Category Archives: home improvements

Home Sweet Bookstore

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What with our Chile vacation, log cabin Christmas and then my unexpected trip to Scotland for the funeral of my old friend Davy, I haven’t had a great deal of time in the bookstore over the last couple of months.

But now I’m back in harness it’s like slipping on a well worn pair of favorite slippers. The routine we’ve established over the last seven years (I know it’s that long because our local newspaper had us on a special tribute page to much loved and established downtown businesses last week) covers, of course, much more than just selling books. There’s keeping the place clean, looking after the cats and dogs, liaising with Kelley and ‘The Second Story Cafe’, sorting the daily influx of traded books and writing weekly guest blog posts like this one.

On top of that I need to keep up with my weekly radio show ‘Celtic Clanjamphry’, and contribute to the various Facebook accounts that relate in one way or another to us or Tales of the Lonesome Pine.

I remember some years ago, when I was still working in a community college in Scotland, meeting a recently retired colleague in the street and asking how he was enjoying his retirement. “Jack” he said “it was made for a younger man than me!” Although I can sympathize with his sentiment, I wouldn’t want anyone reading this to think I regret anything about my current workload. In fact I positively relish it and I feel sorry for folk who spend their retirement either pining for their former job or wandering aimlessly.

There’s an old Scots saying – East, West, hame’s best. I think for me it should be – North, South, East, West, the little bookstore hame’s best!

WHY THIS BOOKSELLER LOVES THE NET

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Jack’s weekly guest blog is back – and so is he!

 

the_internet_it_crowdI often hear people complaining about various aspects of the Internet including spam emails, intrusive Facebook and the lost art of letter writing.

But, to be honest, I have no complaints at all! I find it hard to remember what life was like before we had the Worldwide Web. If I try I can recall when the college where I worked just had an intranet and I had a dial up connection at home, but before that I suppose I must have used the telephone a lot (and wrote letters).

What brought this to mind is the last ten days I spent back in Scotland for the funeral of Davy Lockhart. The start was me trying to book flights at short notice with no success and getting a phone call in the middle from a kind lady at the agency whose website I was on. She went the extra mile for me when I explained I had to go to Scotland to attend an old friend’s funeral. A few days later I was being treated like royalty all the way from Knoxville to Edinburgh – agents waiting at gates to whisk me to timely connections, fast-tracked through customs, the works.

Facebook became the easiest way for all Davy’s scattered friends to find out what had happened, too, and what the arrangements were. I’m quite sure the reason the Church was packed out was partly because of that. While there I stayed partly with my friends Mike and Harry Ward and the rest of the time with another old friend Colin Stuart. These friendships, like many others are also kept alive partly through easy communication via the internet.

Now that most airports have wireless networks I was able to keep everyone on both sides of the Atlantic up to date with my progress, and through a Twitter friendship with Blackwell’s Bookshop in Edinburgh was able to pre-order a book that Wendy lusted after and pick it up when I was there.

Meanwhile I have, over the last few years, re-established contact with many old friends almost by accident through serendipitous ‘crossroads’ on Facebook.

So – for an old curmudgeon and an avid book reader – I am an unapologetic champion of that interwebby thing.

Lang may its lum reek!