COVID19 Small Business Journal: Week 14 Update

Somehow I completely missed last week, and I spent more time than I’m willing to admit trying to do the math figuring out what happened and what week I was on.

Lots of shipments have been coming in and out. We had a shipment of ink with some broken bottles, which is our first one in quite a while. There’s a metaphor in here somewhere: salvage what you can? Find art everywhere? Lemons or chickens? I’m not sure I want to look into this one too much.

Delivery volume from all carriers has increased significantly with the global pandemic, and, coupled with more stringent physical distancing measures and limiting personnel, I guess I’m impressed it’s been up until now since we’ve had one a big one like this. The delivery people on our route across all carriers—Canada Post, FedEX, UPS, Canpar—are some of our favourite people, and we wouldn’t be here without them.

We continue on our impasse with regards to re-opening the brick and mortar. We’re not quite ready to open up. We’re sort of mentally prepping and looking at logistics, displaying things, table and furniture arrangements.

Inventory day is looming, which is not really in my purview but you know I like to contribute. I spent a long time looking at different smelling hand soaps online late last night. I personally like citrus scents. I think I prefer lime to lemon but lime is pretty hard to find, especially un-co-mingled with other scents. Apparently the difference between hand soap and dish soap is that dish soap is essentially detergent and a bit harsher, whereas hand soap may have additives that are not necessarily food safe. These are the important things I’m doing here to contribute.

In other news, I previously teased Naomi a bit on her slow moving balance bike, but shortly after that she figured it out. She is still not super speedy, but she’s got the hang of what you’re supposed to do. She sort of paddles with her feet slowly and then coasts for a bit. It’s funnier when she’s going uphill.

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It’s Juneteenth today, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. That we had slavery in Canada is not something we tend to talk about—or, teach in schools.

I’ve just ordered Ralph Ellison’s novel of the same name. Also in the queue is Robyn Maynard’s Policing Black Lives. The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.