On the Upswing...Sort Of

Today was one of those days where the good news far outweighed the bad - one where you feel like despite the inevitable loss of a few battles, the tide may be turning and the war is finally there to be won.

I arrived at the store this morning to meet Brian to return his ladder (it had spent the last few months in residence on my dining room floor as I patiently atrophied away waiting for a suitable day on which to finish painting), and was thrilled to walk in and find three carpenters finishing the framing of my walls. Apparently the building permit had gone through and Jeff had neglected to call and tell me - although I did get a call from his secretary reminding me to come in and sign a few documents. On top of this good news, I noticed with reserved glee that icicles were rapidly melting on a rather pleasant sunny day, perfect for painting - at least in December. Thus, I got out and did some detail brush painting; I didn't go up high, as I didn't want to anchor a ladder in some slush remaining on my sidewalk. I'll finish up the painting soon, but I'm happy to report that the building looks much more presentable than it had previously as a result of today's good fortune.

The river ran dry on my luck later in the day, when Todd (landlord) called to inform me that the Town of Normal had mailed him a pair of snow shoveling citations for my storefront. In all his years of operating, and later owning the property, he'd never heard of them mailing tickets for snow shoveling, and he intends to give them a piece of his mind. Unfortunately, my lease makes me responsible for snow removal, and so I'll be paying any fine (the ticket doesn't specify). I'm hoping to get off with a warning, and promise to do better going forward. I won't lie - I wasn't thinking snow removal this weekend when I was home in Chicago for the first time in months celebrating Hanukkah. From what I hear, though, my presence wouldn't have made much of a difference, as the Town apparently was going around photographing various sidewalks in an effort to incriminate as many business owners as possible in the area. I am told that the Town expects all snow to be shoveled within an hour of the end of a given snowfall; given the above vigilance, I fear that they may be overzealous in the enforcement of this mandate.

Before I get too worked up, I'd like to see what my contacts with the Town have to say; perhaps they are issuing warnings and setting expectations with this first round of citations. It's always nice to know the prevailing rules before you jump in and start playing the game. More tomorrow on this and my second meeting with the TV advertising folks (they'll be disappointed, because I'm nowhere near being in the position to commit to TV spots in the foreseeable future). I'll post on that and any other interesting happenings tomorrow.