Lantern Books

Yesterday we made our first solo flight to Cumberland County to service book racks for Lantern Books. The business operates like Choice Books, putting book racks in stores but handles different books than Choice. Leroy thought he would enjoy servicing book racks as a retirement project and went along several times to learn how it is done. But he never got along very well with papers and got befuddled with the paperwork involved. He wanted me to go along to do that part of the job but I just didn't have time until October. The person in charge went along to teach me how to do the paperwork. It was not that difficult and we said we'll try it ourselves this month.

There are eight stops on the Cumberland County route. We left home at 6:30 in the morning, got the Lantern truck at the office, and arrived at the first stop at 8:30. My heart sank when it took us an hour there. At that rate, we weren't going to cover the route before the stores closed. But then the second stop took only 45 minutes and the third one a half hour. We worked out a system and things went more smoothly. He read the titles on the rack while I marked them on the inventory sheet. Then he dusted the rack while I decided how many new books to put on and which ones to take off the rack. He placed the books on the rack while I finished the paperwork to hand in to the office for billing.

By 12:30 we had finished five stops and I was breathing easier. We had time to stop for lunch and finished the route at 3:30. That was longer than it took in October when there were three of us but not too bad for the first time on our own. We returned the truck to the office and got home at 6:15. I enjoy the work but just have to forget about everything else waiting to be done at home.

Leroy would like to learn another route and go more than once a month but at this point I simply do not have time to go more often. He'll either have to learn to do the paperwork himself or wait until I have more time. Since February I have been volunteering two days per month at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society and this takes makes three volunteer days per month. That doesn't sound like much but I am also keeping house, trying to do some writing, scrapbooking, quilting, etc. etc. I'm just as busy as when I had a house full of children underfoot, but in different ways.