New Furniture

Moving your Daily Fiber to an online store reminds me of being a newlywed again. It has been great for the most part and just a tiny bit bitter. Unfortunately, it is the bitter part that reminds me of being a newlywed.

I was a young carpenter (an extremely handsome carpenter no less) when Elaine and I were married. Elaine was working in a clothing store while in her last year of college. Money was tight. We lived in one-bedroom apartment in an 8-plex apartment near downtown. We shared a balcony with a couple of grad students, one from Afghanistan, the other from India.

Our living room furniture consisted of a couch, a chair, and shelves made from concrete cinder block and 2x6 boards. The couch and matching chair is best described, as sponges covered with tan corduroy fabric. I’m getting to the bitter part.

I must have rearranged those furniture pieces fifty thousand times only to put it back where it was before we started. Elaine just could not find a layout she was happy with. I hated weekends. I knew we were going to spend them moving the furniture again. It caused arguments, arguments that usually took place in the bathroom of our tiny apartment.

It is important to mention that our arguments took place in the bathroom because one night in the wee hours I went into the bathroom and heard one of the grad students grunting and really struggling in his bathroom. It became apparent they could hear Elaine and me every time we argued. Whichever grad student it was that night might have unknowingly saved our marriage.

I came to the realization in that apartment, I don’t like furniture. I don’t like shopping for furniture. I don’t like assembling furniture. I don’t like moving furniture. This is the bitter part.

Elaine has decided we need a new dining room table and chairs. For the last month, she has been showing me dining room tables on internet sites.

Elaine: Do you like this table? Me: I don’t care. Get what you want. Elaine: I want you to like it. Do you like it? Me: Can it be delivered? If it is delivered and assembled I will like it. Elaine: I’m thinking these chairs will be nice. Me: Yeah, they’re great. Elaine: They need to be assembled. Me: What?

We don’t work in the store on Saturday any longer and I’m right back where we started, playing furniture assembler again. That’s the bitter part. Elaine and I spent half of a day putting four chairs together. I need a hobby.

It’s different for Elaine, Ivy, and the twins. Let’s start with the twins. What the (construction language) do they have to be bitter about? In my day we walked to school in waist-deep snow, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and were "boarded" by noon. The twins today are seniors in high school in an imaginary school. One of their friends is in “virtual” classes at Pooper High School, while being physically in Texas. Girl Twin asked Elaine and me if she could drive to Chicago with friends next week to pick up a friend and bring the friend back to Colorado. We asked Girl Twin, “What about school?” She replied, “I can go to class while the other girl(s) drive.”

That’s not all, they can sleep until class time. The twins check-in (attendance) online and go back to bed, go fishing, or shopping, or fast-fooding, you get it. They do their school work in the wee hours of the morning. All this driving is costing a fortune. Not necessarily for Elaine and I, Boy Twin is essential with his own job. Girl Twin has been laid off. Lord knows, and science shows that beervirus spreads primarily in restaurants. P.S. I have it on good authority, the FEAR of beervirus spreads in yarn stores.

Elaine (or maybe it’s Ivy) is the least bitter of us all. Oh, she shows some bitterness. She misses Thursday night weaving. She misses her friends and students. She compensates for her bitterness by creating carpentry work for me on the weekends.

Elaine’s position in Your Daily Fiber has evolved into customer service (problem solver). Elaine took a phone call this past week from a male needlepointer. Although we don’t offer needlepoint as anything we do, Elaine spent an hour on the phone helping this man through his problem. (Elaine’s knowledge comes from her mother, who was a needlepointer.) When the needlepoint lesson was over, the gentleman said, “I can’t believe you spent an hour with me and had no chance of selling anything.” Personally neither can I, but that’s Elaine.

If Ivy is the least bitter, it is because she has really started a new life. Oh, she still is involved big time with the day-to-day of Your Daily Fiber, but with school and a new part-time job, her days are pretty full. She actually attends “virtual’ classes, unlike the twins. This alone gives her the right to be a little bitter. It would make me bitter. Of course, I have enough furniture assembly and carpentry to keep me bitter.

OK, I need to thank you guys for making the transition to online as smooth as it is. Tell your friends about us.

Don’t mention the incident when Elaine delivered an order to the wrong house. It turned out not to be a big deal. The residents of the wrong house marched the order down (or up) the street to the rightful owner of the yarn. I love people! Not all, but most.

Christmas is coming. One of your loved ones wants yarn from Your Daily Fiber. We can help with that. God Bless you guys.

Our crazy lives!

Monner