Side by side, we paint our own twists to hang on the wall

All those folks making their own messes with paint and brush on a recent episode of Undercover Boss caught my attention. This, I told my dear wife Karen, looked like something I could get into. And so we pulled up to the Liverpool Painting with a Twist this past Saturday night, signed up and psyched…

I’ve learned a lot at the store

For seven months, I’ve been proud to pull on that red vest and talk to customers. Working at the store has been interesting, every shift, every day. Yes, even when I spilled paint on my favorite pair of work shoes. Here’s the most important of what I’ve learned since October, when I started as a…

The sun almost also rises before 6 a.m.

Two weeks ago, I offered what I thought was a pretty picture of the sun getting ready to wake up at 5:51 a.m., outside the store before my opening shift started exactly nine minutes later. Yesterday I thought the view to the east was even more breath-taking. Yes, it was again 5:51 a.m. A lot…

Oh, those creative paint people

Over at the Blog of Funny Names, I tackle paint this month. As in … OK, readers of the Blog of Funny Names, today we dip our sticks into the world of paint. Yes, I may have been around too many open cans while working in the paint department at the store. But I can’t…

At the store before sunrise

It was still pitch dark when I pulled my Chevy Cruze out of the driveway of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Although sunrise was still officially some 20 minutes hence when I stopped in the parking lot of the store 15 miles northwest, light already peaked over the horizon when…

Finishing the seven-stretch

When I finished my shift at the store Sunday night, I looked at the manager on duty and declared, “I just finished my seven-stretch!” I do believe I may have coined a phrase. For me, at least. I’ve heard my co-workers call it something else. I may have used that other doozie, which ends at…

No lie about that great coverage

Welcome to the club, my colleagues said. That did not make me feel better. I spilled paint at the store. Setting up the scene: My boss handed a work sheet to all in the paint department. One of my assignments was to down stock and fill in two bays in the major paint aisle. So…

The store makes me hungry

I had spent the day working the opening shift at the store. That’s 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., helping customers, hustling paint, stocking shelves, whatever it takes. My dear wife Karen worked her equally tough day in the advertising department at SMG, making sure her many and varied tasks are done right and well. When…

Climbing the store ladder, literally and figuratively

I’ve put two weeks in at the paint department. I’m learning a lot at the store. I have to be good at climbing the ladder. For stocking, they keep big things up high. Early on, my boss told me to deal with garbage cans. The store sells a good variety, from humongous to very large…