About this 'minimum wage' thing. It's not like I prefer it. It's not like I set out -- all these years later -- to still be making minimum wage.

When I started, I think I just wanted to survive. Not lose the beginning investment, at the very least. My Dad co-signed the original 10k loan, and I was determined that he'd never have to pay a dime. I even kept my landscaping job for almost a year.

Then, I went through my 'young entrepreneur' phase, where I made the mistake of reading INC. Magazine, and believing it a little too much. I opened four stores. I thought I could reproduce the success of the one store, but didn't realize I didn't have the capital, the systems, the tools and, most importantly, the employee's to make it work.

That, plus the sports card collapse, set back any chance of making money for another decade.

Yet I always thought I was just two years away from making real money. It became a bit of a joke between my wife and me. But, like Wiley Coyote buying a new Acme kit, I always thought it would happen. Always two years away from paying off the credit cards, two years away from buying a house, two years away from a vacation, two years away from catching that damn Roadrunner.

I don't know that I ever thought about how long I would be doing this. I just realized one day that THIS was my career; not a stage on the road, but the whole road. And suddenly, surviving for 27 years doing this, especially in a pop-culture store, and most especially in downtown Bend, became something to be proud of. I look around, and I've outlasted everyone else. The adult businesses who looked down on what I was doing, all the suits are gone, and I'm still here, still doing what I like to do.

It's been incredibly interesting to stay in the same place and see the town around me completely transform.

I suppose I still hope that the store has some value, though it's nearly impossible to sell a comic store. But hopefully there is some real equity in the store. I'm finally earning enough money to not have to juggle bills quite so much, and to take time off, though the 'minimum wage' thing hasn't changed all that much.

To be honest, I don't feel like I live on minimum wage. I'm always surprised at the end of the year when I do my taxes that I end up that way.

I'm surprised that we have as middle class a life-style as we do. A couple of small inheritances knocked off the credit card debt, and provided the down payment for a house. Luck that we bought our house before the pricing surge. Determination to pay our bills and keep our credit good and to live frugally in exchange for freedom. I certainly wouldn't trade my job for a higher income, at this point. I like owning my own business.

But I still wouldn't mind changing the title of this blog some day.