Another week! A big one for us, as we re-opened the main shop. It wasn’t quite the exciting gala event with glorious fanfare and snacks and drinks and balloons, but it was a lovely thing for us, to re-open.

In other news, we’ve been spending a bit of time sprucing up the front, clearing out dead leaves, trimming things back, pulling up weeds from between the bricks. Dirt under everyone’s nails, the cat lounging in the shade.

It was perhaps a bit misleading: people walking by wondered if we were open, if we were getting ready to re-open. Alas, no, although we are considering a curb-side pick up time from this location for people who are in the east end. We are not quite there yet for the studio shop. We’re staggering along, trying to wait and see how things are going and trying not to wait too long before we’ve missed too many boats. It’s a lot to manage both shops, inventory and staff, and things going on. We’re circling the wagons, and the main shop and the shipping operations are the thrust of things right now.

We’re ramping up for back to school as well. Ontario has announced that students will be heading back into the classroom full time in the fall, and while I’m not too sure how I feel about it all, it’s a new world, and I guess we all have to get adjusted to it. I’m trying my best not to get too neurotic, but I’m also slightly unhinged to begin with. How do you get five year olds to stay away from each other? Not share pencils? Snacks? Bathrooms? I added a “share size” pack of Haribo cola gummies to my online grocery cart.

At the beginning of all this, I couldn’t wait for things to get back to normal, and now it seems like this new version normal is coming at us too soon. Super is getting old, we’re looking at preschools for Naomi, we’re negotiating extra curricular activities, Caleb is attacking things with the plastic golf club he got from his grandpa. The downtown T&T has been closed since forever and we ran out of hoisin sauce so we had to buy tiny, overpriced bottles of hoisin from Loblaws which actually owns T&T so you’d think they would offer a better deal. Jon has been rationing it, our own sauce gestapo. Chicken is passive aggressively skulking about all the outside doors because no one will let him inside with the live mouse inside its mouth. This kids are thrilled with this unexpected entertainment.

In any case, we’re all managing. Even with everything going on, these are truly blue sky days. The kids are happy and healthy. The team is keeping the shop humming. The library is re-opening. My favourite season, fall, is coming soon enough. There are books to read, pens to ink up, babies to squeeze.

 

 

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August 08, 2020 — wonderpens

Comments

Anonymous

Anonymous said:

What a great idea—-you’re probably right!

Wayne Gooding

Wayne Gooding said:

I share your pain over the closing of the Cherry Street T&T, but I don’t get why you are buying overpriced Hoisin at Loblaws and then having Jon police usage. (Can you ever have too much Hoisin?) Instead of going west to the Loblaws at Church, which is I think the closest to you, why not go east about the same distance across the Don Valley to Broadview and shop at the Asian supermarkets Fu Yao or Galaxy? Take the kids and they can have a lovely treat at Wong’s Ice Cream while you shop. Just wondering.

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