The beginning....

After much dreaming and much much talking about it, we finally decided the time was right to stop talking and finally take action. The bookstore will no longer be just a future dream. It's gonna happen!

First we went to the Denver Office of Economic Development in downtown Denver to register our business name. We suffered through the July heat. We suffered through your typical downtown parking problems. We got there and found out we could have registered from our PC at home.

Oh well, since we made the effort, I figured it was a momentous occasion and took a photo of Jefferson officially registering 'Read, Write & Brew'.

"We're really doing it, aren't we Harry!"

Now in serious 'this is really happening' mode, we decided we could no longer afford to source our books from thrift stores and yard sales one box at a time. Jefferson jumped onto good old Craigslist and got in touch with a guy who was exiting out of the online book selling business. Two storage sheds, one stacked garage, one home basement full of books, and two achy backs, four sore hands, 20 cracked and chipped fingernails later, we had our 30 odd thousand count book inventory.

Just one problem...

Jefferson and Belle in front of shed no. 2,
before the re-boxing feat had begun.

...how to get 10 pallet boxes out of the $200-a-month-storage-fee facility into our fee free empty garage at home?

The pallets, before a month worth of boxing.

Well, you start by rummaging through dumpster bins behind shopping malls for small carryable empty boxes in good condition, dressed in your saggy ripped tracksuits that you usually use for painting jobs around the house (because books and dumpsters are dusty and dirty so you don't want to ruin your good clothes). Gotta say, never before in my life have I felt more like a street bum.

Every 'after work' opportunity we had for the full month of August was spent in those sheds, unloading the pallet boxes and repacking the books into stackable smaller sized boxes.

A snapshot of the first storage shed, half completed.

Halfway through shed no. 1

How did we find the motivation for such a huge undertaking? Well, you won't believe me, but packing the boxes was actually kinda calming and zen like. It was physically exhausting, don't get me wrong, but Jefferson and I agreed, once you got into the rythem of it, the feeling was similar the the alpha state joggers get. Know the feeling? No really! (Fine, don't believe me).

Oh, and the other things that helped time go by faster: Belle's company, INXS blaring from the iPod attached to the car stereo, and a few frosty-cold six packs.