2010 Reflections: Routine Disrupted

I am a creature of habit. I enjoy having a certain routine to my life and when that routine becomes disrupted, even for the most innocent reasons, I am unsettled for days afterward.

This characteristic was always part of my psyche. In my more youthful days, spontaneity ruled, or maybe it was simply a relatively manageable chaos given the fact that I was drinking to excess at the time. Which ever is true, these days, with age and sobriety, I relish the comfort of the expected.

Given this proclivity, when I our editor, Allison, asked for a year-end reflection on the past year, I was struck by just how unexpected/unroutine my life in 2010 became.

Consider the fact that in February, after 20 years in the same building in downtown Sister Bay, I relocated my bookstore down the street to the former Betty Wiltse real estate building at the corner of Mill Road and Bay Shore Drive. I had wanted to find a smaller location for several years (2,700 square feet of inventory is just too many books in this community these days) and when Ruth Telfer called to offer me the new location it didn’t take me too terribly long to accept her invitation.

The move turned out to be relatively easy. I winnowed my inventory down prior to relocation and, after experimenting with my existing shelves I realized that a new store required new shelving. Blessedly, my dear wife Barb loves power tools and in relatively short order the new shelving was built and installed, leaving me to loading books on library carts and wheeling them down the street in our relatively mild winter weather.

Then, in April, the Peninsula Pulse began their relocation from the north end of Ephraim to the former Frogtown Framing building in downtown Baileys Harbor. This involved countless hours of packing, organizing, and remodeling/construction in the new building – all while we continued to publish our regular issue of the Pulse and finalized the production and printing of an issue of Door County Living magazine.

In essence, nothing about the first five months of 2010 was routine. And yet, I managed to maintain some semblance of sanity without driving my wife, Andrew, my mother, or my co-workers at the Pulse from their sanity. I consider this a personal achievement almost on par with finally achieving stable sobriety!

Now, as we mark an end to the year, my life is back to a routine I can manage without expending too much effort. The offices of Peninsula Publishing and Distribution (the umbrella company for the Pulse, Door County Living, and Paper Boy) are settled in their own building and the new location of my bookstore feels like a second home.

I stated in the year-end issue last year that I am fortunate to have two jobs that I love. This year I can make this observation: 40 years after I first set foot in Door County I still love my jobs and I now have water views at both. How can it possibly get any better?