I'm calling a moratorium on the housing bust and national (international) economic news.

Unless, of course, momentous events overtake us.

But, really, what the hell can I do about it? I never set out to be an angry old perma-bear, cranky, end-of-the-world, everything is going to hell, you young whippersnappers just don't know what's coming.....sort of blog.

It shouldn't be ignored, it needs to be talked about -- just not always by me.



I decided during Linda and my drive to Prineville, by back roads, that I just like the openness and cleanliness of the high desert. Bend is sort of split down the middle, half pine forest, lakes and rivers, and the other half, juniper and sagebrush and wide-open spaces.

I live on the east side. The westside just seems to closed in and messy and claustrophobic to me.

Driving by all the old ranches out east of town, it occurred to me that growing up in Bend, there were basically two industries.....logging and ranching, and connected to both was the hunting and fishing. The tourism industry, outside of skiing, grew into the pearl it is today because there was a tough grain of sand, old westerners, who were already living the life-style, partly by necessity and partly by choice and partly by tradition.

It was almost a rite of passage to work clearing brush, or bucking hay, or working in the woods or in the mills.

It seems as though the ranching is still hanging on, maybe by a few bales of straw, but it's still out there.

I hope we never lose it.