Why you....you....yellow bellied marmot!

The yellow bellied marmot is decimating my garden. First he ate the pansies, then the daisies, and now the lupines. I don't want to kill the cute little rockchuck, so I dreamed last night that I should buy some netting.

Fortunately, the backyard is nicely fenced and I don't have to worry about deer.

**********

I sell "Anarchy" buttons. Isn't "sell-anarchy" an oxymoron?

**********

"Have you read Dance with Dragons yet?"

"I'm setting it aside like a fine wine. Someday, when I have a couple days that no one can disturb me, I will pop the cork and savor it..."

**********

"I'm going to have Soylent Green crackers for sale. Don't know yet if they are Kosher."

"Are you Jewish?"

"Dude. If I'm willing to eat Soylent Green, does it matter?"

**********

"I'd like to put native wildflowers in my backyard. I'm a native Bendite, so that seems right."

"The neighbors I'm staying with were natives-- who came back after years away..."

"Doesn't count! They left!"

**********

I dreamed all night about a bad comic. That is, a comic I ordered that was the worst thing ever written.

What a waste of dream.

There are bad comics all over the place. (Sturgeon's Law.) Nothing was resolved.

**********

This weekend, I'm collating my surveys sheets for the new DC 52 comics. Then rewriting my subs list, then doing my orders. Throwing in the occasional comic reading session, alternating with gardening.

A test order that is highly preliminary came in at TWICE the usual levels.

Since I can return these comics if they don't sell, the last thing I want to do is underorder.

But it will definitely strain the old cashflow, especially since to extends four months.

What to do? What to do?

Pop culture is right where I should be.

To continue my "insufficiently worried" post, I own a Pop Culture store at a time when Pop Culture seems to be becoming our economy. It's what the good ol' U.S.A. does really, really well. Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, Disneyland, you name it.

And as Pop Culture moves every so closely to being the whole enchilada. Well, I own a Pop Culture store. How can I complain about that?

If I own a Pop Culture store and I can't find things to sell people -- then I would be a complete failure as a merchandiser. I mean, look at all the wonderful stuff I can get!

I've never had so much access to cool material. It used to be a bit of struggle finding things I could: A.) Find at all. B.) Be given access to at a reasonable price, and C.) Could afford.

Now? My only problem is finding enough space to actually display it.

Let me give you some examples.

On next week's invoice I have some foam rubber Thor Hammers (Mjolnir's, eh) coming in. I plan to break one out and set it next the cash register and flatten annoying customers. I'm getting a Sonic Screwdriver in, in case anything needs fixing. I also have a pack of True Blood coming in. In the catalog on my desk, I'm being offered Soylent Green crackers. So some time soon, you'll be able to chow down on Soylent Green crackers and wash it down with some True Blood soda. (I wonder if the Soylent Green crackers are kosher?)

We live in an atemporal time. (Look it up: Atemporality.)

Everything cool is cool again. (Yes, I'm mystified by some of the blank looks I get, especially from younger people -- but there are enough, thankfully, enough who Get It.)

Everything pop culture is available -- from the fifties to the teens. Hell, I have art books about medieval times. It's all connected in this wonderful web of nerdishness.

Anything cool at some point in our history becomes cool again.

I mean, it's been a strange life experience to see everything I loved as a teenager in the sixties and seventies move front and center into the pop culture center ring. It's as if someone is checking off my own personal checklist, one by one. (In fact, it's weirdly egocentric as if the pop culture universe was designed just for me. Why, thank you.)

And at the time, I felt I was the ONLY ONE who loved this stuff as much as I did.

Very strange.

Sure, half my sales are comics and graphic novels, which I truly appreciate and am thankful for. And sure, digital will make inroads into books and comics -- but, those are people I can lose without worrying about, because they probably weren't really my kind of people in the first place.

I expect the vast majority of people to come in the door not to connect. But there are enough, thankfully, enough, and every day I'm being given the opportunity to connect with more people....

So whatever happens, I'm not worried about having viable product to sell. In fact, if you can't adjust to this atmosphere of pop culture dominance, you can't adjust to anything.

insufficiently worried.

I remain insufficiently worried about the digital thing. I don't care about the digital thing.

Really.

How boring. I liked what one author said. If the only book you have on a table is a Kindle, you are a "bloodless nerd."

Anyway, the news keeps a'comin'. Marvel is going to do "day and date" on their comics, too. Which was inevitable.

Meanwhile, book sales haven't actually dropped, you know. They're admittedly flat, but nationally, books are selling at about the same level as last year.

Borders? Borders made huge mistakes that have little to do with books. They expanded too fast and took on too much debt and signed too long leases; they handed their online efforts over to Amazon; they didn't come up with an e-reader option until too late; they dove into CD's and DVD's just as they were collapsing; and so on.

I wonder if anyone but a local bookseller realizes how many people confuse Barnes and Noble and Borders.... I expect people will be showing up at the local B & N looking for liquidation deals.

Meanwhile, I go to the movies and I see previews for John Carter of Mars, and at San Diego Con they are talking about Frazetta movies, and another Sin City, and Heavy Metal, and my geek mode goes into geekasm.

How can what I do become obsolete when it moves ever so ponderously into Taking Over The World!?

So, What? Me Worry? I'll adjust and bring my immensely nerdy knowledge into play and by golly, the mass market doesn't really have a clue until they are told.

Sure, I've mentioned that movies don't really have an effect on comic sales. But they provide cover and legitimacy and bring people into the store. Almost anyone who comes in the store now can find something they can relate to.

A full third of my current sales are in categories I Wasn't Even Carrying a few years ago. All my categories continue to have ups and downs, which I simply have to be aware of and order appropriately.

So -- am I insufficiently worried?

I really don't think so.


Linda's comment: "And you're a worrier..."

"Yeah, I know. Right?"

Thursday tids.

When my nephews were visiting, I roughhoused a little with them in the backyard.

Next day, I woke up with a stiff knee. Huh. I didn't remember anything happening, but obviously....

But the knee has remained stiff, and if I turn a certain direction, I get a stab of pain.

That's what I get for getting off the couch. Couch potatoes are delicate, you know.

**********

When I was out in the Badlands, I started walking one of the trails, and I only got about 5 minutes in before my leg started to stiffen up, from the knee down to the shins.

That's it. I got to do something about that.

One of my longterm customers was asking to use the bathroom yesterday at the store. "You know how it is when you get older," he said.

"Tell me about it. I was out checking out all the trailheads of the Badlands the other day, and everytime I stopped I had to...well, uh....let's say, I had to Mark the trailhead.

"I OWN the Badlands, now...."

**********

I've been so used to sales being lower every month, that this month caught me offguard. In a good way. There is almost no doubt that I'll beat last July, and almost no doubt I'll beat last August. If I can keep that up in September, and onward, then I may believe the store has leveled off for the time being.

We had a year of drops with the great recession, then 7 months up, and then another 14 months down.

Checking the numbers, sales are almost exactly what they were the year before last.

**********

I'd been telling people over the last few years that I thought Magic had peaked out.

Well, maybe I was wrong.

Sales are really, really strong right now, despite have more competitors than ever. I've noticed that when I have one strong competitor, they tend to eat into my sales.

But now that I have about 4 competitors, sales are up.

Not sure what to think about that. I'd like the believe the pool of customers has gotten bigger, but it's more likely that tourists are spending more -- which means the overall pool in the country has gotten bigger.

If Walmart sold everything, wouldn't everyone work at Walmart?

Yesterday, I had a perfectly reasonable request for a type of sport card holder that I don't carry. I'll be telling the guy to go online to buy it.

I carry a set number of sports supplies: 3000, 800, 660, 400 count boxes, shoe boxes, 9-pocket sheets, soft sleeves and hard sleeves.

That's it.

I've simplified the supply chain -- I'm not sure I even have accounts with suppliers of anything else.

See, once upon a time I carried probably 10 times that number of ancillary products. I carried them because I was selling a lot of the primary product; sports cards.

It's been 20 years now since that dynamic changed. I slowly but surely extricated myself from the trap, simplifying, carrying only the product that had reasonable margins, and so on.

Nowadays, I think maybe cards are earning 1.5% of my sales.

I really should shed them completely, but I haven't quite gotten around to it.

I do not have the time, space, energy to carry the odd sizes of supplies -- nor is there any profit in it.

See, the customer can't buy all the easy stuff from the mass market, and then turn around and try to buy what's left over from the specialty stores. Because the specialty stores won't be there -- or if they somehow manage to survive, they will only be carrying the product that makes sense.

I'm going to make a bold declaration -- one that no one will agree with, that everyone will think is hyperbole -- in 20 years or so, everyone will be running around looking for things, trying to sell and trade things, and missing things they can't even think of yet -- but the book, game, toy, comic, record, card, etc. etc. stores will be gone.

O.K. Gone is hyperbole. But there will be less of them, and they'll probably being even higher priced for the hard to get product, and it will just be all around harder.

Sometimes, it's the ancillary product that make your hobby worth doing. A stack of sports cards is just a stack of sports cards. You need plastic sleeves, and stands, and display racks, etc. etc. You need informational guides. You need lots of things to really make it work.

But you can't expect shoe stores to survive if all they can sell are shoe laces, you know?

Linda and I have a friend who needs a certain type of shoe that only one of the shoes stores in Bend used to carry.

"The online place I was buying from doesn't have them anymore," she said. "So I went back to the retail store, but it was gone!"

It's the stuff you're not thinking about that will be much harder to find-- the stuff you won't miss until you miss it.

I had a blog awhile back where I said how useless it is to say, "You'll miss us when we're gone," but I'll say it nevertheless. (I know in your heart you don't believe it.)

But, fortunately for me at least, I only have to worry about the next few years -- not 20 years down the road.

Badlands...

Just realized I haven't posted a blog today.

I've been busy writing the 5th Chapter of I'm Only Human. It's coming together nicely.

I went out with my laptop to write at one of the trailheads out in the Badlands.

I hadn't realized that the Badlands were all civilized and everything. Trailheads, maps, even picnic tables.

I think I'm going to try to walk most of those paths. sometime in the next few years. More in the winter months, I think, than the hot summer months. Though the last couple of days would have been perfect.

Not a soul in sight at any of the trailheads.

Anyway, I find that I can really immerse myself in stories when I'm out in nature. Don't know why that is.

(Hold on...Cameron's whooping and hollering cause he got a letter published in his favorite comic, Power Girl. Fanboy...._)

I think I've come up with an "elevator pitch" for my book. But I'm refining it still..

World Series of Poker Sucks -- but I watch, anyway.

For some reason, I get hooked by the World Series of Poker every year. An enormous waste of time. I dvr it, and fast-forward a lot.

The conversations at the tables aren't all that interesting; in fact, they're kind of inane. The players are usually anything but good looking. The ego and status displays are pretty basic low level animal kingdom behavior. The plethora of "Bracelets" seems bogus.

I think it's just the sheer size of the thing -- both the attendance and the prizes. Winning that kind of money for playing a game -- that anyone could win with a lot of luck and some skill.
You can imagine yourself laying down those cards, Edward G. Robinson style, with an all-knowing stare.

I don't watch poker the rest of the year; I'm not interested in playing myself.

In fact, for some reason, I have a gut disapproval of gambling. I think it leads to addiction and lost lives.

I read recently that people lose nine times more money gambling than they spend at the movies. I think our society made a mistake letting this genie out of the bottle.

It runs in my family -- I questioned my brothers and sisters, and they had a similar antipathy.

And yet I watch.

Layers of Irony.

Sometimes I can't believe how rich the irony in some stories.

So a year or two ago, if memory serves, a rather high powered real estate agent, Lawnae Hunter, (I believe she came from the great state of California) decided that we local hicks were going about this real estate analysis thingy all wrong.

We needed to hire an outside professional to come and tell us what's really, really, happening to our economy.

Well, I have some sympathy for that notion.

What you had then were bubble bloggers, who most readers just rolled their eyes at, (I suppose we came off as cranks except for the little fact that we were usually right) and you had the 'professional' real estate folks, who were so immersed in their world that they couldn't see past their own noses, and who resorted to knee jerk reactions of "Best time to Buy!" and "The Market has hit Bottom!"

The media didn't know which way to turn. After years of collecting ad revenue from the real estate market, suddenly it was clear that --well, things were going wrong.

So the local media has swung back and forth over the last few years -- trending toward the "things are getting better" camp, but still willing to publish the occasional inconvenient fact.

Anyway, back to this outside "expert" they hired. Bill Watkins.

I'm pretty sure they expected him to give us all some good news. And he tried. He really really tried. He had a list of prescriptions for our economic health that sounded hopeful and helpful. Except, as any of us bubble bloggers would have told you, most of these solutions weren't going to work in Bend because of the unique nature of our location and resources.

But they sounded good.

At the same time, though, he was willing to point out the dangers to our economy and warn that it was going to take a long time to recover EVEN IF his rosy solutions took hold.

Turns out, the more physical distance he actually has from Bend, the more realistic he is.

According to the article in the Sunday Bulletin, he gave a very negative picture of Central Oregon to a Portland radio station.

"I don't pull punches," he said.

So the irony is, this "Deschutes Economic Alliance" which originally was going to pay the fellow, has asked the County to help pay for it.

And the County doesn't want to pay, because the message is "negative." (Not whether it's true or not, they just don't like his tone, apparently.)

So what about the business folk who banded together to create this survey? Hey, they are "pursuing a fundraising initiative to assure its solvency for the next five years."

Which means, what?, they are willing to pay for a objective outside expert who will tell them the opposite of what they really want to hear?

Good luck with that.

The high powered founder "could not be reached for comment." Big surprise Another grand plan that the founder assured would be -- to paraphrase -- 'easy, don't worry about it, it will all be paid for...'

The Deschutes Economic Alliance -- which I'm betting is filled with members who really don't like the government much -- nevertheless see nothing wrong in asking the County to save their ass.

The expert, meanwhile, wasn't expert enough to see that he might not get paid.

I want to repeat that irony -- the expert wasn't quite expert enough to figure out he might not get paid.

Nevertheless, he was willing to be blunt about our prospects:

"They're in bad shape," he says about us, "with an unemployment rate ranging from just a little below 15 percent to over 17 percent...

"Home prices have just been decimated, still are very weak."

Here's the most ironic statement of all -- and a sure indicator of the mindset of our government and business leaders:

"County Commissioner Tammy Baney said that Watkins' comments went against the Deschutes Economic Alliance's goal to change the region's image from 'poverty with a view' to 'possibilities with a view.'"

What?

So, we want your objective assessment -- but only as long as we agree with it?

I think they don't understand the words "objective" or "facts". The intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy are so immense that I have to believe that these people have never had to think rigorously and logically in their life.

Look, you can't hire an "outside" expert for his "objective assessment" and then not pay him when he doesn't tell you what you want to hear! (Another lawsuit, costing us much more than the original tab anyone?)

More dangerously, to us citizens of Deschutes County and our budgets, she seems to think the whole problem is a public relations issue.

"Factual yet positive" she demands.

Good God!

So what happens if the facts aren't positive? We'll only pay you if you whitewash the facts, fellow. (Pay attention, whatever expert they hire next! Pay attention citizens, to the quality of the report what will ensue.....)

I'm amazed that someone in a position of authority, with millions of tax dollars in her power, could say something so ridiculous out-loud.

Well, I would be amazed, if I hadn't heard similar thinking out of our local business community and local government before, during, and after the crash.

The irony is so rich, I feel sick to my stomach.

Hey, a good two weeks. How about that?

Have had probably the best two weeks of business since the latest downturn began about a year and a quarter ago. (Big drop from Great Recession, half a year of improvement, then continued drop...)

Don't want to make too much of it. It seems like the second half of every month has been pretty down.

The increase is pretty much across the board, and I think maybe each of the inventory lines are in a mature phase. Possibly, my young employees have another year of experience under their belts.

Or it could all be just a normal statistical thing. Or a fluke. Or an anomaly.

So, I'm not getting my hopes up.

Still, it's nice to be going into the second half of the month with a margin, rather than trying to make up lost ground!

Big City Plans, Small Town Results.

So Bend Film, according to a story in The Source, seems to be having trouble.

There seems to be a bit of pattern here.

First of all, any art festival in Bend is going to have trouble reaching critical mass. Cascade music is gone; Bend Film is struggling -- even some sports events have trouble, for instance the big golf tournament (The Tradition? Oxymoron, eh?)

Cause we in Bend seem to forget we are a small town in the middle of nowhere.

The thing to do in Bend is to go ahead and try to present yourself as a big city kind of deal -- but never lose sight of the fact that you aren't.

Don't just ask yourself what will happen if everything goes right, also ask yourself what will happen if everything goes wrong.

You ask yourself if the event can survive the "founder" moving on. Or whoever is the motivating force.

Try to take into account the normal up and down cycles. For a small group, for instance, a good rule of thumb I once read is to have 3 times more regular members than the number you need for a meeting. So if you need 8 people for a meeting, having 24 members is safe. So there will be times you'll get 15, and times you'll get 5, but you average out. I'm sure bigger events have similar rules of thumb.

You have to remember that the newness wears off -- the excitement of the new.

By the way, all this applies for small businesses, too --- maybe more so.

The interesting thing about the article about Bend Film is that most of the boosters seem to feel that the organization isn't thinking "big" enough. While it struggles for cash in the real world.

My sister, Betsy, who runs a longtime non-profit choir in Seattle, says that lots of arts organizations are having trouble raising money these days, which stands to reason.

But unless one of these big thinker boosters is willing to step forward with a cash infusion, I think Bend Film is probably settling into more realistic aspirations.

Running for cover.

I just pulled another third of the money we have set aside for retirement from the stock market, which means that more than half of our money is now out of the market.

If Congress wants to play Russian Roulette, then I think I'd rather be further away from the blood splatter. Hey, they may miraculously arrive at a good solution, and the stock market may go up, but even if I miss it, I'm pretty sure it will settle back down because there is still plenty of bad news to come and there will be chances to get back in.

But the downside seems much bigger than the upside to me right now. At worse, I'll still have the same money I started with. No one thought they'd vote down the TARP, either, and the market crashed 700 points in one day.

So...well, that would be a buying opportunity.

If you read history, this sort of reminds me of WWI. Nobody thought the other guys would be so stupid as to escalate, until it was too late.

Like then, there are so many entanglements in the market -- Greece, and Spain and Italy, and the good old U.S. of A.

Or maybe like James Dean racing the other guy to the cliff, and the other guy's shirt gets caught and -- whooops, iiieeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

They say don't time the market, but I just did. Let's see what happens.

(If --as what probably will happen-- it just goes sideways, I'm still wanting to invest in less risky if lower earning investments.)


I had to ask myself what was most important about our retirement money and the answer was -- 'security' and there are just safer places than mutual funds right now.

Linda and I have always had a modest lifestyle and if we continue that way, we'll be fine if it doesn't all go down the rabbit hole.

Downtown's got the funk.

Redmond, that is.

The article in the Bulletin about downtown Redmond was a bit of deja vu for me. It reminds me of downtown Bend in the '80's, on the verge of a big comeback.

I've maintained before that the downtown Bend core comeback was not a foreordained conclusion. I think we were somewhat lucky in the timing of renovations and the arrival of certain investors and the combination of stores. You had to be there.

Bend was actually smaller at that time than Redmond is now, which is astounding. But I believe Bend had more core businesses than Redmond has -- Redmond is a bit of a satellite of Bend, and a bit of a bedroom community. (Don't take offense, Redmonites.)

The title of the article is "Redmond Looking Younger."

Well, I'm not convinced of that. I would look instead at the idea that Redmond has more beginning hardscrabble from the groundup type businesses -- which coincidentally means that more businesses are started by young people in the prime starter age of 28 - 40.

I've noticed that bohemian type businesses -- started on a wing and a prayer -- are most often started by people in their early 30's. I was 32 when I bought Pegasus Books, for instance.

Bend really doesn't have a place for these type businesses anymore. The rents are simply too high in downtown Bend and the Old Mill.

So Redmond seems to be filling that need. They are getting the Funk that Bend used to have but which slowly drained away to jewelry stores and art galleries and high end restaurants.

Stealth & Shadow, a goth and punk store, Sweet Peas N' Me, children's clothing and toys consignment shop, Urban Legends, Atomic Music, The Hive, all those kinds of business.

Good for them. I think they are in for a grand adventure.

Half again as much money in just 5 years!

I've spent the last few days enjoying my garden instead of working on it.

Sister Sue and family visited, and to my delight, we all ended up sitting on the back lawn while my two nephews, Nick and Carl, tumbled and rough-housed. Which is the image I always had of the back yard -- friendly and comfortable.

**********

Didn't get a chapter done for writer's group, so I'm still stuck at four chapters. Summer has always been harder for me to write. Often, I get the urge to write about the time school starts, which I think is just a Pavlovian reaction to to the Fall season.

But I'm still committed to the story, and will make absolutely sure I have a chapter done for the next group.

**********

Sales were down about 25% from last weekend. Which is better than the 50% drops I used to get. Considering there are literally 10's of thousands of people downtown, it seems just O.K.

My guy on Sunday actually seemed frazzled. "You wouldn't believe how many kids were in here running around!"

Heh.

**********

Have been having ostracism dreams as usual. Last night I was wandering New York city, lost, trying to find the subway, and finding store after store after store, in a bewildering maze.

Second dream, I was at a golf course where the clubhouse was more like a funhouse. Tiger Woods was with me for awhile, but he was a real nincompoop, so I ditched him. Couldn't find the dining room and my food was getting cold.

**********

A site called Business Insider had this to say about Bend:

The Best Housing Markets For The Next 5 Years.

#2 Bend, Oregon.

Projected annualized growth 2011 to 2016: 11.7%

The time to buy in Bend is now. The market is projected to trough in Q3 before several years of accelerating growth. Home prices are down over 42% from peak.

Annualized growth: 11.7%.

I guess if you believe that, you deserve whatever happens. Since we'll probably still be dropping for a year or two, that would mean the last two or three years of that timeline would be, what?, 18% annualized growth? I know that 5% growth in ten years adds fifty percent to your beginning number, so I'm assuming that 10% growth over five years would have about the same result.

That's a pretty crazy number.

It would be funny if it wasn't sad. I mean, I think bringing people to Bend to spend their money is great -- but I think I'd feel guilty if I didn't at least post a word of warning.

Pick a number.

This is one of those apparently incredibly boring budget blogs I do, which I, of course, find utterly fascinating.

Anyway, my biggest problem in business has been budgeting my purchases. I'm well over the break-even point in my store, so as long as I order correctly, I can be profitable.

So I set strict budgets, and then try to stay within them.

And then, most often, I don't.

I can't seem to help it. I see a product I think the store should have and I order it.

It all should even out in the end, right? Good stuff will sell, and compensate for the extra purchases. Except it doesn't seem to work that way. I have a particular level of sales at any time and spending twice as much may boost it slightly, and spending half as much might depress it slightly, but on an ongoing basis, overspending is overspending.

Yes, it helps the long term growth of the store. But meanwhile, the cashflow can get hammered.

So I construct a budget that theoretically allows me to do both.

And then I bust the budget.


So what do I do about it? (I know, I know --show a little self-discipline. Other than that, because I've had years to do that and haven't managed.)

I joke that I need a CFO, chief financial officer, who would only give me enough money to stay within budget. Or, try to turn my checkbook over to Linda -- but we both know I'd wheedle her until she gave in.

I'm sure there is a trick that will work.

For instance, I tried for years to save money at the end of every month. Theoretically, I should most often have been able to do it. But...well -- see the rest of this post. Extra money got spent.

I finally imposed an automatic withdrawal every month that would be kind of a hassle to change and somewhat ego deflating to have to ask to change -- therefore, I make sure I have the money in the account on that date. I'm on my 10th month of doing that, and it's working.

My newest technique is to pick a number of items I'll allow myself to order per week -- say, X number of graphic novels, X number of new books, X number of games.

I've only been doing this for a few weeks but it seems to be working. It forces me to choose the most important items every week. If I sell a lot, I order the most needed, if I don't sell a lot that week, I can order the most needed and go back further onto the list and order the next level of need.

Of course, nothing will work without a mindset change. I can be budgeted all I want, but unless I'm really committed to saving money, it won't matter. Ironically, I'm able to be disciplined when my back is to the wall --when a big bill is due. But as soon as I create a little breathing room, I start getting ambitious again.

But this picking a set number of items is just challenging enough to be satisfying, while doing the job.

The gardening bug.

It's amazing to me that the gardening bug bit me this year.

I've always suspected I had a bit of the bug in me, but I always seemed to do just enough and then let the garden slide.

This year, I went buggy.

I think limiting the hours at first to about 3 hours at a time was hugely helpful. Having the lawns and sprinklers in place. Being willing to spend some money on new plants.

I start out doing the easiest simplest projects -- and then, inevitably, I get more ambitious.

Yesterday, I went out planning to do a tiny bit of weeding. My two sisters and their families are in town this week, and I kinda wanted to show off what I've done.

I ended up spending the whole day outside.

My Mom taught me a couple of tricks to make a garden look good.

1.) Edge the lawn with a straight edged shovel, about an inch average, for a nice clean looking cut.

2.) Turn up the soil in the garden and smooth it out. I do this with a trowel and my hands, and lightly once over with a rake.

So that's what I did -- all day long.

The garden won't really start looking good for another year or two, but the profile is in place.

I still have about 15 feet outside the fence to complete weeding -- and then I will have finished what I set out to do. But I don't think I'm done yet. I still have the urge.

Where did that come from?

Good 'ol Archie.

When I know a parent is concerned about the content of comics, I point toward the northwest corner of the store where we have "kids comics". Disney, Asterix, Tintin, Simpsons (iffy), Pixar, Scoopy Doo, etc. etc. -- and especially good old Archie.

How can you go wrong with Archie? It is essentially the same Archie comics as decades ago-- though the styles might change. Archie's eternally playing the field between good girl Betty and rich mean girl Veronica. Mr. Lodge's befuddlement of 'kid's these days.' Reggie obsession with designer clothes. Jughead's binge eating problem.

Yeah, so what can go wrong with Archie?

So I thought this store from the comic news site ICV2 was amusing:

"Archie Comics Publications has filed suit in the State of New York against Co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit accusing her of, among other things storming into a meeting in 2009 and pointing at the participants and yelling “Penis, penis, penis, penis.” She supposedly repeated the “penis” outburst again in 2010 and followed it up by exclaiming, “My balls hurt.” "Silberkleit was quoted in 2010 complaining about the resistance she met from the entrenched old boy network when she joined the Archie Comics management team, so there may well be another side to the “penis taunting” incidents, which will undoubtedly come out if the suit goes to trial."

Nothing to do with the content of the comics -- except: You have to wonder if the 'traditional' nature of the comic is reflected by the "old boy" network.

**********

I just read a rave review of A Dance With Dragons, the fifth Game of Thrones books. I was torn by this -- waiting 6 years for book four took some of the steam out. And then, I didn't think the fourth book was all that great. Pretty much wandering the devastated countryside without advancing the plot.

I mean Martin is very readable even then. But I'd somewhat lost track of characters.

Now it's another 5 years later.

And there are two books to go.

But...I suspect I won't be able to resist.

Meanwhile, I needed to order 10 book minimum to be sure to get the book on Tuesday, which is too many. I will feel obligated to point out that people can purchase the book cheaper elsewhere. I do this, because I don't want enraged customers coming back and yelling at me.

So I'll be ordering on the Tuesday, for Thursday delivery, and hope I can sell a few.

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My desktop has slowed to a crawl. As soon as I can transfer the needed info to my laptop, I'll be replacing it with my Mac.

But I realized something this morning.

I'd gotten rather used to the slow pace. I'd sit and sip my coffee and contemplate my day and so on, while I waited. It was a lazy pace, and I kind of like it.

My laptop is -- here it is NOW! Right in your face! What are you going to do about it!!!

Well, slow is O.K., but glacial has become a problem. It just stops sometimes and stares back at me, and I sip my coffee and wait, and contemplate, and wait, and ....

Finally, I turn it off and turn on my laptop.

Weeds are sneaky little bastards.

I'm not sure if weeds take turns being bothersome, or whether they are just being seasonal.

No sooner than I clear out one kind of weed but another takes their place.

I think it's more likely they're seasonal -- but I'm sure they appreciate me clearing out the competition.

I'm also convinced that the easier they are to pull, the more likely they are to have spread seeds hell and gone. The harder they are to pull, the farther down the roots go, and the more likely they'll pop right back up if you leave even a little of the root.

It's either one or the other.

Evolution created some sneaky little bastards when they created weeds.

The economy is complicated, man.

It's amazing how -- if you ignore the daily, weekly, even monthly economic reports -- this recession is playing out the way I originally predicted.

It's sometimes easier to predict the perimeters of an event when it is still on its way, than it is while the event is actually happening.

We had a great first 7 days of July in business -- which is neat, except that it seems like every month we have a strong first week or two and then it tails off.

I don't look for signs of recovery to the economy, because I don't think they are really there.

Sure, upticks here, upticks there, followed by downturns here, downturns there.

But the basic facts -- a lack of good paying jobs, underwater houses, pretend and extend commercial loans -- haven't changed much. They may have even gotten worse. At least, around here. People piled into Bend, which has a certain momentum to it, but I'm not sure that isn't as much a negative as a positive. Without a change to the fundamentals.

What we can hope for, more tourists and retirees, helps keep Bend from falling into the crevasse, but it doesn't really create the strong, dynamic economy we might want. I'm not sure we'll ever have that kind of economy. I'm pretty sure we're stuck with "Poverty with a View."

And, I don't see anything that is going to change that dynamic anytime soon.

We see people opening new businesses, and investing what to me are extraordinary amounts of money in Mom and Pop storefronts (how do they ever expect to earn that investment back?!) and this is great for downtown vacancy rates and for the image of vibrancy it gives to Bend -- but, well, I'm not sure it's good for the pocketbooks of the actual entrepreneurs.

That's the big difference between now and the awful '80's. Some real money came to town during the boom, and some real large debt loads, and I think that is still happening to some extent.

Anyway, I try not to let the daily, weekly, and even monthly trends get me down or up. I think we're still in this for the long haul.

I just figured this bubble would play out the same way every other bubble I'd experienced -- a steep, mind-numbing drop, followed by a long period of thinking things would get better only to be dashed, followed by another long period of thinking things would get better (Repeat and Rinse as many times as necessary), followed by giving up expecting it to get better, followed by the day when you suddenly realize that things are better and have been for a while but because you had given up you hadn't seen it.

So, I figure we are still in one of the "expecting it to get better" phases, and thus nowhere near it.

It's best to run your business as if things might go up a little or down a little, but not to expect major changes. Settle in, hunker down, try new things -- but don't let the news headlines distract you from what is actually happening.

Friday freaks.

Cable guy is here to replace install our new phone line.

By reneging on their internet deal, Qwest lost not only my account at the store, but the account here at home and at Linda' store.

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I was pretty stoic yesterday, except that I got into a "these darn kids today..." discussion with a guy, that became less than accepting of what I can't change. It also started to veer into politics, which I opted out of: "I don't want to talk politics."

"That's not fair."

"What's not fair about it? I don't want to talk politics...."

"But I wanted to comment on the health system,"

"Yes, but you were coming at it from a political persuasion....I don't want to talk politics."

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Apparently, they started putting up the yellow tape on the block of Oregon Ave. last night, which is a full day in advance.

Do these promoters have any idea how daunting the yellow tape is to people? Even though the streets aren't officially closed until 10:00 tonight?

I have to cross my fingers, like I do for every event, that when they set up the stage in front of my store, that they do it in such a way as to allow easy access and visuals to my store, and somehow not encourage people to stand in front of my door.

Of those three goals, they usually allow my door to be opened, but the other two -- the visuals and the crowd control pretty much suck.

Because the promoters pretty much don't care about us. These events aren't about the small businesses....

NOTE: On the way to work, I noticed that they have already set up for tomorrow. So Oregon Ave. gets to have a closed street all day, but no activities. Pretty much the worst of both worlds.

Hey, downtowners. If you don't speak up, they'll just keep encroaching and encroaching.

Just saying.

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The solution, of course, is for me to make myself scarce and put my guys in the store. Last week we had a pretty good weekend, and I'm hoping for the best this weekend too.

I ran out of Pokemon cards, yesterday, one of the few items I can sell to the kids at these events. Bad planning for me -- I very rarely completely run out of a viable product...

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Watched Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call last night.

Expected it to be a harrowing movie; the descent of a cop into drugs and corruption.

Well, it was all that. Along with a bullmouse looney performance by Nick Cage -- which at the same time was funny and pitch perfect.

His relationship with his girlfriend was kinda sweet, and he obviously had a moral code -- that maybe only he understood.

It was more Hunter S. Thompson as cop, than Requiem for a Dream.

It had a strangely redemptive and uplifting tone, that I couldn't explain if I had to, and I think it's become one of my favorite movies....

Short thurs.

Watched The Black Death the other night, and once again Sean Bean meets a very bad end. I think his pin-cushion demise in LOTR's was the least gruesome I've seen....

He must be earning karmic movie brownie points somewhere...

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Watched the documentary about Spitzer last night.

If a man is judged by his enemies, he's a saint. (A prostitute frequenting saint.)

Hank Greenberg of AIG looks like a troll -- if a man's character is reflected on his face, the guy is a shriveled up little gnome. Then the guy who was one of the founders of Home Depot, who was a big fat bully, and who part of the way through mentions is "good friend" Jack Welch -- who, if you read this blog you know I despise -- and I thought, yep, birds of a feather.

Wall Street is irredeemably corrupt.

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I need to read my Stoic philosophy again.

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The month has started off really well at the store.

Whoops. I just jinxed it. Forget I ever said it.

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