Hey, Folks!
Well, Snowmageddon 2022 certainly didn’t amount to much. I do believe the technical term is “Fart in a Bathtub”. I mean, don’t get me wrong. We did indeed get a bit of snow and while I haven’t heard any official numbers as of this writing I have been shoveling or driving in it since early this morning and my overall impression is that it was really no big deal, especially for those of us who grew up with this kind of weather. The way the media was going on about for the last three days I was expecting to at least face the threat of a heart attack while shoveling snow, but clearing off my house, my Dad’s place, and the store barely got my pulse rate going. I was actually a little worried that I would leave people waiting at the store because I was a little bit behind due to all of the shoveling and driving around, but I made it here on time and two hours in I have had exactly one person in the store. He let me know that I am apparently the only comic book store open today in Toledo and that there are plenty of other businesses that stayed shuttered today as well. I’m not quite sure why, but I must say that it did make all of the driving around I did earlier a lot easier without as much traffic middling around the streets.
I am at work now and I have plenty to keep me busy for the nonce so I plan on sticking it out for the next couple of hours. I did make a Facebook post when I first got here saying that I would stay until at least 5pm, but that is looking increasingly unlikely as long as I am sitting here by myself. I have a customer from Adrian who called and asked if I would be open and I told him that I would be here for him, but once he has come and gone, assuming no other eager consumers appear, then all bets are off. There is nothing that I am working on today that I can’t easily do at home and I still have to head over to Dad’s again at some point to clean up the snow. I don’t know. This is one of those things that I am now in charge of as owner of the business, but I really hate making these decisions. Now that I think about it, according to UPS tracking I have a shipment of 16 boxes worth of supplies that are out for delivery today as well. I suppose I should at least give UPS a chance to get here before heading back home.
I still have a few free tickets to hand out for Fantasticon which is taking place this year on March 12th & 13th at the Seagate Center downtown. We also have fliers on the counter although the most up to date information can be found at www.fantasticon.net. While Monarch does not set up at shows, mostly because the current owner is far too lazy for such a laborious undertaking, we do support local shows and I know that many of you are hungry for an honest to goodness comic show to attend. I know that they hand out a mountain of free passes at various businesses in town, but if you need a Sunday pass then ask Brian or I at the counter and we will pass one on to you.
It’s funny but both Lunar Distribution (D.C. Comics) and Penguin Random House (Marvel Comics) made a wonderful effort at getting our shipments for next week boxed up and shoved out the door before the snowstorm hit and now it looks like both shipments should be showing up tomorrow. I was kind of hoping to see them hit the store today so that I could have them unpacked while business was slow, but it looks like they got as far as Columbus and got stuck there because of the weather. Hopefully that won’t be a problem and cause a delay. In any case, both distributors get a big thanks and many kudos for making the effort at heading off any potential shipping problems. Let’s hope we see more forward thinking like that as things move forward.
Okily dokily…enough wool gathering for me. I’ll get this and the shipping list/subscription form up and running and then move on to another project. I hope everyone is enjoying their first (and probably last) Snow Day of the season. Please stay safe and remember…shoveling snow is a perfectly acceptable form of exercise…😊
Eddie