roller coaster

i'm not sure that's the perfect metaphor for the way this week has felt, actually. roller coasters are pretty fun. exhilarating. the wind blows through your hair, and you say "oooooh!" you know?

we were surprised by several summer milo in maine orders which came in over the last two weeks, so i've been busy sewing those while m cleans up what's left of casco bay books, literally and figuratively. imagine you had an enormous (say, 2,000 square foot) basement full of furniture, books, magazines, cd's, hangers, t-shirts, really old computer monitors, and other assorted stuff. and that there was a hip "wet bar" down there that also needed to be scrubbed down. with a fine coating of ground coffee covering everything. and that's not the difficult part -- that would be the constant knocking on the door of well-wishers and gossip mongers. many people have had such sweet, kind things to say in response to the store's closing, which has been lovely. feeling like it was a place that really mattered to a lot of people, and that its absence will be deeply felt by them, means a lot to me. however, m has unfortunately heard many comments like "yeah, i wondered how this place stayed open as long as it did! i never thought it would make it!" which is not so helpful. he's doing a lot of deep breathing right now.

there's a nice, brief piece in the bollard about the store closing. click on "briefs" to read it.