Sophie's Story

  Hi This is Scamp.    Humans do some weird things sometimes. On Sunday night, Sophie laid a piece of cloth on the floor. It was soft and fuzzy. I stood back from it a little and admired the print. It was a leopard print. I sniffed at it a little. Colby walked on it and liked it. She took a big scissors and cut one side so she had two pieces  of cloth. I asked her what it was. She said it was something called fleece. I asked her why it was on the floor. She told me that I would find out soon enough.   She put one piece of cloth on top of the other. Then she put some tape about three paw lengths from the edge. She used a measuring tape. After that she made marks on the tape with a smelly marker. I kept watching. I wondered what she was going to do.   She started to make slits in the cloth. They were all the same width and two paw lengths deep. She went all around the edge of the cloth. Then she cut small slits around the edge of the ...

   I don't like to go shopping unless I'm buying yarn or books. I especially dislike clothes shopping. The few times that I have gone shopping to buy something I need, I've spent the entire day going from store to store only to come up empty handed at the end of the day. The last time I did this was when I was looking for a dress to wear to a wedding. Everything was either black, skimpy or both. It really seems like clothing stores don't believe that short, stout women exist.    If I need something there are two mail order places that I like to buy from. I know what sizes I take in the things that I need. When I need something I simply go online pick it out and then call and order. Most of the time I make do with what I have. Many of the things in my closet are 10-15 years old.   When C said that he wanted to go shopping for some clothes to wear when we travel down to South Carolina, I was not looking forward to it. I knew most of the time would be...

   The world was stunned by the sudden death of Prince on Thursday. During the next few days there was speculation as to why  this 57 year old man would be dead. One of the things I read was an article talking about how he had overdosed on the opioid pain medication Percocet a few days prior to his death.   There were comments at the end of the article and several of them blamed "Big Pharma" which pushes drugs to make money. This is a variation on a comment that I see quite often. I get a little angry when I see it. As a pharmacist I don't think the problem is big drug companies pushing drugs on people. It's not that simple.    Whenever I hear of cases where celebrities have overdosed on a prescription drugs, I wonder how the person got the drug. Where was the pharmacist? Where was the prescriber? This is an important question. The law is that prescription medication cannot be given to someone unless there is an order from a provider...

   A few years ago pharmacies along the street where my store is located were being robbed. Every Friday or Saturday the thieves would hit another store. Three pharmacies had been hit already and everyone was on high alert. We were given a radio to use. The security cameras were aimed at the pharmacy. Store security and loss prevention workers were making more rounds past the pharmacy. The city police had dispatched two officers to keep guard.   I had to work that Saturday and I was scared. I'd never been robbed before. I've dealt with forgers and others who had gained medications fraudulently. I had never dealt with a robbery. How would I handle it? We had been given protocols time and again. I knew what I was supposed to do. Don't fight. Give the robber what he/she wants. Try and remember faces and other things that could help authorities identify the robber. Call the police as soon as it is over. Would I remember to do this?   C, unwilling to trust m...

    "What's this?" C asked. He was doing some cleaning in what we call the "music room" because we store our instruments in there. He was pointing at a brown wood box with a glass knob handle on it.   I looked at the box. I knew where it came from.   There was a customer at the pharmacy named Ted. He used to come around once a month to pick up his prescriptions. He'd tell us what he needed and then go to the deli to "get a piece of chicken". He was a very nice guy. He liked to talk to us. We got to know him pretty well. He enjoyed woodworking. He would get wood from places and use it to make all kinds of things. He would sell these items through local stores. It wasn't a huge source of income, but he kept him busy doing something he enjoyed.   He stopped coming around after awhile. I didn't know what happened to him. I assumed that maybe he had moved or passed away.   Many months later a woman came in to get some prescriptions for hi...

  Hancock Fabric is going out of business. I'm a little sad about this. I don't sew, but there are times when I do need to mend things and it was nice to know that if I didn't have the right colour thread or a button, I  could get once close by. Now I'll have to make a special trip to a nearby suburb. I also feel bad about the women who work there. They'll be out of work and some of them are not young. Maybe this job was a way for them to earn a little extra money and to get out of the house.   On the other hand, going out of business means they need to sell their stock. That means things are on sale. Yesterday after work I headed over to see what I could find.   One of the things I want to make is a tie blanket. It's a blanket that you can make without sewing. All you do is buy some fleece in two different colours. Then you cut a sort of fringe along the edges and tie it together. You can also braid them. When you are done you have a neat blanket. I wanted ...