OSM inspired search

I went looking for my washboard in the basement. I couldn't find it. I did find the box of smaller jug band instruments we used to play in my class.

We could make some NOISE! See that plastic sack? It is full of combs. We used to play the combs every morning (with wax paper on them) after singing and recorder playing. We would play our favorite songs, even some rounds. It was big fun.

I used to think of my students as Les Sangliers Petits. I have been missing them a lot lately. I probably gave the washboard to one of them.

The Green Door

and it leads to...

The Conveyor

I love sending boxes up the conveyor. I used to be afraid of it but gradually my dread of carrying loaded boxes up the non-automatic wooden ramp by the wine cellar stairs outgrew my fear of the conveyor.

Bottle Returns

This sign hangs over the portal where the conveyor comes up from the basement, across from the blue bench. I answered the bottle bell once today. The returns were all Polar Seltzer bottles, different flavors. I try to follow the rules, but sometimes, when it is a really big eclectic bunch of  bottles, I get flummoxed, becuase I don't ever stock drinks and I never buy them either, and so I am not sure what we sell and what we don't.

The Blue Bench

The blue bench is in the paint room. It is a busy spot. Free food can usually be found on the blue bench. Plus, bottle returns take place there. (See the bottle bell rope in the right foreground?) Plus, the automatic conveyor ramp comes up from the basement right across from it. Plus, you have to walk past it to get to the green door. Another pic of the blue bench lives here.

String

Yesterday someone asked me where to find mason's line. I wasn't sure what he meant so I asked him, "You mean that line with the chalk that you snap?"

"No," he said, "it is just string, in neon colors."

I drew a blank on that so I walked out to hardware and asked one of the Hardware Gurus where to find mason's line. "Across from the beer cooler."

Me: "You mean the back of the beer cooler? In the Screw Room?"

Guru: "No, no. Out front. On the Floor."

Me: "OHHHHHHH!!!! You mean the String Department!! Under the sauces!"

I always wondered why it came in those vivid colors. I thought it was just for making little kids happy. I sure bought enough of it for my kids when they were little.

Sauces: hot, specialty, soy, steak

Not shown: BBQ, marinades, and rubs.

January 19, 2013 -- Special Note: I was poking around and I found this important hot sauce post still in draft status, so I went ahead and published it posthumously (who died, exactly?) since it so aptly illustrates the mercurial nature of the sauce endcap.

Stuff n' Things

The cowbell department.

Tabasco Crisis

I always have my camera at work and I got to talking to someone at the store about taking photos. I explained that my tremor has progressed to the point where it is interfering with my enjoyment of the hobby. I don't get too many good pics anymore. He lent me this awesome looking tripod, which he dropped off at the store today. He also gave me some other ideas about how to compensate for camera jiggle. He took this pic. He likes hot sauce. He is always asking us to track down one esoteric hot sauce or another. The other day he asked me why we didn't have any Tabasco on the shelf, which, he patiently explained, is the standard reference for most hot sauce applications. It turned out that we had some in the basement, but we had lost track of it during the Hot Sauce Coup when the Hot Sauce Manager was deposed. I brought some up, reclaimed the Tabasco shelf space, and now the world is safe for Tabasco once more.

Verne

Verne takes pride in his work. He experiences a fully stocked and rotated beer cooler as a thing of beauty.

Verne

Verne thinks outside the box, extending the usefulness of work equipment.

Verne

Verne is always willing to pose when I have an artistic concept yearning to come to fruition.

Why George doesn't care about the basement speaker being covered

  He doesn't care because the music, and more to the point, the announcements -- HARDWARE LINE TWO. QUESTION ABOUT LAMP WICKS. HARDWARE LINE TWO -- can still be heard. If you squeeze by Mr. Do Not Use,

then pass by the Special Empty Cardboard Box Storage Area, you merge into the next speaker zone and arrive at the Slime-ish Sea. I took this video on a special day: October 15th, 2012. You can't always look up into the meat department from the Slime-ish Sea. But that is a story I don't yet know how to tell.

Retirement Home Candidate #36

I found this charmer over a year ago.

I went inside to see how it would feel to wake up here in the morning.
It felt good.

Transatlantic Cardboard Intervention by OSM

Arrival