Life Goes On Despite Minor Setbacks

"We're going to put belts onto those buckles," he said. "People don't realize what they are just seeing them in the case like we've been displaying them (for years)," he said. "Get Chickie to dye the belts black," (which she did) " and put them into the case," he said. That process was finished last week, the belts were shined and put into various cases throughout the store. Yesterday was fairly busy, and a young man came in and purchased a belt. That's great! Here's the catch ... 

I have several hand-made sterling silver belt buckles which we have
now put onto belts. I guess that works, because we sold the first of
the six we have yesterday. Happy me! 

I wasn't aware that "he" had intended to also size the belt, punching holes and permanently attaching the belt end. That wouldn't have been a problem, except it took him closer to 1/2 hour instead of the five minutes he had originally estimated. But, we got it done and the customer was happy. The customer came back shortly before closing with his old and new belt. "It's a bit long. I'm using these holes now on this belt. Can it be shortened?" 

We usually use a tool similar to this to punch holes in
leather. Apparently he was unable to find it so used a
hammer-style punch instead - much more time consuming.
I'm bringing one of these over to the shop with me today
from our home tools. 

Yes, but this time, since we were closing shortly, I took his phone number and I'll call him this morning and tell him that it's available for him to pick up. This second fix was quite a bit more difficult than the first because we had already punched holes into the belt. Lesson learned - ask for an old belt before doing this again. Now we have a station set up for that work and things should be smoother, but we'll remember ... 1/2 hour of time. 

St Paul has broadened its scope of police officers in the past few
years, really pushing for women and minority applicants. 

Of course, during all of this, I was juggling the other customers - five of them - getting their products pulled, ringing them out. In the middle of the chaos, I saw a policeman enter the store, take a look at how swamped I was, and exit again. That bummed me out since there was a robbery at the store across the street two days ago and I'm quite certain he was here to discuss it with all of the businesses in the area. I left a phone message. I hope the police department will get back to me on this one. 

So life goes on. I'm posting holiday hours and hanging garland at the shop today, then I'll be off until Friday when our two-day After Turkey Day Sale commences. Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow.