Category: Barbara

08:02 – As of this morning, we have only 22 biology kits and 19 chemistry kits in stock, albeit with another 30 of each in progress. Not all that long ago, that would have been a comfortable cushion. No longer.

Homeschoolers are now buying materials for the summer session, and it seems to be ramping up. The scary part is that the real ramp-up hasn’t started yet, and won’t until August, when homeschoolers start ordering materials for the autumn semester. So, at this point, we’ll concentrate first on getting the new batch of 30 biology kits and 30 chemistry kits ready to ship. We’ll then build inventory by doing batches of 30 kits at a time, alternating between chemistry and biology kits. Starting mid- to late-July, we’ll add forensics kits to the mix until we have at least 60 of those in inventory by the time the forensics book hits the stores.

10:46 – Barbara’s going to dinner with her parents tonight and then taking her mom to a 7:00 pm appointment to get an MRI. Apparently, they run that machine literally around the clock. That leaves my dinner up to me.

As my long-time readers know, I’m mildly vegetarian. To be precise, I’m an ovo-lacto-fisho-chickeno-beefo-porko-lambo-almost-anything-that-stands-still-or-moveso vegetarian. Oh, yeah, and definitely bacono. But I do eat vegetables, so to my way of thinking that makes me vegetarian. I hasten to add that I am in no sense of the word a humanitarian.

09:39 – As we build inventory of the biology, chemistry, and forensic science kits for the coming new school year, I’m thinking about which science to do next. Physics may seem the obvious choice, but the truth is that while most high-school students take biology and chemistry, relatively few nowadays take physics. And many of those who do take a physics course do a lecture-based course rather than a lab-based course.

We could do AP biology and/or AP chemistry, but again the potential market for those is much more limited than the market for the mainstream first-year courses. The same is true for more specialized courses like marine biology, anatomy, and environmental science. We’ll do all of those eventually, I’m sure, but for now we want to concentrate on the more mainstream courses. That means working down to the early high-school/late middle-school level. There are two science courses commonly taken in grades 8, 9, or 10 that we don’t have covered: earth science and physical science.

13:52 – My cell phone didn’t last as long as the effects of the Spanish bailout. I ordered the phone back on 21 March. When it arrived a couple days later, I put it on the charger, but never got around to activating it. So late this morning I stuck it on the charger again. It took all of 10 or 15 minutes to show fully charged. Then I went over to the PlatinumTel website to activate it.

As I was doing that, Barbara called to say that her dad was in the emergency room again. She’d taken him to a doctor’s appointment, intending to get him back home and get to work before lunch. But her dad fell, and so she took him to the emergency room. I think his doctor’s appointment was at the hospital, so they didn’t have far to go. Barbara’s cell phone had died, although she’d just charged it. When we hung up, Barbara was leaving to go get her mother and said she’d see if her phone would work plugged into the car charger.

A while later, I heard the key in the front door and was surprised to see Barbara, who was making a flying visit home to grab something for lunch and then head back to the hospital. Of course, I gave her my cell phone. It was all mine for almost 27 minutes. Now it’s hers.

Her dad seems to be okay. He fell to his knees, and doesn’t seem to have done any major damage. Barbara was terrified because he started yelling when he fell and she thought he was seriously injured. So she’s headed back to the hospital to sit with her mom. If they release her dad before 5:00, she’ll take them home. Otherwise, her sister will come over and pick up their parents at the hospital so that Barbara can meet two of her friends for dinner, which was previously arranged.

08:25 – Barbara is off to take her dad to the doctor and then head in to work. Her mom and dad both seem to be doing fine.

Over the next couple of months, we’ll focus on building inventory of the biology, chemistry, and forensic science kits. We currently have about two dozen each of the biology and chemistry kits in stock, with components to build about 30 more of each. By the first of August, I want to have enough components in stock to assemble at least 200 of each, plus 100 forensic science kits. Over that three month period starting 1 August, I want to be prepared to ship a total of at least 500 kits.

08:10 – Barbara’s dad is still in the hospital, and probably will be for the next couple of days. Barbara said he’d lost about four pounds (~ two kilos), all of which was water weight. They’ll continue to dry him out and then have some other tests they want to run.

I spent much of yesterday costing out the forensic science kits. I had to do that before the book is finalized, because I didn’t want the kit to end up having to be priced at $300 or $400. The goal is $200 or less. Eyeballing it, it looks like we’ll be able to do that. Based on the amount of stuff that’ll be in the kit, it looks like we may have to go to a large flat-rate box rather than a regional-rate box B, which puts the shipping cost at about $15, versus an average of maybe $10 on the chemistry and biology kits, but that’s doable. One way or another, we’ll still bundle in free shipping because people hate to have shipping charges separate from the product price.

Geez. By 0800 this morning, I’d already shipped two kits, one chemistry and one biology. This is making me nervous. We get a nice batch of kits ready. They’re sitting there, all stacked up nice and pretty. And then people go and order them, and we watch our stock dwindle. Oh, well. I guess I’d better get used to it. From now until maybe October, we’ll be shipping a lot of kits. We can rest then.

10:34 – I love how some vendors try to encourage people to upgrade from the free shipping option. I ordered a case of 10 mL oral syringes on Tuesday, and chose the free shipping option with 7 to 10 day delivery. I wasn’t in a huge hurry, so I decided that was fine. I just got a notification from the vendor with a UPS tracking number. The shipment is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

“Free” shipping used to be an inducement to increase order size and prevent abandoned shopping carts, but it’s come to be expected and just another cost of doing business. LL Bean’s new free shipping policy may be the final nail in the coffin of charging for shipping separately. Bean now ships essentially all orders for free, regardless of number of items or price. I can order one $3 item and Bean ships it for free.

I never had any intention of charging separately for shipping. Fortunately, that’s easy for us because our minimum order is currently $160, the price of one chemistry kit. The only small orders we receive are replacement orders for spilled chemicals, broken glassware, and so on. On those orders, of which we’ve received exactly one in the last year, we may end up breaking even or worse, but again I consider that just a cost of doing business.