Today I went in to work as usual per Saturdays.

I almost overslept due to a cold medicine I took that had codeine in it, and i didn't know. I woke up 20 minutes before i was supposed to be there, but somehow managed to still make it on time.

Any ways, I got to work, and while waiting for customers to show up, went into the mold shop and worked a bit putting some of the molds back together, getting ready for Monday so we could pour them back.

I had 20. I ended up with 7 left before i got called outside.

It was a little busy today, mostly in spurts, as all the customers seemed to travel in packs for some reason. One shows up and three cars come in behind them

One 4x4 came in, and when it left, the4 back end was squatting low due to the statues I loaded for them. Started off with a round tile table set in the first truck of the day.. 1500 pound set.


Then I loaded two large sitting angels, about as big as a four year old, two 3 foot tall pedestals for the mto sit on, and a set of 4 season, about two feet tall each. plus a bench .

Then I spent the day, answering questions, helping folks make up their minds on what they wanted. One lady was torn between two different fountains.. Well, the same style, just different headings and colors.
One was a girl pouring water from a jug she held waist high to herself, the other was a little boy with a wooden tub where the water flowed from beneath his feet, pouring from three spouts at the lip of the heading.

She told me she liked a lot of sound from the water splashing, so I showed her the three spouts she'd have from the boy, and how the girl heading would lose water more due ti the foot it would fall from the piping, and the wind would catch it.

she smiled and thanked me, saying she'd never thought of it like that, bought the fountain , the pump, and a paving stone to set it on.

It quietened down around 2. I knew better tho, we close at 3 on Saturdays, but the customers usually piled in 15 minutes before quitting time.

sure enough 2:30, three cars pull in.
One was a Jaguar, with two Arab gentlemen in it.

they walked around for 30 minutes, and right at 3 came in and told me they had picked out a few pieces they needed loaded.

I walked out with them, and lo and behold, they told me their truck was 20 minutes behind them. They ended up being wholesalers!!

The thing about this being, on the weekends, its just myself and Floyd. He's 71 with a bad heart. No heavy lifting for him.
They try to discourage wholesalers on Saturdays due to the fact it usually gets too busy for us to load them and wait in the regulars too,.

Not a problem tho. I asked them to show me what they wanted, asked them if they wanted it placed on pallets, or hand packed into the truck. They asked for pallets, so I ribboned off what they showed me, Ran got the forklift and soime pallets, a pile of burlap bags, and the plastic wrap to wrap it all in.

They ended up with two benches, two tall fruit pots that stand 4 feet tall, a bathtub pot that weighs over 300 pounds, so named for the shape of the tub on it, and a life sized rose lady that stands tall as me.

I started to pack the stuff the way I know how, and Floyd comes out to help me.
I didn't fuss since it was past closing time on the week end.

We started, and one of the guys kept trying to show us how to do it. Now Floyd is a good man, but he's set in his ways. You don't try to tell him how to do something he's done for over 30 years.

Everything we did we seemed to do wrong for the guy. Floyd finally got irritated, and told me he was going to leave me with them, and wait on some of the other customers who had driven up.

Not the first time I've loaded a wholesaler alone. No big deal.

I stared back packing, and the guy started back again. I looked up at him, and smiled. " Sir, Let's try it this way.
Let me pack this one pallet the way I know how. You look it over good, then if you are not happy, i'll tear it apart and pack it anyway you want. "

He agreed, shut up and stood back.
In a few minutes i had the statues and pots loaded up on the pallet, padded and wrapped with the plastic.

I stood back and let him scrutinize it.

He said something to his friend in Arabic, smiled and told me to go ahead.


in less than 20 minutes his stuff was packed wrapped and ready to sit on the truck. The last thing I packed was the life sized statue. They asked if I was going to put it on a pallet also.

i said sure.

I laid down a triple stack of bags all over the pallet, pulled the lift behind the statue, and backed the lift out, leaving the pallet on the ground.

Walking up to the statue's back, I grabbed its head and pulled it back towards me, and the guys ran to help me, but I looked at them and told them to Git.

they stood back with wide eyes and watched as I effortlessly lay the statue down, and the guy asked me if it would ride like that.

I said " Not yet "

I took the wrap, and tied one end to the pallet, pulled some wrap loose from the roll and stretched it to a rope.

I then proceeded criss crossing the statue with it from corner to corner till I had it secured in a cocoon of wrapping thread, and the first guy shook the statue to no avail. it wouldn't budge

I grinned at him and said " I'm not used to having help. "

So then I take the donkey ( 3 wheeled forklift like they carry on the back of a flat bed )
and grabbing the pallets one at a time, loaded each one into the bed of their ton truck.

They looked it over smiling " perfect fit!!"
I made sure they could close their tail gate safely, then turned to walk off. The first guy called me back and handed me a tip , thanking me.

$20 for thirty minutes work, not too shabby

so now that load of my stuff is on its way to Montreal Canada. Should be there sometime tonight.

Seems like Floyd and the others at the shop tend to put the customers they find irritating and frustrating on me. Not a problem I never have trouble with them I listen to what they want. Tell them if it will work or not and show them why.

After a bit I help them choose what they want and they leave happy.
Of the 18 years I've done this business, there has been only one customer that almost got on my nerves. But she didn't

I'll tell you more ab out today, but right now there's a waffle with my name on it waiting for me. On hindsight it may not have been a good idea to use magic marker to put my name on it