Every Saturday during the summer a live band plays on Main St. They are right across the street from us and with our door open it comes in loud and clear.
They just began On Wisconsin and the opening of the Big Ten football season it really got my blood flowing. Fall, what a great time of the year.
A sign of the economic times perhaps, the local lighting store closed its doors a couple of weeks ago.
We have offered lighting for many years and will increase our lines to serve the area. Being able to incorporate the new lines in our existing buildings without having to increase overhead will be a big advantage.
So, if you are looking for lighting for your home or vacation home, come check us out.
Plus, soon I will have a sampling of our lighting on the website Showrooms page.
Now that the summer season is winding down, I'm back in the website update mode.
We are working on a new way to display our showrooms that will also make it easier for me to update the pictures. Plus, we'll have add'l galleries of Sale Items, Lighting, and of Mika's Design Service.
The history of South Africa is fascinating, it's almost a work of fiction. I first became interested in this part of the world after reading Michener's "The Covenant". Also, novelist Wilbur Smith chronicles southern Africa in his many books.
This book starts with the discovery of diamonds and then gold in South Africa and how the pursuit of these minerals and the power that came with it created this fiction-like history. The book focuses on two of the main characters of their time - Cecil Rhodes and Paul Kruger.
Great read, the author explains the complicated times in an easy manner. As a person who knew some of the history, this was a page turner as I was waiting to see what happened next.
This is from the Musky Festival in June.
Just thought it was interesting the contrast up and down the street as this storm past through town.
About a month ago the building next to our Lodge Accents store caught on fire.
The fire started in the apartment upstairs. Luckily no one was hurt.
However, the store has been closed since during the best selling time in town.
Our building did get a little warm upstairs. But, our brick walls kept us protected. (Our store is to the left of the white building that is on fire)
A definite sign of the times are the many requests we get for discounts on our products. It is becoming very difficult to keep from strangling the next person who says - "When is this going on sale?"
The quote that takes the cake is the customer who brought a $20 item to the counter and asked, "Would you take $15 for this?"
I wanted to direct the person to the local flea market where that is acceptable, even expected. But, that remark really hit Mika hard. We work hard to create a wonderful buying experience and run a professional business. A comment like that degrades the whole effort.
Alas, we wrote it off as a dumb question from a thoughtless person.
It will take more than that to get us down for long.
Peace.
Our daughter Kelly, 14, was busy this summer selling pop and water to raise money for her school trip to Washingtion DC and New York City.
This is the second summer she's done this with her friend Peter Anderson. They set up in front of the Lodge Accents building and the response of the people on the street was fantastic.
We usually hire a couple of high school kids to help us at the coffee bar and the front register. This year our daughter Alyssa officially became one of the those "kids". Helping out are former hockey teammates Andrea Mast and Hannah Turnbull.
Andrea is moving on to the University of Colorado while Hannah is going into her senior year at Hayward High.
They've been great additions to our team this summer and wish them well as they move on in their lives. Of course, if they need summer work in the future they are welcome back.
Alyssa has no choice - she'll be back next year and our other daughter Kelly will be joining her. Mika and I are excited about that.
