Random Thoughts -- One of Which May Interest You . . .

The long, cold, dark winter is upon us (how was that for a dreary thought?). For me, this is the most depressing weekend of the year -- the time changes Sunday morning. Under the current format, this is as early as it can happen -- and it won't change back until March 14! So for the next several months, I will only see daylight at home on the weekend. During the week, it will be dark when I leave the house in the morning, and dark when I get back in the evening. I'll bet you would never guess that I like sunshine and warmth . . .

Strangely enough, that's exactly what we're getting today. As I type this, it is SEVENTY-EIGHT DEGREES and the sun in shining. It was 66 when I left the YMCA at 8:00 this morning. There is a huge band of rain about 100 miles west of us (sorry, Indianapolis) -- I assume this is what's left of the storm that dumped 18" of snow on Denver a couple of days ago. We were expecting our sixth consecutive wet and sloppy Friday night for football tonight, but it looks like it may actually be nice.

So I'll be on the microphone in the press box tonight as my high school football team tries to qualify for its third straight trip to the state playoffs. They need to win and get a little help from teams they have beaten along the way. Ironically, one of those teams is "Ryan's school" -- if they win, "my school" gets extra computer points. This is the last Friday night of my 30th season in the press box.

Tomorrow, the store will be hopping -- Sidewalk Sale and the last day of our Fall Sale. Too bad today's weather won't hang on for another day -- the Trick or Treaters will also be out on Saturday evening around here.

Here's an advance warning (isn't that why you read this?). Monday will be the first working day of November for us -- and the first day of the annual Free Shipping Offer that many of you have been waiting for. All through the month of November, we'll be offering free UPS Ground or USPS Priority Mail shipping (whichever is cheaper for us!) with a $50 purchase. That applies to Continental U.S. addresses -- for Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Canada, we'll ship for half the Priority Mail rate. For other international customers, we'll be happy to check to see if we can find an economical way to do the same thing for you. Just remember to ask for the free shipping offer when you place your order.

So give us a call Monday at 1-888-433-5239, fax your order toll-free at 1-888-266-0496, mail it to Marco's Paper, 14 Marco Lane, Centerville, OH 45458, or e-mail it to marcos@marcopaper.com (without the credit card info -- call us with that).

And for the two of you who read this blog regularly who placed orders this morning and couldn't have known about this offer (you know who you are), I already marked your orders to ship free. You're welcome . . .