the lead-up to....

... the artificial/commercially generated holiday on Sunday appears to be quite profitable. The floral department did a whopping business on Saturday, and expect there will be a world of folks who failed to think ahead for the occasion. There will be many who will dream up a variety of excuses on Sunday morning to make a quick trip to the store for: bread, milk, orange juice, newspaper, cereal, toilet paper  - a long list of necessities. Only to return  home with some offering as a last minute remembrance for all the Mothers in their lives.

The warehouse shipped several stacked pallets of boxed items for sale over the weekend, with the plan we should sell hundreds of plants and thousands of cut flowers. The plants include: tulips, calla lilies in a variety of unusual colors, hydrangeas, Asiatic lily, begonias, azaleas, orchids. A great variety of cut flowers assembled into bouquets, plus hundreds and hundreds of roses. Possibly not as many dozens of pre-wrapped, cash-and-carry roses as we usually receive on Valentine's Day, but more than you could imagine people would purchase for giving to their favorite females. Plenty for every mom, grandma, auntie, wife, cousin, in-law, out-law, miscellaneous women who played a role in turning malleable children into functioning adults.

I tried to tell the guys who are responsible for ordering from the warehouse that it will be a sad, sorry sight on Monday morning: there won't be anything left to sell, floral-wise. I expected all the cut flowers as well as plants to be gone. As those forgetful, neglectful, self-centered (mostly) men came dragging in late in the day looking sheepish. Knowing there would be serious consequences if they failed to walk in the door to see the baby-mama, or auntie without some sort of offering of appreciation for their efforts to whack some sense or manners into those thick skulls. I walked out of the store at four o'clock and know that there was practically nothing left for purchase. Some chocolates, with a colorful 'Thanks, Mom' over-wrap. Otherwise, virtually no items other than a few weary, bedraggled, shop-worn, picked over plants.

We can assume selling everything the warehouse shipped would be considered a roaring success. But in all likelihood, there will be conversation about 'you should have ordered more', when the managers walk in and see rows of empty buckets as we sold every bloom in the store. I wondered if those last-minute shoppers were attempting to assemble bouquets out of stalks of broccoli and leaf lettuce: with some salad dressing that would be a really  nice offering to my way of thinking! 'Way better than something that will be dead in four days. My thought is that I would always rather have something good to eat, especially if it also provides an opportunity to spend time with some of my favorite people while we chew and laugh together.