New Lease.

Got my new lease back, signed, sealed, and delivered.

So I'll be around for another 4.5 years, at least. Should give me just about enough time to finish my underground tunnel to U.S. Bank....(You didn't really think I was satisfied with working for minimum wage all these years...?)

I was given a 10% decrease for the first half of the lease. Not a huge amount of money, the equivalent of a free 2.5 months of rent over the entire course of the lease.

But I appreciated the gesture, and especially that they got it done so fast. Everything else about the lease stayed the same, including the provision for storage.

My rent was already relatively low, compared to other downtown rents....my space is pretty much stuck in the 50's when it comes to ceilings and floors and such. I was talking to another downtown merchant who managed to have his rent lowered almost a full third -- but he was still paying considerably higher than me.

I've been hoarding my cash and unwilling to take on any chances or any debt over the last year or so. I'm not suddenly going to go hog wild, but I can relax a little bit.

As far as I'm concerned, I've almost got the worst two months under my belt. My base sales level has turned out to be exactly where it needed to be, minus the employee, so I haven't fallen backward at all.

Feeling pretty optimistic that Obama is going about the things in a constructive way. At least he seems to be rolling out a plan. If.....a big if....there aren't any more shocks to the system, I think we'll be fine.

I had a sudden insight, yesterday. Why weren't things harder? Because things have NEVER been easy. I'm not spending any more or any less money than I ever have. I wasn't really splurging when things were good, so nothing has really changed....