Store Status Update

After I work I swung by The Store to dump some stuff into the dumpster for my parents as they're away.

I didn't know what to expect from The Old Lady itself.  They still go every day there, for a few hours at least, but I assume it's to dump shit like I did a couple hours ago.  So The Store could just be a weathered shell for all I know.

The verdict: They are going through cleaning stuff out, but The Store still looks somewhat like The Store the last time I saw it more than a month ago.  Walking up and down all three aisles, I saw that more stuff has been removed, mostly the food, although the housewares and plates on the main, left aisle have largely been left intact.  There's still lots of stuff in the back as well, and the most heartening moment when I stepped in for the first time was hearing the whirr of the last of the remaining four freezers still operating.

However, when I tried to light incense at the big Buddha close to the office (straight as the crow flies from the main door), I was shocked that it was gone.  Completely gone.  That thing has been there as long as I can remember.  It may have been there since Day One.  And now it's gone.  Did my folks take it with them to place in their retirement condo?

Also gone were the tapes my parents used to rent out.  They stopped that practice more than two decades ago, but I remember it being a very popular segment of The Store's business.  We had no barcodes or anything; instead Mother would take a huge notebook and write down which tape was being checked out, when, and to whom.  Yeah, a lot of the tapes were never returned.  Down in the basement there are (or were) many more tapes beyond the rows upon rows that my parents took from The Store years ago, so I assume that is my parents put them after taking them from The Store.

Seventy-five minutes and seven-plus boxes of Bai Ya-Ning leaves (I think that's how that's spelled; it's Thai) later, I was done.  And now I am fucking tired.  Too bad there will be no rest for this wicked man; I have to watch America's Next Top Model and Washington Week, and then I have to attend The Lovely Creatures cabaret show in their new digs, Bryant-Lake Bowl, for the first time ever.  And then I have to go to work at 9 in the morning.  Fuck me.