English, the others only speak Spanish. I speak Spanish, but not well. We manage to communicate, but sometimes it can be challenging. They usually spend more than an hour choosing crystals to buy and use in their pieces and yesterday was no exception. So far ... no problem. 

We got a large shipment in yesterday morning and my Manager decided to drop into the shop on his way to a meeting and start getting the merchandise checked in. Remember, this is while the ladies above were collecting their crystals. Suddenly, I hear him growl from behind me. His computer keyboard stopped working. OK - when I had a second I cleared his desk and unplugged it, then replugged it in again, hoping that might solve the problem. No - no keyboard. I tell him he's going to have to stay away from the keyboard and go back to helping the ladies. 

A bit later on I see my Assistant Manager hand-writing a sales receipt on our receipt pads. This is a backup and we don't do this except in rare instances. I have a basket full of crystals to sell to my ladies and I'll be damned if I'm going to hand write them all onto a receipt. 

I look at the register screen and the register computer is suddenly not talking to the main computer - the one with the broken keyboard. Looking behind me, I see my Manager has pulled the keyboard plug from the back of the CPU yet again. I growl - I am so angry. "Plug that back in RIGHT NOW!" I order him. Then I have to shut down and repower the register, hoping that it will recognize the main computer. Fortunately it does and I was able to sell the small sale my Assistant had been writing as well as the large sale from my crystal ladies without trouble, but I still have no working keyboard on the main computer. 

THE UGLY 

I only have about five broken computer keyboards in my pile. Their
keys and mechanisms have saved other keyboards over the years, so
I don't throw them away immediately. Yesterday's was one more to add
to the pile and one less functional keyboard I have available as a backup. 

I have a pile of keyboards in the back where I work, but most of them also don't work or aren't recognized by my antiquated system. I decide to pull the keyboard from my backup computer, rendering that computer inoperable, and push my Manager out the door to his appointment. I can't do anything until the day is over and the end of day process has run. Then I can attempt to replace keyboard one with keyboard backup. After an hour cleaning a very gross keyboard, I end the day, print out the reports, replace the keyboard and repower up. Voila! Success. New keyboard works properly. 

The life of a small business owner *sigh*. Did you have an exciting Tuesday? I'm looking forward to a day of housecleaning today since Sharon arrives in less than three weeks! Have a wonderful day!