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Recently, I needed envelopes to mail our belated holiday, early Valentine, letter. Being self-motivated, I determined to check out all the local places that I heard have office supplies. Herewith is the product of my investigations:
Gene’s IGA: Four feet of shelf space, about seven feet high. Small quantities of each item and basic supplies: Pens and pencils, shoelaces, a sewing kit, scotch tape, scissors, scissors, white-out, staplers, packing tape, glue, playing cards, crayons, post-it notes, and a little bit of copy paper, small envelopes, business envelopes, and construction paper.
Johnson’s Foods Grocery: 8 feet of shelf space with supplies similar to Gene’s but twice as big. In addition to what Gene’s has, I saw rubber bands, zip ties, picture hanging supplies, combination locks, yellow pad folders, and some picture hanging supplies.
Buck’s Hardware: 12 feet about six feet high. Generally good selection including rulers, compass, pencil sharpener, and a bigger selection of various sizes of envelopes–manila and white, clipboards, small calculators and clocks. Note that scotch tape is in the tape department, not in office supplies.
Joynes: 23 feet: About six feet high. The largest assembly of office supplies and machines that I found. I did not look at any bookstores or gift shops to see if they had any office supplies. If they do, I count on hearing about it.
I inquired of several local folks who have continual need of supplies. Larger quantities were purchased online from Office Max/Depot and Quill. I found no one local who sells printer supplies except letter size paper.
Odds and Ends
Do any of the rest of you find it takes more commitment to go walking or running outdoors in below zero weather? Suggestions for motivation for us?
Remember, if you are a Silver Sneaker member of our YMCA, you can record your exercise on the Check-In site of the Duluth Y at Web Checkin | Duluth Area Family YMCA (duluthymca.org). If you do so, our Y receives $4/time up to ten times per month. Keep the revenue flowing, so we keep our sponsor of the local golf tourney. I turn in the 3000 steps it takes me to plow our big driveway.
Our local cooperatives for food, housing, artists and crafters Cook County Makers Cooperative – Home (facebook.com), and power are built on a cooperative movement history that began in Rochdale, England, in the 1840s. They 28 weavers from Toad Lane who started it all and created the Rochdale Principles, which are still at the base of all cooperatives. The story in many books and on Wikipedia is compelling, and the principles remain as a way for people to have greater control of their buying and selling.
Fun stuff
My friend and writing and golf partner, Dave Saari and Pat, are spending the winter in their classy RV in the American Southwest. He golfs regularly, they hike, and he has great descriptions and photographs of state and national parks in his blog at Books – Dave Saari. If you have run out of winter reading or need psychic preparation for golf season, that same site summarizes his four golf murder mysteries available as E-books at Amazon. He refuses to set a deadline for the fifth, but I hope it will use the St. Urho’s golf course in Canada as one of its settings.
I chuckle every time I remember our game there with two Thunder Bay golfers. The course is a glorified pasture with golf carts available but unnecessary. The “clubhouse” sells everything as the only store and restaurant in the Finnish hamlet of Nolalu. Good food and golf at Canadian prices. If your curiosity is aroused after sheltering in, visit St. Urho’s Golf Course in Nolalu, Ontario, Canada Golf Advisor (golfpass.com). Alternate site: St. Urho’s Golf Course in Nolalu (ontariogolf.com). Any way you approach the course is a scenic drive worth doing.
Confession: Devoted readers of this column will recall that I promised that the next column would be on the Sioux and the Metis. Those related subjects required more thinking and editing. God willing and the creek don’t rise; it will be the next column. You know your columnist struggled to find an alternate subject by how we have moved from the sublime to the mundane—Mea maxima culpa.
Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, mediator, and Judge, serving from 1997-2010. He and his wife moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses. Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without an appointment by the Chief Justice. He has not yet officiated at a Skype, Zoom, or Google Team wedding. Copyright Stephen C. Aldrich and News-Herald, 2021
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