An Annual Event of Taking the Day Off

First off, sorry this post seems a little late.  Usually, we only have posts up on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.  However, March had five Saturdays this year, so it has been three weeks instead of the average two since our last post.  We thought about putting something in before now, but we felt it would be better to just keep to the regular schedule.  In case you haven't noticed, it is time for the annual Hillbilly Days event here in Pikeville, Kentucky.  This is a three day event for charity to the Shriner's Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.  While it is a noteworthy cause, it also causes a few problems at the end of town where we are located.  Generally speaking, business sucks during the event, as the few people who even come out this way (mostly to park) rarely come into the store.  The few times we were open on the Saturday of the event, no on came in.  Because of this, we are no longer open on that day.  In cause you haven't noticed any of the postings elsewhere, we are closed for the day.  It just wasn't worth it to stay open on a day when no one is likely to come in, especially when few people were coming in generally, both during the event and outside of it.  Sure, we would like to be open, but it is not profitable.  Furthermore, it is always a hassle to get around town to the places we needed to get to just to be open for the other two days of the event.  Let's not forget that, for the majority of the time, there is bad weather for the event, for at least one of the three days.  Even when the event is moved to account for Easter, there is at least showers for one of the days.   This year, a line of storms is forecast to pass through, connected to a blizzard well to the north (?!?!).  Yes, there are also warm temps for most of the days, too.  But for us, it will be a day off, well away from the crowds.  See you in two weeks.

Our Frog Friends

When the mudslide from last month smashed into the rear of the shopping center, we were afraid for the frogs that live in the drainage ditch in the back.  They had just started to wake up from the winter.  When the mud was cleared, we were afraid that the habitat, and quite frankly the frogs themselves, were destroyed.  However, in the last few days, we have heard the frogs again.  They sound about the same as they do every year.  No real difference, yet.  They really only croak in early spring (or late winter, as that's the time they have been starting the last few years).  As you can tell from our social media pics, someone at the store really likes frogs, particularly their croaking.  It is not the author, who prefers other hopping critters to frogs.  On a side note, we have started to change the site's themes over to spring and Easter.  We are still checking out palettes.  We would like one with more greens, but that can be dealt with.  The main problem is with clip art.  There really isn't anything for Easter.  We have already used the only appropriate rabbit art.  There are no lambs or chicks available with the free package.  The only eggs are cooked and/or broken.  No religious art at all.  So, we are trying to work around it.  It is a work in progress, so check back often for more results.  See you in two weeks.

A Missed Opportunity

For the past few years, we have had an interesting way of taking down the last of the winter decorations.  Instead of getting rid of the snowman and 'snow-covered' base all at once, we would allow the snow to 'melt' a little at a time.  We would remove some of the stuffing from the snowman every few days, until there was nothing left inside.  We would do something similar with the fluff inside the fence.  A few wads would be removed every other day or so.  We would start just after Valentine's Day and made sure we were finished in time for the first day of spring.  Some years, we would have to hurry the process along incase we had a major event in March or Easter was early.  Last year marked the first time we posted a picture of the end result online.  Soon after the process was going to start this year, the mudslide happened.  It disrupted our 'melt' schedule profoundly.  For a few days, we weren't able to do anything with the window.  Add into that a few days of opening late or just being closed, we weren't able to post a series of picture online of the process.  Only the people who were able to make it out to the store have been able to see it happen.  The process will new over soon, possibly the last time we will ever get to do it, and we didn't show the snowman melt online.  We might show the end result again, once we transition to spring, although we aren't sure how much we will do this year.  Anyway, see you in two weeks for our next installment.

Special Report: Caught Beneath the Mudslide

In case you have missed our social media posts, a mudslide fell onto part of the shopping center where Booknotes is located.  The major impact occurred sometime around 1:00 am Thursday, February 21.  It crashed into the back of the section where CosmoProf is located.  Mud seeped into and through the store, oozing out of their doors.  The impact knocked down part of the access way to the upstairs apartments, making access to them almost impossible.  The electricity was cut off to make sure there were now secondary problems.  The mud blocked the drainage ditch behind the center, forcing the need for pumps and hoses to be brought in to help drain the ditch.  Unfortunately, the C + R Office Supply storeroom was the best location for these hoses.  Their doors have had to be kept open as the hoses sucked the excess water from behind the center, splashing it into the parking lot.  The electricity was allowed to be turned back on around 1:30 pm that Thursday.  We are open, but with some distractions.  In case something else happens, we have rearranged some of our products to offer some protection.  Some of the books and furniture have also be moved to aid in this.  The parking lot is going to covered with muddy water from both CosmoProf and the storeroom for the time being as cleaning up continues.  There is still parking, but it will be tougher to get to it.  We also suggest you call first, as weather changes could force us to not be open.  We would like to thank all of our customers and friends for your support in this troubled time.  Thank you.

When Will It Come Out?

One of the services Booknotes offers is notifying customers on when new books by their favorite authors come out.  However, few take us up on it.  Part of the reason is that they might already know about them.  Another reason might be because the information can change at a moment's notice.  We get our information from many sources.  Primarily, we use the catalogs from our distributors.  These monthly catalogs have a very long lead time and don't always cover an exact four week span.    Some books might arrive a week or two late or early, based on the actual month of title.  The long lead also means that a book's on-sale date will have changed since the issue is made.  That's one reason why we also use the online version of one of the catalogs.  Not only does it cover almost all of the title that are arriving for a particular month, but the information is updated to reflect a new ship to date, even if the title remains locked into its catalog month.  Unfortunately, there are thousands of titles in each online catalog.  We usually only look at about forty categories per month.  This can range from only one or two books to a few hundred, and we still can't seem to catch everything.  The final source is an actual listing of street dates that is updated every week.  However, we usually only double check it every month or so, as not many titles change dramatically.  Also, each list covers about three months worth of titles.  Again, this is in the thousands. Pouring over such a list is time consuming.  The first pass can take an hour per month.  Even then, titles slip through.  We usually can go online and check directly is a particular author has anything in the pipeline, regardless of format.  While things can still change, such listing can go up to a year or more ahead.  Pretty good odds, until something changes.  See you in two weeks.

Details Do Matter

We make minor change to the website every few weeks, usually based on the season/holiday.  After Christmas, we took down all the pictures of reindeer and presents.  We also flipped the color scheme from bright red and green to the general range of blues that match our store.  The way that the website creator is set up, when the color scheme changes, everything based on that scheme changes too.  One would expect that would mean that every little detail would end up still being workable.  Not true.  It was only this week that it was noticed that some details had become unreadable.  Specifically, the viewer counter and business card features had become problematic.  The previous color scheme ended up being transposed into basically all black with the latest update.  Since those apps are at the bottom of the pages, they had escaped notice until now.  This features have been corrected; others are still being looked over.  In another week or so, the color scheme will change again, this time reflecting Valentine's Day.  So instead of blues, you will be seeing pinks.  Also, there will be heavy accents of red and white.  Hopefully, one of the presets schemes will have that exact combination.  Otherwise, who knows what this site will look like.  See you next time.

The Time of the Dragon

Many, many years ago, when we first started doing the special "Books of the Month" discount, a painting was brought in to showcase the January theme.  The theme that year, as it has been every January since, was "Fantasy, Science-Fiction, and Horror."  The painting, which should hopefully be reproduced somewhere on this page if the Blogger/WIx interactions are working, is of a knight looking over a dragon he presumably slayed.  However, menacing eyes are looking out from the cave behind him.  (Confession, I was the one who painted the picture.   It was an early attempt in a college painting class I took.  Not sure why I chose the subject.  The anatomy shows some promise, even if details are missing.  The knight is mostly a blob.  The trees aren't lifelike.  The cave could use some detailing.  The eyes are the best feature.  I got better as the class went along, although the subject matter remained mostly real-to-life.)  The painting was only supposed to stay that one month.  However, we have now made it an almost year-round feature.  It is place somewhat prominently over the main children's bookcase.  The only time we take it down is for the Christmas season.  Dragons and Santa don't really go that well together, especially dead dragons.  Disclaimer:  Booknotes is decidedly pro-dragon nowadays.  Any portrayal of dragons in anything less than a neutral or somewhat positive light is out of times.  This picture is included only as an historical artifact of previous times.  If the picture doesn't pop here, it will also be on the website's home page for the rest of the month.  See you back in two weeks.