Still No Certificates and Working on Fridays

Instead of a day off yesterday, I worked for most of the day in the basement shrink-wrapping artwork to put out onto the sales floor. We have a massive amount of artwork and a lot of it can be backed and shrink wrapped and easily put out for sale. It's not necessary to frame them - that just adds to the cost for the customer. This way we can keep costs under control for everyone. 

My shrink wrapping equipment is almost identical to 
this set-up. The wrap is on the large roll, it actually 
threads onto the shorter black post which separates the 
two layers of the wrap. The larger hinged item with 
the large black handle is a heat sealer/cutter. When 
you've pulled off the right length of wrap, you depress 
the long heat bar which seals and separates the 
sealing material from the roll so that you can then 
use the heat gun (standing on top of the very back 
of the equipment) to actually shrink the wrapping around 
the artwork and to coax any wrinkles out of it. 

Still no luck with finding the certificates, so I'm going to have to "fess up" to DH and admit that I managed to lose them. He won't be pleased, but I'm hoping he'll still buy my new set of Nike running shoes, in spite of my not having the proper certificate from hin. The other ones, I really don't remember as clearly, so they're a bit less of a serious loss at this time. I need new running shoes desperately, though. My old pair are on their last legs, so to speak. 

I need a new set of Nike running shoes. I've tried other 
brands in the past and they just ended up hurting my 
feet. I use my shoes every time I'm on the treadmill. 
But they're VERY expensive and I have to actually try 
them on to see what set feels right on my feet. *sigh* 
I'm doomed. 

I rather enjoyed the quiet, yesterday. I spent almost all day in the basement framing room dealing with the shrink wrapping equipment and the vertical cutter that is used for mats and glass. I enjoyed the solitude and not having to deal with customers. I love our customers, but sometimes it's nice to not have to assist people with their particular projects or what they're looking for. 

My Fletcher vertical cutter is mounted to the wall 
of my small framing room at the shop. It's what I use 
to cut cardboard backing for the pictures I was 
shrink-wrapping. 

I suspect that working on Fridays will be a constant from this point onward until we've managed to close the store, so my Wednesdays will be VERY full and I'll be doing all of my kitchen work either Wednesdays or, maybe a little bit on Sundays. I haven't heard from Travis (I really thought I would be getting a call from him by now) so I'll have to phone him to make sure we're on track and he's on track as well. 

So, time to wrap this up and start my Saturday. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning. Slava Ukraini. 

WildFit, Repricing and Time Moves Along - I'm Doing OK - LOL

DH finally buckled down yesterday and started going through all of our precious metal findings and beads, repricing them to be within reason with the daily adders that we have to add. The store, behind the counters, looks rather like a small tornado hit selected parts. It's a real mess. Hopefully he'll know exactly where he left off so that he can pick up again today. We're talking 14Kt gold, 12Kt gold, gold-filled and sterling silver, all of which need to be adjusted. We always change pricing dependant on the daily metals market, but the base price from which we multiply needs to be set at a correct point. 

Gold has moved a lot since 1960. That lower dip in the 
center of the chart is the dip for the late 1980's through 
the early 2000's. That's when I learned how to be a 
jeweler and a goldsmith. I worked in gold, and I loved it. 
But I can't afford it now, and we had to reprice items that 
we purchased in the 1990's and bring them up to current 
pricing, currently more than $2000/ounce. Ouch! 

Of course, I don't really do things with pricing. I'm a bit hopeless at it, to be truthful. I'm not a numbers gal, I'm a people gal. I am fabulous at helping people find just the right bead or color for their project. Color is really my personal strong point. But I'm hell at numbers and, for someone who actually worked with accounting firms for decades, that's a bit of a giggle. I can run an office efficiently, I can type and keyboard VERY well, I can deal with the State and Federal governments and their variable regulations, but I can't do numbers. I suppose it's a plus that I know my strengths and weaknesses. LOL

I'm not really good with numbers. I can calculate things 
just fine, I can pay State and Federal taxes on time, 
so I'm not hopeless at numbers. And I've worked in the 
accounting profession on and off throughout my life. 
But I'm hell at setting budgets, investing, and planning 
with numbers. Fortunately, DH is a genius at numbers 
(a bit obsessive at times), and he's kept us afloat. 

I had an excellent treadmill session this morning, even though my treadmill virtual program was acting up a little bit. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it's worth phoning them next week, but for now, I'm done with my exercise, I have a cuppa herbal tea next to me, and I'm settling down a little bit to write this, to catch up with all of you, my cyber friends near and far, and to settle down before breakfast and starting the work day. 

I looked it up. I joined WildFit in March or early April, 
2020. I've been eating a WildFit diet ever since because 
it makes sense to me. Yesterday's session for my MCD 
class dealt with nutrition and yes, I'm doing a lot of 
things right. Makes me feel pretty good! 

Yesterday's MCD class (Mild Cognitive Decline) was really interesting. Of course, it dealt with food, and I'm totally on top of that. I've been on Wildfit since the end of March, 2020. The USA was shut down for COVID on March 15, 2020, and I signed up for the WildFit class shortly afterward. Then it was a battle to get DH to let me cook what I wanted, and not necessarily eat what he did. It's still a fight every now and again, but it's been more than five years, I'm still following a WildFit structure for my diet, and he's learned that I'm not budging on this. He's overweight, I'm not. 'Nuff said - LOL. 

So, I'm wrapping this up, finishing my first cup of tea for the day, and getting ready to have breakfast and leave for the shop. I hope all of you have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini. 

Roadblocks and Frustrations - ARGH ... just ARGH!

Yesterday morning a notice had been sent by the YMCA that the outdoor pool would be closed. Apparently the Y lost power on Monday and that allowed the chemicals to become unbalanced in the large pool. I knew I'd be swimming indoors yesterday, but we were all hoping we would be back outdoors today. But no, apparently the pool will take one more day to get all of the chemicals back into balance (and the appropriate heat for the water), so we're indoors again today. Yesterday caught a lot of people by surprise (although I got notified through my app on my phone). Today ... well, we'll see. I'm prepared, we'll see how many others are. 

Hopefully tomorrow the outdoor pool will be available for 
swimming again. We're stuck indoors again today, and although 
I don't mind (I'm in the indoor pool nine out of twelve months, 
after all), I do miss that length of the outdoor one. 

It's going to be a very busy day for me today, though. Not only general cooking, three loads of laundry, and grocery shopping, but also a quick trip to the orthodontist mid-day to re-glue one wire that became unbonded from a front lower tooth. Yes, my braces are off, but my lower teeth have a small fence to keep them in place. This is the second time I've had to pop into the orthodontist to get wires reglued, but in the scheme of things, it's pretty minor and doesn't take time. Except that it's an 11:00 am appointment, so smack in the middle of the day. 

I have nothing to eat in the refrigerator, and 
I'm almost totally out of freezer choices as 
well. I need to do some serious cooking 
this afternoon. 

DH and I realized, to my total dismay, that our projected end date of late this year simply won't work. Not because we can't just put a "Closed" sign on the door, it's because of the city regulations for going out of business. I have a lot of questions for that department, but can't reach anyone there to ask because our city government was hit with a cyber attack early this week and every state agency is closed right now. Not helpful! Our revised schedule has us out of there by May 31. I told DH to "Put It In Writing". I'm going to make his life hell until he does. And then, if he doesn't stick to it, I'm out of here. He can deal with a solo life if my life is messed up any more. GRRRRR

My city requires a COMPLETE printout of our inventory 
before we can have a "going out of business" sale. That's something 
that will be really difficult for us to do. We have thousands 
of small, individual items. I don't think my computer system 
or my ancient printer will be up to the task, and we need to 
go through our computer records and do a lot of deletion 
of out, outdated materials that we no longer carry, but 
that are still in the system. It's a disaster! It seriously 
makes me think about packing everything and moving to 
a suburb just to have an easier time with the rules and 
regulations. 

So, on that lovely "positive" note, I'm out of here. I have an indoor pool to swim in, and I really need to get some of this stress worked off. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.