Macy's

It's New Year's Day plus One.

Nuria left the house at 9:15 this morning, off to her job at Macy's. She loves working there and she's very good at what she does, which is to sell products and sign up customers for credit cards. She is a natural-born salesperson. She could sell snow to Eskimos. For example, while the young salesgirls in her store stay behind the counter and chat with each other, Nuria is out on the floor asking customers how she can help them. When she sells a product, she asks the customer if they have a credit card, and if they don't she asks if they would like to apply for a credit card, and she'll sign them up for that. She hustles. Nuria once worked for a clothing manufacturer. She was Administrative Assistant to the Vice President of Manufacturing. She has an impressive resume, which I blogged about two years ago here.

Nuria wants to see snow. I like snow, too, as long as I don't have to shovel it off my front walk, or clear a path from my back door to my garage. I used to live in Roanoke, Virginia, and sometimes we got a good snowfall. In fact, there were times when I couldn't drive my car out of the parking lot of my apartment complex because the snow was above my car's bumper. Even though my vehicle had 4-wheel drive, there are limits – you can't drive when the snow is above your car's bumper. That car was a Subaru. My current vehicle is a Jeep Grand Cherokee and it has higher ground clearance. It, too, has 4WD (of course). It would take a lot of snow to stop it. But today, central Virginia is sunny with an occasional cloud on the western horizon. In other words, it's a beautiful day. 

Nuria is supposed to be getting off work at 4PM. Often, her manager will ask her to work until 5PM or later. She always says "Yes" to that request. She loves working at Macy's. It's a shame the store will be closing in three months. Nuria tells me about all the shoplifting that she witnesses in the store. The store apparently is losing money despite selling a lot of high-end products. I think the store is being shoplifted into oblivion. As I said, it's a shame.

New Year's Day

Today is/was New Year's Day, 2025. My partner Nuria is at work. Yes, Macy's is open today. But only for another three months. Our Macy's will be closing forever in March or April. Nuria is so happy in her job at Macy's. After Macy's closes, I hope Nuria, if she wants it, can find a job equally satisfying as her Macy's job.

I drove to Walmart and bought a box of firelogs and a few other items. Then I went by Macy's and chatted with Nuria for half a minute. She was busy, of course, and I didn't want to take much of her time. 

I intend to burn one of the firelogs tonight. I'll put the log in the fireplace insert and I'll set fire to the log and leave the insert's doors open with its fans running, blowing warm air into the room. I like to turn off the living room lamps so that the room is reasonably dark, and then Nuria and I will sit on the sofa and watch the flames dancing on the burning firelog. It's almost hypnotic.

Anyway, I was back home with my Walmart purchases when I thought of my Jeep. In particular, I thought about the crankcase oil. I hadn't checked it in a long time. So I went to my garage, raised the Jeep's hood, and pulled the dipstick out of the crankcase. The oil level was one quart low. I drove to Autozone and bought a quart of 10W-30. I drove home, parked the Jeep in my garage, and poured the oil into the engine.

My immediate chores were complete. I returned to the house and began writing this blog post. I was tired from all the hard work I almost did. 

I hope your New Year's Day was more interesting.