Much as I appreciate the rain (I was thinking about resorting to breaking out the watering hoses for my garden, cause I was afraid my plants were being freeze dried) I'm sure it will put a damper on sales for the rest of the week.
It's kind of the end of our lucky streak. The weather was so uniform this shopping season that I think it helped. There wasn't the usual one or two inexplicable clunker days.
************
I'm proud of myself for figuring out the Hamlet connection to Sons of Anarchy all by my lonesome.
Linda and I have blown through 10 episodes. (They are relatively short, at about 39 minutes.)
For those of you who are way ahead of us on what's happened, please don't tell. For those of you who haven't started watching, there be spoilers ahead.
In the show, Jax (Hamlet) spends much of his time in the ramparts (the roof of the garage) communing the dead ghost of his dad (in the form of diaries.)
The one thing that bothers me about the show, is sometimes they seem to try a little too hard for the swaggering tough guy effect -- which can have the opposite effect of reminding me that they are all just actors, after all.
I think it's partly because of the shortness of the show, that things that can be a little more developed on HBO or Showtime, with an extra 10 or 15 minutes, in this show seem to be slightly telegraphed.
It's a problem with all tough guys shows, really. I remember seeing French Connection last year, and what had seemed so gritty and real when I was young seemed slightly fake and almost cartoony.
The actor's are mostly pulling it off -- so I'm not sure if the problem is the writing or the actors or just that they are talking about a foreign world and trying to show the "hearts of gold" and all that and it somehow doesn't quite seem -- realistic.
It walks a very narrow line, and pulls it off -- mostly.
**********
So far, we haven't had a single return. (knock wood). They may still all come in like an avalanche, but so far so good.
I'm very casual about telling the customers that if it isn't the right thing, they can exchange it for anything in the store.
We try not to give cash back -- but sometimes you just can't avoid it. But it sure hurts when it happens.
Exchanges? Those only make sense.
**********
I did my December orders yesterday, and allowed myself to order all the "cool" stuff I saw -- and it came in about 25% higher than is healthy.
Is the store strong enough to take the chance? If I order 25% more, can I sell about 15% more to cover it?
This kind of thing almost never pans out, but occasionally -- it does. And it's how the store takes a step forward. It's that risky move that you can usually avoid taking -- but not always.
I'll add up the Christmas profits, see how far down I'm paying on the debts, and make my decision by Thursday. I more or less already made the big gamble this Christmas -- so I need to see how that panned out by paying all the bills and seeing what's left.
**********
That the Parks and Rec district has millions to spend on land points to the off-kilter nature of public funding. I'm sure there are firewalls protecting the money from raids by other entities who might need to money more...in the short term.
In the long term, I think they are being smart snapping up the land while they can.
As you know, my belief is that Central Oregon is fundamentally a tourist and retirement economy and will mostly remain so.
It makes sense to have as many park amenities as possible.
It's kind of the end of our lucky streak. The weather was so uniform this shopping season that I think it helped. There wasn't the usual one or two inexplicable clunker days.
************
I'm proud of myself for figuring out the Hamlet connection to Sons of Anarchy all by my lonesome.
Linda and I have blown through 10 episodes. (They are relatively short, at about 39 minutes.)
For those of you who are way ahead of us on what's happened, please don't tell. For those of you who haven't started watching, there be spoilers ahead.
In the show, Jax (Hamlet) spends much of his time in the ramparts (the roof of the garage) communing the dead ghost of his dad (in the form of diaries.)
The one thing that bothers me about the show, is sometimes they seem to try a little too hard for the swaggering tough guy effect -- which can have the opposite effect of reminding me that they are all just actors, after all.
I think it's partly because of the shortness of the show, that things that can be a little more developed on HBO or Showtime, with an extra 10 or 15 minutes, in this show seem to be slightly telegraphed.
It's a problem with all tough guys shows, really. I remember seeing French Connection last year, and what had seemed so gritty and real when I was young seemed slightly fake and almost cartoony.
The actor's are mostly pulling it off -- so I'm not sure if the problem is the writing or the actors or just that they are talking about a foreign world and trying to show the "hearts of gold" and all that and it somehow doesn't quite seem -- realistic.
It walks a very narrow line, and pulls it off -- mostly.
**********
So far, we haven't had a single return. (knock wood). They may still all come in like an avalanche, but so far so good.
I'm very casual about telling the customers that if it isn't the right thing, they can exchange it for anything in the store.
We try not to give cash back -- but sometimes you just can't avoid it. But it sure hurts when it happens.
Exchanges? Those only make sense.
**********
I did my December orders yesterday, and allowed myself to order all the "cool" stuff I saw -- and it came in about 25% higher than is healthy.
Is the store strong enough to take the chance? If I order 25% more, can I sell about 15% more to cover it?
This kind of thing almost never pans out, but occasionally -- it does. And it's how the store takes a step forward. It's that risky move that you can usually avoid taking -- but not always.
I'll add up the Christmas profits, see how far down I'm paying on the debts, and make my decision by Thursday. I more or less already made the big gamble this Christmas -- so I need to see how that panned out by paying all the bills and seeing what's left.
**********
That the Parks and Rec district has millions to spend on land points to the off-kilter nature of public funding. I'm sure there are firewalls protecting the money from raids by other entities who might need to money more...in the short term.
In the long term, I think they are being smart snapping up the land while they can.
As you know, my belief is that Central Oregon is fundamentally a tourist and retirement economy and will mostly remain so.
It makes sense to have as many park amenities as possible.