Tuesday tings.

It may be a faulty memory, but back when Mount Bachelor had just been promoted from Bachelor Butte, it used to take a lot of effort to add any construction to the ski area. I remember them actually turning down some of the lifts to the top, and especially a lodge that could be seen from a distance.

Just saying.

Nowadays, they seem to build whatever they want, without much trouble.

Not coming down on either side of this, just wondering when the Forest Service changed their attitude.

**********

Always amazing how bad apples just stay rotten. Tami Sawyer is spending so much time at her Mexican retreat, that she doesn't bother to show up for court dates. Doitchin Krastev, A.K.A. Jason Evers, files a civil rights complaint "demanding larger portions of vegetables to accommodate his Buddhist diet." Can't we get these people out of our hair?

**********

Suddenly, I'm inundated with Red Tape. There are two government "surveys" I have to fill out, there is a change in employee taxes so that they have to be done automatic withdrawal once a month instead of sending a check off every three months, there is the financial issues surrounding Dad's estate, my comic orders are due, I need to organize the Inventory from the store which is a huge hassle every year, I had an appointment with a lawyer to draw up a will which I know is going to involve trusts and other complicated financial instruments, and so on and so forth.

Jeeeze....just leave me alone!

The dead and the never born.

"Central Oregon Resorts Struggle." Bulletin, 5/20/12.

Well, that's one way of putting it.

Really, if you think about it, there are only two kinds of destination resorts since 2002. Those that who died aborning and those that were never born.

Three resorts actually had some building, though only a small fraction of what they planned. Two of them, Tetherow and Pronghorn, have been foreclosed on. Brasada Ranch did a little construction, but has been sold off. If you'll notice the dates, these resorts had the fortune (good or bad?) of starting a year or two earlier than the following:

The Metolian, Ponderosa, Remington Ranch, Crossing Trails, Hidden Canyon, which never got off the ground.

It was nuts to think they could build this many resorts, this many fancy units. It was nuts for the local officials to believe the hotel units would ever be built. It was nuts to end up with 30 golf courses -- despite the fact that most of the golf courses for the above resorts weren't even built!

So what else is new?

Well, the reason I'm writing this post is that I vowed to never let comments like the following go unchallenged:

"Few could have guessed in the mid-2000s what sort of devastation the end of the decade would bring to the housing market, not just in Central Oregon but around the world."

I suppose it's an improvement that they say "Few could have guessed...." instead of "No one could have guessed..." but the sentiment is the same. In fact, the whole slant of the article is that the resorts were "victims" of negative "psychology."

I'll just keep pointing out, a bunch of us did actually see this coming. It wasn't bad luck which caused this collapse.

No, it was bad planning.

Notice that the Bulletin says the problem is the "housing market." Wait. I thought these were "destination resorts" not subdivisions?

But we all know that's exactly what they were....

By the way, nothing could have been better for my business than to have these resorts succeed. Being in downtown Bend, I can't tell you the number of times a customer has told me they are staying at Sunriver, Black Butte, or Eagle Crest. These are the prime type of customers for a downtown tourist zone.

So....maybe one more resort, maybe with the same numbers of completed units as the above 9 resorts -- that would have been great....

The past can haunt if you let it.

They've got these nifty little "Classic Albums" documentaries on Netflix. They usually have all the band members involved, and I've even been watching a few about bands I didn't listen to at the time.

Anyway, the thing that really jumps out at me is that many of these rock and rollers are trying a little too hard to look young. Colored hair, wrap around hairdos, wild clothing.

Yesterday, Linda took a picture of me playing with the cat and I was shocked by how old I looked. The gray hair, the middle aged ponch, the big beard and so on.

The thing that was most noticeable about the old rockers -- the guys who went with natural color, but short hair and no beards looked the best.

But I can't quite see myself cutting my beard completely. A goatee perhaps. Keeping it shorter would be a big improvement. But, hey, it's what happens in the natural world.


There was also a documentary about the early 60's London "Underground" movement, which focuses on Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. It's legendary how L.S.D. destroyed this guy, and Pink Floyd went on the future fame. But with the knowledge I now have, I think it sounds just as likely that he hit the age of Schizophrenia, and the drugs either just initiated the change or exacerbated it.

I had an episode of depression, for many of the same reasons, in my early 20's which I slowly dug my way out of. Again, I know depression runs in my family, but doing drugs didn't help.

It's scary, and it's something over years that I've not delved into much. I put that part of my life into the past and rarely revisit it.

But sure enough, had my usual scary dreams, of being crazy and ostracized. I wake up, and there is Linda, wonderful normal sweet Linda, and I breath a big sigh of relief. And, after getting up for an hour or so, I go back to sleep.

I usually avoid all reminders to that part of my life, which I think is a good strategy.

I recently had a high school friend want to get in touch, and while she wasn't an inner part of my troubles back then, it still would stir old feelings. (My friend, Wes, who I've had so much interaction over the years, those old feelings have softened.)

I've been married to Linda for 29 years, and she never saw me like that. I may have been slightly strange when she met me, but I was coming out of it, and it really was like night and day. She has the romanticized idea that she would have seen my qualities -- but it's a moot point, because it wouldn't have happened, I was so closed off.

My brother has apparently had some depressive episodes -- though I don't think he ever had extinction event level depression like mine where I couldn't get out of bed. But I was remarking how luck I was that I've not had a reoccurence of depression in the last 35 years or so.

"Oh, odds are it will happen," he says.

Oh, great. Thanks.

I've never been naive, I've always known the possibility exists, I've tried to monitor myself so that I'll know if it's coming on, and I've programmed myself in advance to seek help (medication) immediately.

Part of me thinks it's genetic, and part of me thinks it's environmental, and all of me thinks it's both. The optimistic side of me, thinks it's environmental and can be avoided if I take the right steps. The negative side of me thinks, yeah, sure, that's what you would think.

But I did sort of work my way out of it -- time helped, but so did some methods and some self-awareness. So I'm still thinking I can keep trying to avoid it by living a good and proper life.

The future is now.

Cameron got an acting gig this week, so I had to work Tuesday. Oh, my gosh. A whole nother day of work.

It was interesting, because I found that I was busy all day. I'm already really busy on the other days I work, because I'm not able to pace the work. It just sort of falls on my head, like a ton of bricks.

Which is actually O.K., because I like being busy when I'm at work.

Anyway, it showed me that there is still plenty to do. It was extra stuff, like cleaning and sorting and restocking. Rearranging. Taking some extra time on some orders.

Because Linda's 4.5 years older than me, we're looking at retirement issues sooner rather than later. Personally, I have no intention of quitting. I really enjoy the store these days, it is finally working the way I'd always hoped it would, it's bringing in an income, and I have enough time off to enjoy myself.

I think this model really works for me, even into an age that normally I might be looking to retire. I'm thinking I can have my cake and eat it too.

Of course, a lot can change in 5 years, but I feel like I will be able to adapt.

What I'm trying to say is -- I'm trying to relax. Not put everything off into the future. Keep the store's momentum, but try not to throw it into chaos. Quit worrying.

Linda has always had this capability, and I'm trying to learn.

Do more shops create more business, or does more business create more shops?

Hooray for Coffee!!!

If 3 cups give you a 10% mortality boost, I've got it made in the shade. (Knock wood.)

**********

Slate has just posted a "poverty" map, which shows Deschutes County sitting prominently in the middle of Oregon with a big increase. At first it looks like the big black spot in the middle of Oregon is the only county in the state with an increase, until you look into the far southeast corner.

Malheur County has had a doubling of it's poverty rate.

**********

I read a profile of hot IPO's a number of years ago which made if very clear that, for most of us, buying on opening day is a sucker play. The insiders have already bought a ton of the stock, and they're selling to you at a huge profit.

Thanks, but no thanks, Facebook.

**********

If I'm reading the article on Pronghorn correctly, it seems to me that what this new "management company" (Bulletin, 5/18/12.) is doing is setting up time-shares with the other resorts it manages.

Seems like kind of a comedown.

**********

I was preparing to start opening a few boxes of sports cards and put some fresh singles out.

Until yesterday.

I had a customer in, who I thought was questioning my integrity (not buying from an open box despite my assurances that no one was allowed to pick through them). Turns out, he wasn't buying because he felt the cards had "curled." (I assured him, that all cards made of that particular process did that over time, and that they flatten out nicely -- he didn't believe me.)

Anyway, I got really angry in a millisecond. It shows me I still harbor strong anger about sports cards that can come to the surface at any moment. We talked it out and there were no hard feelings, but whew....it showed I need to keep to the box and pack selling strategy I've had over the last decade or so, even if it means fewer sales.

Fewer sales, but more sanity.

**********

PERSON OF INTEREST had a great episode for the season ending; it was almost like Matrix there at the end. This show just got progressively better as the season went along.

It seems to be running beneath the radar, at least I haven't talked to anyone else who watches it or seen any article about it.

**********

I'm getting the sense that they are dragging out the Greek crisis until everyone is ready for the last shoe to drop.

It'll hurt, but everyone will be more prepared.

I don't know. It's pretty screwed up that my finances could in any way be infected by a crisis in Greece.

**********

I had a traveler from Fort Collins, Co., who said there were 5 comic shops there.

I looked it up, and it's a smaller urban area than Bend.

Sure enough, when I Googled it, I saw there are at least four legit comic shops. (Plus, according to the customer, a new one opened by a friend of his...)

I'm not sure how these things happen. There are town all over America bigger than Fort Collins that have NO comic shops. I've never been able to get to more than about 65% of the way toward a living wage with comics, thus adding in cards, games, books, toys.

But just because 5 shops exist, that doesn't mean that 5 shops will continue to exist. I have to believe one is probably so new it doesn't know where it stands, another may be quietly on it's way out, another may be a 'hobby' shop supported by it's owner, another may be selling a majority of something else, or maybe they have all created some magical forcefield for comic shops.

There is a four year college there, so that would probably allow for 2 viable comic shops, and then - - maybe a third shop could exist from the synergistic forces involved in multiple shops.

It's sort of like the fluky numbers of card shops in Eugene -- again, it's inexplicable on the face of it.


LATER: Did some more research, and I think I was mixing apples and oranges. Fort Collins itself has a population of 145K, twice the size of Bend. I was comparing it to Bend's Metro numbers. The Wiki doesn't give the Metro numbers for Fort Collins, but it usually roughly doubles.

So by those numbers, two shops could be viable. Add a third shop because of the four year college. It's also on an interstate, and it's midway between Cheyenne and Denver, about an hour from each. Close enough to pull in some customers, I would think.

So, yeah, I can see three shops, though even that is unusual.

It's something I've always wondered -- do more shops create more business, or does more business create more shops?

Downtown Comings and Goings. 5/17/12.

I noticed there is a new furniture store on Bond. Natural Edge Furniture.

The Pottery Lounge is closed with a notice on the window.

Giddy Up is moving to Tres Jolie. By the rules of this blog, they no longer have a dedicated storefront, so they are put on the Goings list, like the Clutch and others who have moved into that space. Just to point out, they are still in business.

That's 99 Comings and 98 Goings, by my count. There have never been more Goings than Comings, in the 3.5 years I've been keeping this list, so this is the closest we've gotten.

NEW BUSINESSES DOWNTOWN


Natural Edge Furniture, Bond St., 5/10/12
Hola!, Bond St., 3/3/12.
Amanda's, Franklin Ave., 2/24/12
Barrio, Minnesota Ave., 2/12/12.
Rescue Moderne, Harriman, 1/12/12.
Letzer's Deli, Franklin Ave. 2/12/12.
Navidi, Minnesota Ave., 2/9/12.
Mazza, Brooks St. , 2/9/12.
La Magie Bakery, Bond St., 1/6/12
Brother Jon's Ale House, Bond St., 12/10/11.
What Lola Wants, Wall St. , 12/2/11.
Jackalope Grill, 10/12/11.
Gypsy Soul, Wall St. 10/12/11.
Colour N' the City, Tin Pan Alley, 10/12/11.
Lotus Moon, Brooks St., 10/12/11.
The Lobby, Bond St. , 10/12/11.
Ruby, Minnesota Ave., 10, 12/11.
Kariella, Lava Road, 8/24, 11.
Plankers, Wall St., 7/11.
Faveur, Franklin, 7/11.
Dream Pebbles, Minnesota Ave., 6/15/11.
Bend Yogurt Factory, Franklin/Bond, 4/26/11.
High Desert Lotus, Bond St. , 4/4/11.
Tryst, Franklin Ave., 3/11/11. (Formerly Maryjanes, **Moved**).
D'Vine, Wall St. , 2/9/11.
Let it Ride!, Bond St., 1/29/11.
Gatsby's Brasserie Bar, Minnesota Ave., 1/8/11
Tres Jolie, Wall St., 12/20/10.
Caldera Grill, Bond St., 12/7/10
Bond Street Grill, 12/7/10.
Perspective(s), Minnesota Ave., 11/20/10
Toth Art Collective, Bond St. 11/20/10
Boken, Breezeway, 11/20/10
Dalia and Emilia, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Antiquarian Books, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Giddyup, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
The Closet, Minnesota Ave., 8/11/10.
Showcase Hats, Oregon Ave., 8/11/10,
Red Chair Art Gallery, Oregon Ave. 7/13/10.
Earth Sense Herbs, Penny's Galleria, 7/12/10.
Mad Happy Lounge, Brooks St., 6/2910
Common Table, Oregon Ave. , 6/29/10.
Looney Bean Coffee, Brooks St. , 6/29/10.
Bourbon Street, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
Feather's Edge, Minnesota Ave., 6/22/10
The BLVD., Wall St. , 6/13/10.
Volt, Minnesota Ave. 6/1/10.
Tart, Minnesota Ave. , 5/13/10
Olivia Hunter, Wall St. 4/5/10.
Tres Chic, 4/5/10 (Moved to Minnesota Av.)
Blue Star Salon, Wall St. 4/1/10.
Lululemon, Bond St. 3/31/10.
Diana's Jewel Box, Minnesota Ave., 3/25/10.
Amalia's, Wall St. (Ciao Mambo space), 3/12/10
River Bend Fine Art, Bond St. (Kebanu space) 2/23/10
Federal Express, Oregon Ave. 2/1/10
***10 Below, Minnesota Ave. 1/10/10
Tew Boots Gallery, Bond St. 1/8/10.
Top Leaf Mate, 12/10/09
Laughing Girls Studio, Minnesota Ave. 12/7/09
Lemon Drop, 5 Minnesota Ave., 11/12/09
The Curiosity Shoppe, 25 N.W. Minnesota Ave, Suite #7. 11/5/09
Wabi Sabi 11/4/09 (**Moved, Wall St.**)
Frugal Boutique 11/4/09
5 Spice 10/22/09
Cowgirls Cash 10/17/09
***Haven Home 10/17/09
Dog Patch 10/17/09
The Good Drop 10/12/09
Lola's 9/23/09
**Volcano Wines 9/15/09
Singing Sparrow Flowers 8/16/09
Northwest Home Interiors 8/5/09
High Desert Frameworks 7/23/09 (*Moved to Oregon Ave. 4/5/10.)
Wall Street Gifts 7/--/09
Ina Louise 7/14/09
Bend Home Hardware (Homestyle Hardware?) 7/1/09
Altera Real Estate 6/9/09
Honey 6/7/09
Azura Studio 6/7/09
Mary Jane's 6/1/09
c.c.McKenzie 6/1/09
Velvet 5/28/09
Bella Moda 3/25/09
High Desert Gallery (Bend) 3/25/09
Joolz
Zydeco
900 Wall
Great Outdoor Store
Luxe Home Interiors
Powell's Candy
Dudley's Used Books and Coffee
Goldsmith
Game Domain
Subway Sandwiches
Bend Burger Company
Showcase Hats
Pita Pit
Happy Nails

(List begun, Fall, 2008.)

BUSINESSES LEAVING

Giddy Up, Minnesota Ave., 5/10/12
Pottery Lounge, Oregon Ave., 5/17/12.
Boondocks, Newport Ave., 3/27/12
Game Domain, Oregon Ave., 3/27/12.
Toth Gallery, Bond St., 3/27/12.
Letzer's Deli, Franklin Ave., 3/22/12.
Clutch, Minnesota Ave., 3/22/12. (Moving to Tres Jolie).
High Desert Gallery, Minnesota Ave., 3/22/12.
Tart, Bond St., 3/3/12.
El Caporal West, Franklin Ave., 2/24/12
Bo Restobar, Franklin Ave., 2/9/12.
The Lobby, Bond St. , 2/9/12.
Arts Central, Brooks St., 2/7/12.
Typhoon!, Bond St., 2/5/12.
Gatsby's, Minnesota Ave., 2/5/12
The Dog Patch, Minnesota Av. 1/9/12.
Bend Mapping, Bond St., 1/9/12.
Lotus Moon, Brooks St. 1/9/12 (Moving into Tres Jolie)
Bond Street Grill, Bond St., 11/20/12.
Mad Happy Lounge, Brooks St., 10/11.
Azu, Wall St., 10/25/11.
Showcase Hats, Oregon Av., 10/11.
Bourbon St., Minnesota Ave. 10/12/11.
Curiosity Shop, Minnesota Ave., 7/11
Luluemon, Bond St., 8/26, 11.
Shear Illusions, Franklin Ave., 7/11.
Crepe Place, Wall St., 7/11.
Pita Pit, Brooks St. , 6/28/11
Smith and Wade Salon, Minnesota, Av. , 6/3/11.
Perspectives, Minnesota Av., 6/1/11
River Bend Art Gallery, Bond St., 5/5/11.
Donner's Flowers, Wall St. 3/11/11. (**Moved out of downtown**)
Maryjanes, Wall St. , 3/11/11. (new name, Tryst, moved to Franklin.).
Di Lusso, Franklin/Bond, 2/9/11.
Earth Sense Herbs, Penny's Galleria, 1/2/11
Marz Bistro, Minnesota Av., 12/20/10.
The Decoy, Bond St., 12/7/10.
Giuseppe's, Bond St., 12/1/10.
Ina Louise, Minnesota Ave., 11/3/10.
Laughing Girl Studios, 10/21/10
Dolce Vita, Bond St, 10/21/10
Diana's Jewell Box, Minnesota Ave., 10/15/10.
Lola's, Breezeway, 10/8/10.
Oxygen Tattoo, Bond St., 10/3/10.
Great Outdoor Clothing, Wall St., 10/3/10.
Volcano Vineyards, Minnesota Ave., 10/3/10.
Subway Sandwiches, Bond St. 9/2/10.
Old Bend Distillery, Brooks St., 6/19/10.
Staccato, Minnesota Ave. 6/18/10.
Showcase Hats, Minnesota Ave., 6/1/10 (Moved to Oregon Ave., 8/10/11.)
Cork, Oregon Ave., 5/27/10.
Wall Street Gifts, 5/26/10
Microsphere, Wall St. , 5/17/10.
Singing Sparrow, Franklin and Bond, 5/15/10
28, Minnesota Ave. and Bond, 5/13/10.
Glass Symphony, Wall St., 3/25/10
Bend Home Hardware, Minnesota Ave, 2/25/10
Ciao Mambo, Wall St. 2/4/10
***Angel Kisses 1/25/10 (Have moved to 'Honey.')
Ivy Rose Manor 8/20/09
***Downtowner 8/18/09 (moving into the Summit location)
Chocolate e Gateaux 8/16/09
Finders Keepers 8/15/09
Colourstone 7/25/09
Periwinkle 6/--/09
***Tangerine 7/21/09 (Got word, they are moving across the street.)
Micheal Cassidy Gallery 6/15/09
St. Claire Coffee 6/15/09
Luxe Home Interiors 6/4/09
Treefort 5/8/09
Blue 5/2/09
***Volcano Tasting Room 4/28/09** Moved to Minnesota Ave.
Habit 4/16/09
Mountain Comfort 4/14/09
Tetherow Property 4/11/09
Blue Moon Marketplace 3/25/09
Plenty 3/25/09
Downtown Doggie 3/25/09
***King of Sole (became Mary Janes)**
Santee Alley
Bistro Corlise
Made in Hawaii
EnVogue
Stewart Weinmann (leather)
Kebanu Gallery
Pella Doors and Windows
Olive company
Pink Frog
Little Italy
Deep
Merenda's
Volo
***Pomegranate (downtown branch)**
Norwalk
Pronghorn Real Estate office.
Speedshop Deli
Paper Place
Bluefish Bistro

(List begun, Fall, 2008

Tapping into Watchmen nostalgia.

Lots of discussion over on the retail sites about whether BEFORE WATCHMEN is going to be a hit or a flop, or in-between.

I ended up ordering heavily.

I could have gone the other way, (The saying is, "No one ever went broke selling out.")but because the store is overall doing well, I decided to take a chance.

I've noticed with the bigger promotions,that they tend to have an umbrella effect on the rest of the titles. That is, the big title itself may not be a moneymaker, but it seems to help sell other things.

That's the thing about comic shops -- we order in advance, based on limited knowledge, and we don't get to return the unsold copies. In compensation, we get a higher mark-up than we do on other product that we theoretically could return; books, for instance, even though I never do.

The talk is whether WATCHMEN still has an appeal to modern readers. Or conversely, whether the creators behind the new titles are great enough to hold onto readers.

My calculation is, that WATCHMEN is indeed a perennial and probably always will be. It's taken on a mythic proportion by now, with or without the movie. What I'm saying is, Alan Moore created some great characters, and I'm going to assume that people will want to read more about these characters.

After all, the very best part of the movie was the opening credits which created a deep sense of nostalgia for an earlier time; a time that never really happened.

If these titles are written well, they will tap into that nostalgia and I'll be along for the ride.

I feel so guilty.

"Beat L.A.!"

You're not a true Oregonian until you can yell that.

**********

My rhododendron is blooming for only the third time in 9 years.

Beautiful plant.

**********

I didn't vote.

I feel so guilty.

**********

Linda bequeathed me her old ipad and I haven't even picked it up.

I feel so guilty.

**********

I've stopped reading the New York Times. I just don't have time.

I feel so guilty.

**********

I'm reading HADRIAN, by Anthony Everitt, a biography of the Roman emperor.

Why?

I don't know. I should be reading something more useful like the stack of comics that I've fallen behind on.

I feel so guilty.

**********

I haven't filled out the (legally required) Census form the feds sent me.

I feel so....

....no, wait. The hell I do.

I seem to have gotten noticed by the feds, because suddenly I'm on a couple of these monitoring type reviews. Dammit. After being blissfully ignored for 28 years.

**********

I found a company that will clean out Dad's room and give the fixtures and other things to charities for a fee.

The type of thing that the younger and broke-er me would have done myself to save money and then have probably had a garage sale to raise money.

But Time is Money.

I feel so guilty.

The top of my head is sunburned.

Got the backyard garden cleaned and weeded in two days. The front yard will probably take another day, including the side. There is still a stretch on the side that I've never really gotten to, which will probably be more work than everything else combined.

Like I said, maintenance is much easier than trying to clear the space for a garden in the first place.

I went online and googled the sprinkler system we have, which didn't seem to be reaching everywhere I wanted it to. Now, I am probably getting too much coverage, but I'd rather have that than the alternative.

I planted four boxwoods last year, in front of the back porch, and my sister commented on them when she was down last fall: "Wow. You are trying boxwood? Even Mom had difficulty with those." Uh, oh, I thought. Sure enough, two of the boxwood look like they are all but dead and two seem fine.

I'm not going to transplant anything until they reached full maturity, if then. I just want to see how everything does for year without interference.

It just goes to show, in both the store and in gardening, that new enterprises take ten times the effort that just keeping the ball rolling does.

"Stuff" means nothing without the person.

Linda and I went to Dad's room yesterday to clear it of personal material. We're going to donate the fixtures to any thrift that wants to come and get them.

There wasn't a lot of nostalgia in the process -- most of the family stuff was taken care of years ago when we sold the family home and held an estate sale. In fact, in cleaning out Dad's room, I wonder if our family maybe should have retained a few more personal items for Dad.

But he never did much care about his surroundings. He continued to be a hoarder, but of very small things.

So there were some pictures and knickknacks and a few other personal items that we loaded up and took to our storage shed.

I went through Dad's clothes, and he had some classic Pendleton type shirts that fit me, and I took a few. It's funny, but his feet were bigger than mine, and his hands were smaller, and I don't tend to wear hats. I took a nice coat.

Really, there was very little. If I didn't know it already, this would have shown me that possessions basically mean nothing without the person there. The room was just sort of sad and forlorn.

I feel like I notice a sick smell in the rooms -- not that the place isn't kept very clean, but I think it just comes with the territory. Linda says she doesn't smell it, but not only do I smell it but it seems to linger long after I leave. I was O.K. with it when Dad was there, but the sickness smell without him there is just a sickness smell.

We all just have to go with the flow, I guess. Live with what we have and not get too acquisitive -- and above all enjoy the people.

It's the GODFATHER ramped up to 11.

One neat thing about Netflix is that it's allowing me to catch up with cult auteur Japanese directors. Last time, it was Miike, this time it was Beat Kitano's OUTRAGE.

SPOILERS.

This gangster film keeps introducing us to a vast cast of characters, high and low in the Yakuza. Doesn't matter if you keep track. One by one, they are offed, in very violent ways. It just keeps happening, new characters are introduced, while old characters find themselves in a dangerous situations.

Just when you think maybe they'll escape, they'll be murdered or mangled in a creative spurt of mayhem.

It's a veritable Bach fugue of violence, a metronomic ticking off of character after character. There is a kind of horrid dry humor in the way it just keeps happening. The fascination is in how and when the violence will erupt.

There is immense expertise in the way the characters are introduced, the situation escalates, and the technical precision of each scene. You get to know the characters just enough to realize they all deserve what happens to them and yet still be horrified by it. It's as if it was a Dirty Harry movie directed by Antonioni -- a beautiful constructed but cold piece of work.

Avengers assemble!

All right, all right already! I saw the movie!

It was terrific. Amazing, considering how much action was packed into the movie that any characterization was possible at all. Some very humorous moments.

I don't care for superhero knockdowns, (stupid misunderstandings), in the comics or the movies, but I can overlook that. Interestingly, the best selling current comic right now is exactly that, a punchfest between the X-Men and the Avengers.


Sidenote: I kept wondering who this Agent Hill was, and why was Joss Whedon lovingly showing her backside? Not just once, he has a scene where she is walking away from the camera in her skintight black leathers. Good looking woman.

Turns out, the actress's name is Cobie Smulders, and if I remember rightly, Whedon was planning to cast her in the role of Wonder Woman.

I wonder if the producers of Wonder Woman are kicking themselves right about now. Heh.

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

I've always been very protective of my alone time. Even over the last 30 years of owning a store and being married, I've always found time to do nothing.

Events have conspired to shrink that time, even though I'm taking a lot of days off at work.

Linda and I are the family in town when it comes to dealing with Dad's stuff, so that has really taken a huge chunk of time out of our lives. At the same time, ironically, the actual scheduling of vacations seems to have shrunk time even more. There are things we have to do, places we have to go -- just so we can get to a time when we don't have things to do and places to go.

There are legal (wills and such), accounting, taxes and other everyday things that need to be handled, that were never a problem when we were flat broke.

Somehow I've avoided all this little annoyances over the years. Mostly, because I would just say no to most social activities -- but these are things I can't in good conscious neglect.

Anyway, was talking to a young writer in my store yesterday and we were commiserating about how hard it is to find time to write, and I just remembered how I used to have the luxury of having oodles of time to write, or just to think about writing.

Because I didn't know anyone, I was underemployed and broke, and I had no responsibilities.

I know the old Kristofferson line is a bit of a cliche, but it's still overwhelmingly true.

Smooth moves.

Have had Mike's mystery books piled up on my work table for weeks. I've been working around them, instead of packing them.

So today, I put my coffee in a crevice, and it slipped out, splashing everywhere.

All because I've been too lazy to get it done.

So now I'm packing, and it's freakin' hot in here. I could have done this in comfort weeks ago.

Smooth move.

**********

I stopped carrying WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE because the dust cover kept getting damaged and I kept having to transfer it to the used book section.

Smooth move.

**********

"Watch our for the bark dust," the Villa Court mover says to me.

Yeah, yeah. As a former semi-professional gardener, heh, I've worked in bark dust my whole life. Inconvenient, the occasional splinter, but manageable.

So I'm wearing shorts and sandals for the first time, and I walk over the bark dust. Ten minutes later, I realize I have splinters by the dozens.

"I hear they're using Fir bark now," Linda says. "That's much worse."

Smooth move.

**********

Wearing shorts, without my belt, I don't do the usual transfer and the leather belt goes through the wash and comes up as curly spaghetti.

Smooth move.

**********

I make spelling and grammar errors on this blog, but not as many as I do when I make comments, or do e-mails.

I just must check more often -- and it's easier to make editorial changes.

Comments and e-mails are as sloppy as everyday speech, I guess.

Smooth move.

**********

Forgot to pay my rent on time.

Smooth move.

It's not a crime!

I need to keep track of the number of people who have asked me what I thought of the Avengers movie.

NO! I haven't seen it!

Take that look of disbelief out of your eyes, dammit, it's only been a week!

Don't tell me all about it! Don't talk to each other about all the details!

Move on! Move on!

Questioning small success.

I constantly, obsessively, think about my failures in business.

On the other hand, I tend to let all the analysis slide when things are going well.

So I'm trying to apply this kind of critical thinking toward the current situation and see if there is anything I can learn from it.

I've already talked about the addition of new books and boardgames as seeming to be the thing that pushed us over the top. That's all me. I decided to do this just before the crash, and continued to add inventory for the first two or three years until I reached a threshold.

So that's not so hard to see.

Lately, I've been shoring up that parts of the store that took a backseat while this inventory building was going on. I never let up on comics and graphic novels, but just about everything else slid into auto-pilot.

So I've been incrementally improving the toys, the sports and non-sports cards, the manga and anime, and it's helping a little. Not dramatically, but improving.

The economy itself? I can't tell. I'll assume that it must be getting better if I'm seeing double digit growth. I do believe that we are seeing a healthy number of tourists, for which I've tried to design the store.

Anything else? Yeah. I think my employees have been doing a good job. They are at the age and interest that more corresponds with the age and interests of my customers. They are into mainstream comics, and conscious of all the pop trends. They are cheerful and helpful.

Because I'm working less, and because things are going well, I'm more cheerful and helpful too. That that must be having a small effect.

Maybe it's just the maturing of the store; after 28 years, with ups and downs, slip ups and failures, picking myself back up and trying again, I've finally assembled the elements of a solid store.

Or maybe this is just temporary and coincidental and I'm patting myself on the back for factors beyond my real control.

Only thing I can do is keep trying to make the store work, and monitor it, and be aware that so much of this is a mystery, of which I am only partially aware.

Can a promotion be too successful?

You guys are going to laugh at this. Look -- Duncan is panning a promotion because it's TOO successful? Heh.


This may seem ungrateful, but at least I'm consistent. I don't much like sales and promotions. I work hard to get the best material in the store I can get and pay my bills. What I want is everyday business that is sufficient to do that.

And I mostly stick to this plan. I say no to just about every promotion. For instance, when I made my jigsaw puzzle order, the guy offered me a 'space' on the Central Oregon map puzzle if I ordered enough. At a huge discount. He couldn't believe it when I wouldn't even pay this small amount, even though I qualified.

He lowered the rate even more, and I said yes. Hey, I ain't completely crazy.

"Sales" and "Promotions" often just muddy the waters. When you add up costs, and downsides, it seems to me that most of these things are negatives, not positives. (I count opportunity loses, extra costs, lower margins, time, space, energy ... everything.)

The only exception I make, is FCBD. I like it's simplicity.

Free comics. Really. That's all there is to it. Good comics, created for the day of the event, given away without strings.

Free Comic Book Day has probably been successively more successful every year since it's start. (8 years ago, or so?)

By successful, I mean people in the door. Last few years I've actually almost run out of comics before the day it out, even though I've been upping my orders.

At any rate, for the last couple of years, our sale totals for the day have been about double normal. That sounds like a lot, but the store will normally do this two or three times a month even without promotions.

I think the problem, ironically, is that there are TOO MANY people. The aisles get clogged, most people can't browse, and the lines get long.

Now activity is good, up to a point. But then it crosses over a busyness threshold.

Anyway, I spend quite a bit on FCBD. The comics aren't free for me, we buy them, albeit at much lower prices than normal. In other words, it isn't a money maker for me, even at twice the sales level. But I've decided it's a good will gesture and not to expect anything in return. I've been lucky in my business -- once a year I can be generous.

It certainly exposes the store to lots and lots of people. Do I see them the rest of the year? Hard to say. Doesn't matter, I like the giving aspect.

Indicative of the the event, I had some customers in on Thursday who asked me if we were having any 'Sales' on FCBD?

"Well, yeah," I said, without thinking, no irony. "We're giving comics away."

It was only after they left that I realized they wanted more.

I'm not complaining. I love seeing the interest and the fun. I like being in solidarity with the other comic shops.

But even this promotion, wildly successful as it appears to be, hasn't convinced me that promotions as a whole are beneficial to my business.

Wednesday Wats.

I removed yesterday's post, "A Time to Reflect", because it just didn't seem respectful enough so soon after Dad's passing. Not very sentimental, and a little to much digging up things.

Maybe later, I'll post it again.

There was great quote that an anonymous poster posted from Bonfire of Vanities, about sons and fathers, which I would love if he would repost. So true.

***********

Dad was once a bigger fish in a much smaller pond. When I was 12, he had a heart episode, and it hit the front page of the Bulletin. Chandler and him knew each other, clashed occasionally -- Chandler didn't much like doctors, if I remember rightly.

Anyway, all these years later, Dad is a little fish in a much bigger pond. Even most of the people at the hospital don't know who he was -- I'd mention he was the first pathologist in town, and most of the doctors and nurses would just shrug.

Like goes on. (Until it doesn't.)

**********

Turns out I'm allergic to bottled Starbucks coffee. I spent two days of the trip tied to the cabin. (Read almost 4 books!) On the third day, I skipped the coffee and was fine. Very inconvenient on trips.

**********

Actor Mathew Fox is a lucky guy. He won't have his mugshot plastered all over the internet because of his recent D.U.I. in Bend, because the camera at the station was broken. (Of course, his last mugshot was pretty wild, so they'll probably use that, instead.)

I have to say, he was in my store once and seemed like a perfectly nice guy.

**********

I've given up buying remainder books with the word "zombie" in the title. There are just too many of them.

Also, the term "fantasy" has pretty much lost all meaning, since they now include all Twilight and/or romance novels with supernatural elements under that rubric.

We need some new terminology. I don't much like paranormal romance as a selling description, but it's pretty accurate. (Some women will read romance, but won't buy anything that is branded "romance." Yeah.)

**********

Senator Lugar loses to Tea Party candidate.

Must be a terrible thing to sell your soul and still lose. The devil had a tricky clause in the contract, apparently. (Orrin Hatch, on the other hand, looks like he signed a much more complete contract with Him.)

**********

Murder at the Kentucky Derby?

Just goes to show that LUCK was a very unlucky show. Think what they could've done with the publicity...


**********

Alison Bechdel has written and drawn another graphic novel, ARE YOU MY MOTHER? to go with the book she did about her Dad, FUN HOME.

FUN HOME was the best book I read that year, bar none. The first and last time I've said that about a graphic novel. Amazing book.

**********

Got a lot accomplished yesterday, gardening. Did half of the backyard. Another few days and I'll have the maintenance part caught up.

I'm going to give it another month or so, and then subdivide some of the surviving plants and fill the holes where the store bought plants didn't survive.

I really need to readjust the sprinklers and even though the installer showed me a couple of times how to do it, it's that mechanical stuff I just can't remember. I may trying Googling it.

***********

Speaking of Google, I was going through some of my trivia sites, reddit, Flavorwire, etc. etc. and thinking how the internet refers to tons of things I'm don't know anything about. I mean, without the internet, most of this stuff I probably would have never known about.

Or missed.

Anyway, instead of just trying to guess what it all means, the internet has also provided Google, which means I can jump over and ask what "dubstep" means, or look up varieties of deep sea jellyfish to see what creature is on a video, or any number of things.

It's a rabbit hole.

A time to reflect.

I'm going to spend the day gardening and thinking about Dad. Thinking about life and family and time and money and sickness and health.

Dad's passing didn't come as a surprise -- emotionally, I've been preparing for it for months. Last few times I saw him, I knew that he had given up. It was hard in these last few years because we couldn't really talk, he was so deaf.

Then again, for most of my life, I couldn't really talk to Dad. He dominated the conversation, wasn't a great conversationalist. He was a great talker. I remember most our hunting and fishing trips, which I both loved and hated. Dad could be fun, and he could be demanding.

We bonded most, strangely, over his love of knowledge and trivial. He'd challenge me to identify an obscure actor and was always tickled if I knew. On the other hand, I hated the look in his face when I didn't know something he thought I should know.

Spurred me, I think, to gather knowledge and gather knowledge, though as I grew older I realized that I would never retain the amount of knowledge he had. He was just an incredibly smart man. A little frustrated, I think, even though he was an accomplished doctor -- I think he would have been a fantastic history professor.

He could tell some whoppers, and most of us McGeary's learned to parse his stories for what was real and what was exaggerated. Casual acquaintances didn't know how to do this -- they believed it all, because he was a hell of a good storyteller. Better than me. But when he'd start writing, he would lose his storytelling voice, somehow. I think he was impressed that I became a writer.

He was a dutiful father, but not an attentive one. I realized as I got older that I had opportunities at tons of activities that I would never have been able to do if he wasn't willing to back them up. But even though Dad made those possibilities available (or acquiesced on Mom's insistence) he was rarely involved in those activities. I didn't have the Field of Dreams experience with Dad. I never felt that kind of bonding, there was always a little distance.

At the same time, he had a hoarder's mentality and it did cause problems and took a long time for our family to realize that it was a syndrome and in some ways he just couldn't help it.

But when I suffered from depression just out of my teens, he was willing to support me, let me live at home, pay for college years beyond the normal, and gave me support I needed, even though I was being a real pill at the time. Very few families would have put it with my behavior 40 years ago. Without this help, I'd probably have ended up on the street.

He was proud of his family. We all were successful in our own ways, though none of us really followed the traditional routes to success -- which took him awhile to get used to, I think.

I see a lot of myself in my Dad. Many of the things he fell down on, I see in myself. I see where my love of knowledge (or, if you will, trivia) comes from. The love of reading. The independence and self-entertainment aspects of my personality, which are both a hindrance and a blessing.

I see him as man of his times, growing up in the depression, getting ready to go to war, doing the things his father expected of him, though I think in many ways he'd rather have done something else. He understood and appreciated my Mom, and he was proud of his kids. He was accomplished and from all accounts, liked and admired by his co-workers. (Especially for his stories and jokes and knowledge. He was a walking google.)

He was tenacious, even though much of what he loved most in life, Mom and traveling and especially reading, were taken from him. My brothers and sisters were impressively supportive of Dad in these last years. Linda seemed to really like him and enjoy his company, (Linda likes and enjoys most people). I'm glad we were able to be there for him, at the end, even if there was probably more we could have done.

I can feel the sadness, just under the surface, but I also feel the inevitability of it. It's a time to reflect.

Our Cabin in the Woods...and an unexpected ending.

Linda and I are headed for a three night, four day vacation at a cabin on the McKenzie river. Far enough away to be away, but not an onerous drive. It's the 29th anniversary of our first date.

I haven't decided yet whether it's going to be a reading and relaxing trip, or if I'm actually going to try to write. I'm going to try to talk Linda into turning off the internet and the T.V. for the whole trip, but not sure if I have the gumption myself.

Anyway, I can already feel myself relaxing, even though we haven't left town yet. I lifting of the spirits. A dropping of the burdens.



While waiting for Linda to come back from a supply run, I started gardening and it was very pleasant. I regret losing another weekend of gardening, but it does give the plants a good start. If I start too early, I might lose some seedlings.

Most the the forget-me-nots didn't survive the winter, but I'm finding little seedlings, so maybe I'll end up with enough plants to transplant into a border again.



Got to the cabin in late afternoon and it started raining. It rained all night. I told the renter that we'd want our money back if they didn't turn off the rain-machine.

The cabin is small but very cosy. We sat and listened to the river and read.

The cabin is right on the river, and the deck is right over the bank. The river is running high and wild, and there is a picture in the bathroom of the 1989 flood, where the waters actually lapped over the deck.

Not completely reassuring to go to bed with the flow running so high and it raining hard.



Woke up Saturday morning and the sun is shining! A few hours of drying off and I think we'll be able to sit on the deck. Meanwhile, it turns out we do have wifi, so I'm of course surfing the net.
We watched Grimm last night, and we'll watch Sherlock on Sunday, and hopefully that is all. (We have satellite, but none of the premium channels). Still did more reading than usually last night, and have already started reading another book this morning.

It cooled off again until late afternoon, when we went for a walk and sat on the deck. I've already finished two and half books since I got here, so I guess my question of reading versus writing is answered. I had an upset stomach yesterday, so didn't stray far from the cabin.

We're going exploring today -- we want to take a picture of the cabin from across the river. What I'd really like to do is take a picture of Linda on the deck from the other side, but first we need to see if that's possible. She's having great fun with her iphone, taking pictures of everything -- I do mean everything in sight.

Weirdly, there isn't another soul up here. There's a dozen cabins, but no people. I mean, I like that, but it's kinda strange since the weather isn't all that bad.

There are some kids having a lightsaber fight across the river -- I had to watch that movement through the trees for a few minutes before I figured out what it was...

It got warm enough for shorts and sandals, and we went driving up to Cougar Lake and up in the hills and walked around. I read three books on this trip.


So, here's where this post takes an odd turn.

We got a call from Bend Villa Court at 5:15 A.M. that Dad had died.

We knew he was declining, and hesitated to take the trip which we scheduled a month ago, but all the siblings said, "Go! Get out of town." And honestly, I didn't expect anything to happen. Dad had been hanging in there a long time.

Last three times Linda and I saw him, he was napping. As we headed out of town, we were told he was napping, so we kept going.

It's weird. I'm not sure if this was fast or slow. His stroke was many years ago, and his physical decline has been steady. Looking back on it, I think the break was losing his front teeth and refusing to do anything about it. And the stomach infection that sent him to the hospital.

We struggled with the decision as a family about moving him out of self-care, but almost immediately after moving, he was unable to move around much without falling. He was bewildered, I could tell. He wanted to go in his sleep, and think that's what happened. (We didn't ask any questions at the 5:15 phone call --not sure that was necessary, but a stupid thing to complain about.)

I'm glad he had 24 hour contact at the end. Linda said, "I knew if we left town this would happen." Apparently, Meghan, the nurse, has said she thought death was 'imminent.'

I was thinking he'd fight his way back, the way he usually did.

It's sad, but not unexpected. He was a good man. I'm still absorbing it.

I think my siblings will mostly take it from here.