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rejected at ReStore
Wednesday, September 20 2023
location: rural Hurley Township, Ulster County, NY
The dogs and I would be driving up to the cabin today in the Forester, leaving the Bolt for Gretchen if she decided to come up this weekend (since she prefers driving that vehicle, whose bluetooth integration works much better with her phone). But before I did that, I drove over to ReStore to attempt to donate some items. ReStore is a thrift store, and not one I visit. But the things I wanted to donate seemed more appropriate for ReStore than the Tibetan Center thrift store (which I visit almost weekly). I also kind of like my buy-only relationship with the Tibetan Center; the one time Gretchen and I tried to donate something there ended in embarrassment. Both thrift stores are located near each other on Route 28 between Kingston and West Hurley. ReStore is larger, though, and specializes in furniture and building supplies, and the charity it supports is Habitat For Humanity.
When I got to ReStore, a couple good ole boys were loading up some old furniture into the back of a pickup truck. An old desk they were buying began to disintegrate as they lifted it, and I had to jump in to keep it from turning into a complete shit show. After they were gone, I showed off my items, which included our old Bosch gas cooktop (which we bought brand new during our kitchen remodel back in 2019) and a vintage chair with matching foot stool that Gretchen had inherited from her mother's mother but which she now no longer wanted because she thought it was made of leather. (It had also been covered with mold until fairly recently, though that was easy to scrub away.) The guy at ReStore's receiving bay wasn't sure about the chair and called someone else to have a look. It was considered too shabby for their needs, and explained that it would devalue things displayed near it. They suggested I try taking it to the Tibetan Center, which is something they probably tell a lot of people to ease the pain of rejection. Perhaps they were right, though I thought the chair was looking nice, aside from a button I'd fixed that had just failed again. ReStore was happy to take the cooktop and a aluminum stock pot (the latter now useless on our induction cooktop). It turned out one of the ReStore employees also had an induction stove, and asked how I liked it. I said it was good, even if it took a little getting used to. Then I waved my hand at the gas stove and said in a mock Applachian accent, "That there's a FREEDOM stove!" The employees chuckled nervously, perhaps in an effort not to weigh in to the ongoing (and ever more absurd) culture wars.
Back in Hurley, I unloaded the rejected chair and footstool and then loaded up more pieces of bluestone and my old custom desk from 2007 (which will be useful at the cabin as a storage solution in the basement). I then loaded up the dogs and made the two hour drive via the faster Thruway route. I stopped at the Johnstown Price Chopper for things I might need to entertain guests (my cousin Carol and her daughter Christine were planning to visit). This included things like beer, vegan lunch meat, lettuce, pasta, bananas, hummus, and the best crackers I could find (which ended up still being pretty trashy).
At the cabin, I didn't do much puttering around beyond removing all the prop sticks that had been holding the Durock to the underlying styrofoam until the adhesive between them could set. I then ate a nugget of cannabis and took a bath.
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