Ths archeologist is IN

Compressors and fans are everywhere underground.
The Red Compressor has always been particularly interesting to me.

That is my Raisin/Popcorn Backstock Storage Area directly to the left of the Red Compressor. The astute observer will be able to identify the location of the red shopping baskets.

On Wednesday I heard it chugging, which is fairly unusual,
so I went to stare at it for a while.

I puzzled over why it would be chugging and I suddenly knew what the Red Compressor was for -- THE AIR HOSE ON THE OUTSIDE WALL BY THE SODA MACHINES!

And then I realized what THIS box is for. This is a NEW box. It controls the NEW solar panels on the roof. They were installed about 2 years ago.

SO... my befuddled brain told me that if this box is for the solar panels, and this box is on the wall next to the Red Compressor, then I must be standing under the coffee area by the registers. 

But I was waaaaaay wrong.

It is waaaaaaaay more better 'n that.

As I slept on it Wednesday night it became clear to me that things weren't adding up. The Stairs to Nowhere go to the air hose wall and the Red Compressor and Solar Panel Box are one basement over from those stairs.

So when I went in Thursday morning I paid special attention.

 Looking to the left I could see the peak of the old original Merrill & Sons building.

See the blue fence wall thing on the lower left? Those are the customer restrooms.

And when I saw that I GOT IT! The Red Compressor is  UNDER THE OLD OUTSIDE WALL OF THE ORIGINAL STORE BUILDING! So I went back down to the Red Compressor area, to the last aisle where I found the J. R. Liggett's Old Fashioned Bar Shampoo, and saw THIS... THESE ARE THE ORIGINAL BASEMENT STEPS GOING UP TO THE OLD ORIGINAL FRONT DOOR!!!!!!


Now doesn't that just blow your skirts up??
Click here to see where these stairs are.
(partially hidden to the left behind the circuit panel board thing)

(I will be examining the old floor joists and foundations and sill plates 'n such. I think the wine cellar is a good place to start.)

What Valentine's Day Means To Me

It means trying to sell off the large boxes of Lake Champlain chocolates by dressing up Register #3 all pretty. As of 3:00 pm today one had sold. I almost sold another but when I rang it up the lady went into real bad sticker shock and I had to administer an emergency Void-Ticketectomy to save her life.

By the way, meet the NEW Dairy Queen. She took over the dairy coolers when Verne deserted us. She runs a real nice dairy. Today she got in a new yogurt flavor -- Key Lime Graham Crumb And White Chocolate. I saw her try it this afternoon. Her face said, "EWWWWWWWWW."

A Surprise

Dan Dan!

aka Young Dan, Dan the Man, Simon Legree, The Boss

Mystery Thing #1 More Clues

The Hot Sauce Expert came by the store today and we went down to the basement to look for more clues about the Mystery Thing.

We were really naughty and wiggled that post thingee off becuase we wanted to see what it was covering.

Then we couldn't get it back on and we got really worried that George was going to catch us. But he didn't. And we did.

Another Basement Mystery

It is down in the basement,
over by the candy shelves, behind some crates of nuts and dried fruit.
It used to be hidden by hugely tall stacks of candy and plastic bag boxes, so I never saw it until someone recently revamped candy and plastic bag storage.

It looks like half a rabbit hutch.

It is sitting on an old freezer case.

It looks like it has some sort of cash register in it.

It has cash register-like signs posted on it.

(Holly Moose was IN TROUBLE!)

It is like a lean-to for a cash register.

Was it outside once?

If so, why?

It must have been for the gas pumps.
That means Jeremiah definitely knows where this was and why it was there.
I bet he used it before they moved his card swiper to the entryway and gave him a cash apron to wear.
I don't ever remember seeing it outside.
BUT... sometimes I can't remember yesterday.
What makes me think I could remember 10 years ago?

The back has a D&W's bumper sticker.

The sides have nice brackets and handles.

Cardboard is used everywhere to pad, layer, or protect.

 This cardboard is from a case of American Flatbread Co. Pizza.

This is from the American Flatbread Co.'s website.

Their pizza looks good but I have never bought any. Too expensive.

All the places I saw box cutters last Friday

My secret hidden one on a top shelf upstairs in the Chip Room. Now I will have to change my hiding place, I suppose.

 Up front by Register 1.

On my personal shelf in the Lost Underground World. Touch it and I will drop you where you stand.

 On the Wine Cellar desk.

On+ the shelf by Sam Daniels.

On+ Rasta Girl's personal shelf in the Lost Underground World.

In+ the Produce Room.

On+ the Grocery Czar's Podium out back across from the Hardware Desk.

In Got Dinner's pocket!

It is a box cutter you can count on.

Animals Taste Good!

Once upon a time my harp wanted to marry his harp and have little harp babies

Things I Never Told You

There is an UPSTAIRS!

Turn left to go into the  the Screw Room. (Note the Surveyor's Tape Department over the doorway into the Screw Room.) Turn right to go upstairs. There are lots of things upstairs. Like the Chip Room. And the Baggie Backstock Room. Like Belts, Fan and the Spice Endcap Staging Area. But most importantly...

The Boot Room!

It is a wonderful place full of Venerable Old Stuff. It is usually quiet and empty and the floor creaks when you walk on it. You can hear things going on downstairs and it feels like you are all hidden and secret. It is a good place to go to be alone for a bit. Except it is cold in the winter. The wood stoves are, after all, a long ways away down in the basement.

My favorite boots. I like to visit them.

Sale Today. Yay!

New Chips

Bulk Nails

This is the old scale on the Nail Bench used to weigh the bulk nails.

What I love is when someone weighs their own nails on it, 

then comes to the register with their brown bag 'o nails, 

and has to have them re-weighed on the produce scale to get the price,

and the weight is slightly different,

and we get to have chuckle over the Venerable Old Thing not being as accurate

as the shiny new stainless LCD-equipped electronic whiz-scale.

I like that juxtaposition of old and new.

Once a customer did get upset though.

He was an older gentleman who clearly remembered The Old Days.
He believed in the unswerving accuracy and honesty of the Venerable Old Thing.

He felt it was unfair that the New Whiz Thing was making him pay more money for the nails than the Venerable Old Thing.

I agreed.

I gave him the Venerable Old Thing price.

Who wouldn't?

The Nail Bench

The Nail Bench is a glorious place. You can just stand there and breathe and feel good about things.

What Do You Suppose THAT Is? Now with added verbiage. LOTS of added verbiage.

It took me a really long time to notice this thing.
It was just always there,
at the bottom of the Unmoving Ramp,
piled with dusty old groceries
and rags
and papers
and fermenting bottles of liquid stuff.

Those are my Rice Chex. They are fresh. They are gluten free. Whoopie!!

There is a little nipple-like protrusion on the elbow that I find useful when breaking down taped boxes. I smash the taped seam of the box on the protrusion and it pierces the tape. This is in lieu of picking up a box cutter and using the razor edge to cut the tape. 

I hate picking up a box cutter

and putting down a box cutter

and picking up a box cutter

and putting down a box cutter

and picking up a box cutter. 

Becuase you never really know where it will wander off to after you set it down. 

You go to grab it and BAM! it is not where you set it. 

Then you have to go whistling and calling for it,

"HEEERE BOX CUTTER. WHERE AAAAAARE YOU!

I AM GOING TO FIND YOU!

AND WHEN I DO I WILL RIP OUT YOUR CHEATING RAZOR-LIKE HEART

YOU FILTHY FAITHLESS BASTARD!!!!"

But the protrusion never moves.

It is an Stolid Pinnacle of Motionless Patience.

Which is what you need when breaking down a crap ton of boxes.

OK, so I get a little worked up over some things.

It is good to have a focus for one's equanimity practice.

My focus is box cutters.

I could go on.

But I won't.

Not here.

Maybe in a future post about the faithlessness of the Box Cutter Clan
and my anger management issues/inventions.

Meanwhile, back to the mystery thing:

The nipple-like protrusion.

Here is a view from the other side. It has a crank!

Please note the absence of Rice Chex (I took them home) and the flattened box behind the paper towel roll -- I took this photo after breaking down a crap ton of boxes.

What I really wanted to say was that I finally noticed this thing after some random retail container of cleaning fluid had leaked onto the back left corner. I went to clean it up and it had made the orange paint all sticky and bubbly and GROSS. What a mess that was. So that made me notice this monstrosity. It is some kind of pump. And pressurizing device. Hence the crank and the gauge and the tank.

OMG... The End

Cellar Spam

It lives one shelf above Dried Beef, two shelves above Ham Hocks 'n Pig's Feet, one shelf below Beans, Baked. I don't keep much back stock but there ia ALWAYS a half case of Spam in the basement -- enough to sustain the crew during a short Zombie Apocalypse.

The Bell Department Continues To Decline

Until it flowers again

St. Francis And The Sow

by Galway Kinnell

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.