I have clear sinuses for the first time in years.
I broke my nose skiing when I was 19 years old, and I believe I've had a low grade infection ever since.
I got two flu shots this last week, and the nurse told me my immune system would kick into overdrive.
Amazing to be able to breath out of both nostrils. I doubt it's enough to kill the bug completely -- and I've never had a severe regime of antibiotics; I'd rather save those for when I REALLY need them, thank you.
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Thing I've come to understand about California transplants, is that because they come from a place that has had it so much worse than Bend, that they therefore think they understand Bend.
No. Usually they don't get the isolation part, and they don't fully understand the population and seasonality of Bend. But they say they do.
Because Bend is smaller, they somehow think the problem is smaller.
For Commercial Real Estate, they think because California has so much more commercial real estate, that I must be joking to think that Bend has an even bigger CRE bubble.
They don't get the proportionality part. The difference in income. The 'island' nature of the
Bend economy. The glass ceiling of there being just so many people. If your business plan doesn't work here, there isnt an overflow from the next town over, or from the interstate, that can bail you out; no matter how good a job you do, you can't pull customers out of sagebrush high desert and pine forests.
But I've often wanted to say; "Have you ever considered that, after enduring a huge drop in housing and commercial real estate, that you are moving to an area that is JUST BEGINNING the same process?
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Huffington Post is reporting that 1 out of 5 men are unemployed.
Linda and I was just talking about that; it seems like people our age -- 50ish -- if they lose their job, simply CAN'T find another job. Too far from retirement.
And we feel lucky to own our own businesses, and have our fate in our own hands....
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Zine update. I had two people coming in to buy Rachel Lee-Carman's zines, which is a pretty good result considering Pegasus wasn't the primary or even the secondary focus of the article...
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'New' Coke. My immediate reaction, "What the f$%k is wrong with the old coke?"
Warner Brothers merging with AOL. My immediate reaction after hearing the news conference about the merger. "What the f$%k did they just say?"
Jay Leno on primetime. "Who the f^#K would want to watch Leno five nights a week on primetime?"
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In my opinion, the smaller the town, the less margin for error there is.
I say this as someone who had a store in Sisters for over 5 years, and a store in Redmond for the same length of time, and who closed both stores before I closed the second store in Bend, at the Mt. View Mall which went for another 5 years.
I think Californians -- or indeed anyone who comes here from somewhere bigger -- is bamboozled by Bend. It has a 'big town' feel, but small town dynamics.
Again, the out-of-towner will raise his eyebrows at the description of Bend being a 'big' town.
There seems to be a universal human response to 'small towns' that fool people to thinking they're somehow easier to run a business than a big town.
They think:
1.) there is less competition, therefore they'll have all the business there is.
and/or
2.) no one else is doing it. (Not asking themselves, WHY no one else is doing it.)
A sustainable business is just the same amount of work no matter where you locate.
As far as competition goes, very few small towns aren't competing with the bigger towns near them, so so much for no competition. You just located in a less traveled location, is all.
Besides, competition isn't going to ultimately decide how much business you do, as much as how many POSSIBLE customers you can get.
So the bigger the city, the more possible customers you can get.
The real trick is to find a business that fits your lifestyle, but also can sustain itself.
Thing I've come to understand about California transplants, is that because they come from a place that has had it so much worse than Bend, that they therefore think they understand Bend.
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Yes, but the thing to remember, and perhaps you not know this thing because you were born&raised in Bend. I came here (Bend) in the 1960's, but I came from a family that settled in LA in the 1920's.
When I was a child in Santa Monica it was only beach, and we could ride horses to Malibu and see nothing. Every kid I knew was from some where else, I never met anyone that was Born & Raised in Cali. I think its the same now.
Folks come from back east, to escape the rat-race, and think Cali is paradise because of the 360 days of year of sunshine ( SO-CALI ). But then after awhile they discover 'BEND' the next paradise.
They come to BEND and find it has EVERYTHING that SO-CALI has, except that it is small, they never think about a job, because they have NEVER seen rejection.
Disillusionment awaits shortly after arrival for the majority, and then what back to cali? Or back to the east coast?
Most of these people that come to Bend, via CALI are big city people, they know Boston, ... or NYC, ... or Jersey, ... always same-same.
I don't think these people think of Bend as small, Dunc from my heart I still think Bend today is the Bend of your child-hood, or the Bend I new when I moved here in the 1960's, but to these newbies in the last ten years, this is just another BIG-CITY, I don't see how anyone could come to this 'New Bend', and think they're moving to a small town.
Sure COVA markets this as a small-town, ... but the fact is its just like LA, its contiguous same-same human detritus from Madras to LA-PINES, about 2-1/2 hour drive, .. its just like driving from Santa-Barbara to San-Diego, just continuous same-same.
Dunc your small-town Bend, has been gone for a long time.
1.) there is less competition, therefore they'll have all the business there is.
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That's a funny one, I used to hear that one a lot here in the 1980's during the last recession. "These people are so fucking stupid, that a smart 'east coast' person could just ream them" ....
It's easy when you remember that most of our 'GRIFTERS' ( thanks homer ) are really sharks from back east, and found LA a little too hard to make it, ... so they work their way to Oregon.
To someone from the east-coast all Cali's are like Bambi, .. trusting, naive and dumb. Oregonians are even MORE so to the east-coaster.
But then as HBM is fond of saying the Good-Old-Boyz (GOBS) of Bend are fond of flannel shirts and chewing tobacco, and take the money from the grifter's, and thus DOWN-TOWN constantly circulates money. Our GOB's are the dumb fools that COVA & Co portray this town.
Just like our bankers the other day screaming "Devil made me do it", do what hire idiots that would write loans to people who didn't qualify. Rule #1 of banking post 1970's was 'Know Thy Customer', everything about the 'stated income loan' was that the banker was the last line of defense to prevent fraud, this is how the laws were written.
So Bend is a town of GOB's who are mainly sharing rectums with the banks ( conjoined twins ), but reaming the NEWBIES is NO fucking accident. Lastly the BULL&SORE are still part of the orchestra.
I really doubt you've had a sinus infection for 40 years. Your broken nose probably didn't set right and you have a slightly deviated septum. Surgery could correct it, if it bothers you a lot, but it's expensive and unpleasant.
"There seems to be a universal human response to 'small towns' that fool people to thinking they're somehow easier to run a business than a big town."
Not only that, but newcomers exhibit the "What This Town Needs" syndrome.
As in: "What This Town Needs is a combination hardware store and wine bar." Or: "What This Town Needs is a shore store devoted exclusively to clogs and sandals."
The fact that a small town doesn't have a particular type of business doesn't necessarily mean it NEEDS that type of business. It more often means just the opposite -- that there's no demand for it.
Speaking of East Coast Grifters.
HBM is of Princeton, NJ, and of this day he still thinks he has something over us west-coast hee-ha's. Now that he's in his 60's and still shilling for Co-Bend,... his only wish is "I wish I were in Hawaii".
Then there is the East king of the Hill, Hollern from Minnesota, who in the 1960's inherited a little company town called 'Bend', owned by Shevlin-Hixson. Hollern had an MBA-Marketing from Stanford-CA, and put 2 & 2 together, He owned Bend and the right marketing this kid in his 30's could make a Billion dollars. So in the 1960's HOLLERN came to Bend, I too came to Bend in the 1960's, but I came to climb at Smith Rocks. I never came to Bend to make money.
To this day here in Bend, everything is funneled through company-hollern, by way to Sisters to the SORE, or by the way of Walla-Walla to the BULL. Jobs, power, future, vision, ... all in the name of the company town. Happy New Year, and god bless our superior visionary's like HBM & Hollern from our far-east.
"What This Town Needs is a shore store devoted exclusively to clogs and sandals."
Uh, make that "shoe store."
Maybe I'm contradicting myself here, but I get the raised eyebrows when I talk about Bend being Big. They think Bend is small and quaint, and ain't I just a silly redneck to think different.
At the same time, though, they seemed to think that Bend needs a store devoted "exclusively to clogs and sandals."
About twenty years ago, we had some writer's group friends decide they would open a basket store downtown. And it was great.
Linda and I bought a couple of their cheaper baskets, in the 50.00 range.
But I'm thinking to myself -- do we really have so many people who can buy 100.00 plus baskets?
Really?
The town has grown, but the ambitions of newcomers have grown proportionally.
The Joker in the Deck is the big mass market. I'll always maintain that the 'golden age' of small retail in Bend was from about 1988 - 1992. Pre most of the box stores you see now.
Just like our bankers the other day screaming "Devil made me do it", do what hire idiots that would write loans to people who didn't qualify. Rule #1 of banking post 1970's was 'Know Thy Customer', everything about the 'stated income loan' was that the banker was the last line of defense to prevent fraud, this is how the laws were written.
So Bend is a town of GOB's who are mainly sharing rectums with the banks ( conjoined twins ), but reaming the NEWBIES is NO fucking accident. Lastly the BULL&SORE are still part of the orchestra.
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This couldn't happen in Bend, we're good people. We're all christians. We all belong to the Westside Church of Bend, we're all gods chosen people.
Summit 1031 doesn't exist, there's no such thing as CACB. These are all illusions created by atheists.
The Joker in the Deck is the big mass market. I'll always maintain that the 'golden age' of small retail in Bend was from about 1988 - 1992. Pre most of the box stores you see now.
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Yep, and that coincides in my mind with when Bend went to hell. Prior to 1986 I97 (third-ave) was bearable, post 1986 with dunc's strip-mall insanity 88-92, I97 became an unbearable parking lot, and then the shit just went east out towards where Costco stands today.
Now with the opening of the little pub 'Brother Johns', I see a new age of Bend. The local hood age is here, Downtown is Dead, Bead-Dead(TM). I97 (third) is Bend dead. Today the hip are hanging at small little local places, all young family's now want to walk near their home, ... maybe its the DUI? Who knows the shift is NOW!
Only the Tourists and Morons and Newbies do downtown anymore, even deschutes is now dead other than happy-hour monday post 4:30pm.
The last three nights I made the point of walking downtown around 7-8pm, I only saw one or two places that had more than one customer seated. Yet, Brother-Johns is packed every night. Why? The new fad cheap prices all the time and quality. The happy-hour of downtown is now a joke. The future of Bend is cheap rent NOT in downtown, all of downtown has a Bend-Fucked(TM) future.
You're seeing a different downtown than I am, Bilbo.
It's gotten, if anything, busier with people -- whether they spend money or not is a whole nother thing.
But the 'hood' thing is interesting. I noticed that's how it goes in Portland.
It seems like we were close to that happening in Bend, but I would've thought that had receded with the slowdown.
Hell yes dunc, your downtown 9-6pm, ... after that the whole downtown closes and all goes home.
Yes, dunc I concur I see different.
But and here's the BIG BUTT, most of downtown is still geared for nightlife and tourists, and the places are Bend-Dead(tm).
Yes, dunc during the day there is still life, people going the bank, getting coffee, normal human activity. Hell as online banking progresses maybe even day activity in downtown Bend will halt. I sure as hell never go downtown other than to walk at night. Every since your little fuckers starting writing parking tickets,... I stay clear, ok in the summer I cruise downtown on my bike.
I'm just saying the downtown Bend ain't hip anymore for the locals, that hip is now over on Galveston and Newport after 6pm.
Locals make or break things, you retail folks can't depend on the lone-ranger to come up from cali and drop dollars anymore, he ain't coming.
Love,
Dunc,
I have one canary in the coal mine question for you, as we have similar backgrounds, e.g. both have ran businesses forever.
You talk about how good it is, but I don't see you bring back HELP.
It was me two years ago begging you to get rid of your payroll taxes and employee burn, that's what kills small business. Now your cruising and life is good, your able to buy lots of product, and don't have to make payroll deposits with cash-flow you don't have.
So Dunc, and I love you, if everything on MAINSTREET BEND is so god-damn fucking GOOD, ... then why haven't you hired people back to run the store?
The answer of course in my humble opinion, is you have gotten comfy now, and like your worry free lifestyle, and after all not having employees forces you to come to work, .. and before you could be lazy.
But essentially when things are good we can afford to have lots of warm body's on payroll, and I don't see you doing this, actions speak more than words. So again, I don't think things are so fucking peachy.
Love,
Ah, Bilbo. I have hired people. I've got a girl coming in on Tuesdays and Sundays, and a couple of guys helping afternoons.
All in preparation for Linda and me to start having our little 3 and 4 day vacations once a quarter.
I wouldn't say business is great, by any means, but good enough, especially if I'm trying for the working profit, instead of trying to get my entire retirement set up in a relatively few years.
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