Saturday, January 31, 2026

Our Clock is Ticking and We're Nowhere Near Ready

It was a very busy cleaning day yesterday. DH spent the entire day cleaning the storage and framing areas of the basement space. It probably hasn't had a serious clean since we first moved into the space almost 40 years ago. It's a lot of metal shelving and a LOT of boxes. We're still going to need boxes for items that people purchase that should be boxed up like pottery or katchinas, but we don't need hundreds of used boxes from this shipment or that one. We also don't need the rows and rows of empty product boxes for beads that we're clearing out and selling, but not reordering. We've been breaking down boxes for several weeks now and putting them into the recycling bins that are at the end of our parking lot. 




We have three 55 gallon and one HUGE metal 
recycling bin for the four tenants. We're using a 
lot of that space right now, and our landlord said 
if we needed to arrange for a non-scheduled 
pickup, he'd make it happen. I am apologizing 
to each of the other business owners for 
monopolizing the recycling bins as well. 
It's temporary, but absolutely necessary. 



Everything kicks into high gear on Monday. I have another phone call scheduled with Travis. I'll have to double-check the multi-page document that he sent to me. We've been working our way down the instructions in that document, pushing to get everything completed. I suspect we'll be spending Sunday at the shop as well, my plan is cleaning my front windows and the front window display. It's filthy and needs some serious love. The hard part about washing the front windows is two-fold" (1) They're BIG and very tall. It's a lot of cleaning, and (2) they are protected by decorative rod iron work that we commissioned when we first moved into the space. The ironwork features our Stormcloud logo and it's beautiful. We're bringing the iron home with us when we leave. We'll put it into our front garden area. 




Our storefront is pretty basic. It's the inside that's 
the fun part of the store. I need to clean the right-side 
window desperately. It's absolutely filthy. 



I have to film my walk-through which I need to submit to Travis no later than the 2nd. That means starting outside for a view from the street, then moving inside for a detailed look at the sales floor and finally moving downstairs to the warehouse area. The total length should be about 7 minutes, I figure about 30 seconds on the outside, 5 minutes on the main floor and 1 minute on the basement. I'll need to keep a close eye on the time, and make sure I provide a good view of everything - the artwork on the walls, the jewelry in the cases, and the beads everywhere on display cases and on shelving. We're an eclectic store, to say the least. 




I'm very grateful that Super Bowl isn't until next weekend. 
We'll be working and cleaning the shop this Sunday and 
wouldn't have any time to watch the game. Hopefully next 
Sunday will give us some time, although we'll still be at the 
shop for a while, I'm sure. 



I'm grateful that Super Bowl isn't until next week, because I'm quite sure we'll be working at the shop tomorrow as well. There's always something else that needs to be done, and we're giving this our best effort. But we're only two people (three if you count Chickie, but she's not cleaning, she's spending her time with customers and she hasn't been at her best, physically, so that's also not a good thing). 




OK, these AREN'T MY bulbs because I couldn't get the 
photo I took this morning to my computer in time to 
share it. But, both of my amaryllis bulbs from Sharon 
are blooming, and they have second blossoms almost 
ready to burst and third ones still coming. There's also a 
third stem sprouting from each bulb. BEST HOLIDAY 
GIFT EVER!!! DH is still astounded about how the waxed 
bulb can be enough food and water for the bulb, but he's 
very impressed. 



All in all, time progresses. If I have some short posts over the next couple of weeks, I hope you'll understand and cut me some slack. My immediate future is terrifying, my long term future is wonderful. I just need to get from one thing to the other. *Hugs* to all. Slava Ukraini and Melt the ICE. 




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