This winter has been remarkable. In October, we had a horrific ice storm. In December, we had the first back-to-back snowstorms (two days apart) that had ever occurred in central Oklahoma. In both cases, we lost multiple days of school.
And now this. We have been the coldest in over 30 years and once again have had back-to-back snowstorms for just the second time ever in central Oklahoma. What a year.
I have only worked two days in the last two weeks. This school year has been a debacle. The upside is that I cannot catch Covid-19 while I am trapped in my house because the roads are impassable.
We have been below freezing for 11 straight days, and I have been running the water for the entire time. Today is the big day when we are supposed to go above freezing. If the approximately 12 inches of snow on the ground would now melt, that would be great.
On the subject of the pandemic, my paranoia increased steadily beginning in late November. That was when I began wearing two masks, an N95 mask underneath a cloth mask. As time has passed since November, I have drawn my cloth mask tighter and tighter behind my ears.
I have been amused in recent weeks as the idea of wearing two masks has gone mainstream. Some of us have been doing it for months!
I noticed early this week in the frigid cold (-30 degree wind chill) that I could not feel any of the cold wind underneath my masks. That's a good sign that my masks are blocking most particles. I feel good about my odds of avoiding the virus. I keep my fingers crossed that I can continue to avoid it.
The last two weeks have been horrible, what with the weather and other things going wrong. However, better days are ahead in the very near future. I have an appointment to get my first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday.
On January 24, I wrote:
I will resume selling books sometime between March 13 and June 1. Either I must be immune after vaccination or the school year must be over, whichever comes first. I do not expect to be vaccinated for at least another month, which means that selling as soon as March 13 is now in doubt.
Whenever this subject comes up, I get asked to let you know when certain books will be sold. Really, the easiest thing for both you and for me is for you to simply follow my online stores. Whenever I open them again, you will receive an email telling you about my "new" listings, which will actually be my old listings from August 2020. And then, as I do begin creating actual new listings, you will receive an email each day when I list new books. It's that easy.
Go to this page on eBay. Click on "Save this seller" on the line where my user ID appears. That's all you have to do.
Go to my Etsy shop. Right under where you see 2,055 sales, there is a box that has a heart followed by "Favorite shop" and the number of followers. Click on that box to follow my Etsy shop.
Please follow the above directions if you want to be notified of when my stores reopen. It's too much of a burden for me to be expected to contact a bunch of people.
I also have had people request that I tell them when I list certain types of books. I have around a dozen boxes of books plus a much larger than normal number of books on shelves that need to be listed. I have no idea what I will list and when. The boxed books will certainly not be first.
Please follow the above directions, and you will receive a message when I list new items. You can also create saved searches on both eBay and Etsy where the sites will email you if the books you want are listed by someone. I will need to list as many books as I can as fast as I can. I will be slowed down if I am expected to contact people to tell them that I have listed certain books. eBay and Etsy provide such an easy solution to the notification problem, but only when the buyer takes the initiative.
eBay is trying to force my hand and make me reopen my store. I have had my eBay store on vacation since around August 9. I let my store renew on September 1, and I have been paying the eBay store fee each month so that my listings and store remain intact.
Last week, I received this message from eBay.
In September, we introduced our new Time Away settings https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2020-fall/business.html with several improvements to help you schedule time away from your business on eBay and improve the experience for your customers.
We noticed that you’re currently still using the old holiday settings and wanted to let you know that we’ll be moving you to the new Time Away settings from March 2021.
With the new settings, please note that you will now have a maximum duration for your Time Away:
- If you continue to allow sales, your time away can be up to 15 days
- If you pause sales, your time away can be up to 30 days
If you want to continue hiding your listings for more than 30 days, you can use our “out-of-stock” option and reduce the available quantity of your listings to “0”. Your listing will then disappear from eBay search for up to 180 days.
My current thinking is that I will definitely reopen my eBay and Etsy stores between March 13 and April 30. Whether I do it as soon as March 13 depends upon what my comfort level is with the pandemic when that day arrives. March 13 is the beginning of spring break, so I will be able to go into the post office in the morning during that week, if I decide to reopen at that time.
I will have to consider whether I will feel comfortable going into the post office in the late afternoons beginning on March 22. That is what will determine whether I will reopen during spring break or whether I will wait until sometime in April. I have no idea what my comfort level will be in a few weeks.
My eBay listings still have my pandemic message that states that I go to the post office three days per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have decided that Monday is a no-go. There is no way I will be comfortable squeezing around the long line of people and between the people loitering near the counter in the late afternoon on Mondays. I must avoid Mondays.
When I do reopen, I will have to change the days to Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Now I wait to see how I feel about selling in three weeks.
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