Explaining Myself

Will be open on Monday, 4/22, for Earth Day!

Bookstore Notes

 

Maybe I got some ‘splainin’ to do. “Disproving skeptics for over 200 dog years”? What does it mean?

 

Well, when I opened Dog Ears Books in 1993, many people told me, shaking their heads sadly, “No one reads books any more.” The people uttering the gloomy words had voluntarily entered a bookstore and were happy to be there, but each one believed he or she was the last of a dying breed, the earth’s last living reader. 

Original Dog Ears, Waukazoo Street, 1993

Fast forward three decades, and I don’t hear that particular line as much. Many people still say, however, “Bookstores are going the way of the dinosaur” (or words to that effect), because while it’s become obvious that reading has not died out, doesn’t everyone order their books online or read on their electronic devices? 

 

No, not everyone. 

 

My bookstore would not be the self-supporting business it needs to be if the skeptics were right. So now here we are, coming up on 31 years later, and I am so confident going into the 2024 season that I have gone out on a limb and ordered canvas book bags emblazoned with my business name, logo, and that line about the mistaken skeptics, confident that yet another year will continue to prove them wrong and keep me here on Waukazoo Street, just up the block from where I started in 1993.

Back on Waukazoo Street since -- 2006?

Committing to a bookstore in a small village at the end of a peninsula means life in the slow lane for all but a few summer weeks. Nevertheless, it’s a life I chose with my eyes open, telling a new Northport landlord in 1997 that I was “in it for the long haul.” And almost 31 years later I have no regrets, because besides making a modest living, I meet interesting people all the time, and many have become my friends over the years. It’s a rich life.

 

Reminder: If you come to the bookstore for a book bag on Monday, 4/22, and bring a copy of our ad in this week’s Leelanau Enterprise, your bag will be $11 instead of $12. In-person, Earth Day special!

 

Outdoor Notes

 

First leeks

First spring beauties spotted, their petals furled, on April 12^th, by the next day opening their faces to the sun. Before that, wild leeks were already turning the woodland floor green. On the 14^th I saw my first trillium – again, flower bud closed tight. It won’t be long, I thought, until they are blooming madly, and in the meantime the first Dutchman’s breeches began coming shyly onstage. 

Spring beauties

I’d been thinking this Sunday would see a riot of spring ephemerals in bloom, but then our yo-yo temperatures took another plunge, snow threatened, and the little buds pulled their heads back underneath the covers for the chilly weekend. But soon!

First Dutchman's breeches

 

Dog Notes

Giving me a look!

Here’s a question: Do dogs understand the cycle of the seasons? Wild animals appear to do so, but dogs have been companions of humans for so long that maybe their seasonal sense has atrophied. Does Sunny remember last summer? Does she realize that another summer is on the way? Sometimes, when she has that “Oh, mom, you’re so boring!” look on her face, I would love to remind her of the fun she had the evening before and the fun that awaits her in the morning. If only I could explain! There’s a downside to living in the moment.

 

But co-evolving with self-centered humans, dogs have had to learn patience. No wonder we love them so! And isn’t it a joy when we can make them happy?

Meeting with friends!