Tuesday, June 29, 2010

"...sort of like living in Pleasantville except without the jobs..."

The little ball of energy known as Julie, Julie has left town. Hell, for the amount of activity she showed, she could have called herself Julie, Julie, Julie...or even Julie, Julie, Julie, Julie.

I met her once, and I think she immediately decided I wasn't scintillating enough.
Her type of personality is a bit of a mystery to me, but I have to admit I stood back in awe and trepidation. Heh.

Her husband, who I will always know as "Tim" for his rather insightful and sometimes biting commentary on the bubble blogs, left town a little earlier for a good job.

I probably ought to leave this observation for Black Dog, who first caught the significance of her parting comment about Bend (I sort of passed over it): "...sort of like living in Pleasantville except without the jobs." Or as Mugmkr mentioned, "It's so much more wholesome than the old standby, "Bend: Poverty with a view", isn't it?"

Yes, but they pretty much say the same thing, don't they?

No slam on Tim and Julie, Julie, because they are much smarter and more energetic than me, but was the fact that Bend is "Pleasantville except without the jobs" something they didn't know before they moved here? Are we so intent on getting people to move here that we aren't willing to warn them of the dangers?

Or is it, "take a number and take your chances?"

Sure! Come to Bend, buy a house, start a business, start looking for a job! We'll be glad to take your money and energy, who knows you might be a wild success!

I feel like Bend should come with one of the medication warnings you hear on Television.

All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome when using this drug:

Diarrhea; dizziness; flushing; headache; heartburn; stuffy nose; upset stomach.

Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur when using Viagra:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); chest pain; fainting; fast or irregular heartbeat; memory loss; numbness of an arm or leg; one-sided weakness; painful or prolonged erection; ringing in the ears; seizure; severe or persistent dizziness; severe or persistent vision changes; sudden decrease or loss of hearing; sudden decrease or loss of vision in one or both eyes...

14 comments:

H. Bruce Miller said...

Anybody who moves to Bend without either (a) having a good job lined up, (b) having a generous trust fund or (c) having a good and dependable retirement income is asking for BIG trouble.

Q: "How do you make a small fortune in Bend?"

A: "Start with a large one."

(More Bend black humor.)

H. Bruce Miller said...

"The reason they call it 'the American Dream' is because you have to be asleep to believe it." -- George Carlin.

Substitute "Bend" for "American" and it's even more accurate.

juliejulie said...

Oh Duncan, what a nice send off post for me and Tim (also known as Rhett-his real name-and as the infamous Sally Heatherton of "Marvelous Bend!")

I'm surprised you say you aren't scintillating enough for me. Quite the opposite! You've got one of the best, honest blogs in Bend.

blackdog, I appreciate your humor, and you are spot on with your observations. I do have to say, though, that we did move to Bend for Rhett's job 5 years ago, and I was telecommuting for a tech company who didn't care where I lived. We did use some savings to start a new software company but it wasn't a trust fund, it was small, and hard earned and we are in our 40's not yet retired.

We did get hit hard by the economy and had to look for more consulting work far away, and we did get sick of trying to make our professional life work in Bend which, in our case, meant always traveling for gigs.

And so finally, Pa got an offer for a full time gig in Mankato (Eugene) and Ma and the kids are following. It's just too lonely in our little house on the prairie...uh, I mean big house in the desert...without him.

I think, sadly, our story might be a common one for Bend. If things get better, in 10 or 20 years, we will gladly come back. For now, we will just have to visit our friends and loved ones.

The thing I will miss most, are the smart, funny people who live and work in Bend despite the economic issues. We were like pioneers, in a way, giving it our best shot, but we got the itch to go west again.

We'll always have Twitter. And Facebook. And Duncan.

Mrs Sally Heatherton Esq said...

In somewhat of a shocking revelation, the government, on June 23, sent letters to BP (NYSE:BP), Transocean (NYSE:RIG), Anadarko (NYSE:APC), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Moex (Mitsui & Co.), saying they must provide information of any kind in relationship to depleting their assets to the U.S. government.

The government evidently doesn't want any deals done which could result in the companies not having the assets available to pay for any judgments which may be made against them.

Bloomberg News made a Freedom of Information Act request concerning the letters, where they said the U.S. government said they want to be sure they don't “deplete those assets that would be available to satisfy a judgment," in case of liability being found against them.

Mrs Sally Heatherton Esq said...

Hola Gringo Bitches ...

Well one of our own blow's out of Bend. You know us mexicans long ago blew out of Bend. You gringo's now take our landscape job.
I have always predicted that the ultimate direction of Oregon would be that government put the 'children' aka CSD would setup a prostitution racket into service to bring 'tourists' from Central America or Asia. As Bend implodes and our government looks for revenue from any possible source, ... it will come.
Sort of like our OLCC guy, so long as he wrote lots of fines and made money for Salem, they really didn't give a fuck about what anybody in Bend thought. He really was 'unbridled'. The cowboy theme of petty government Nazi's is the future of Bend.
Now a new city-hall of Bend will evolve, a government that needs money, like a hungry wolf needs meat. The new Bend will be quite ugly for a long time. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Mrs Sally Heatherton Esq said...

I would really like to see a t-shirt in Bend.

Front side "Visit Bend" ( city-hall COVA mantra )

Back side, "I bought a house, now what?"

I mentioned this idea to a few folks in the last few weeks at a few watering holes and nearly caused a fight in all situations. This shit isn't even 'funny' anymore. All too fucking true.

Like I said in this forum a few weeks ago now folks who are clinging onto their worthless homes will just gradually fade-away, like our USA dollar Bend will not die over-night, ghost-towns die very slowly, ... But like I keep saying the Gorilla at the door is our city-government, with its CAPPED debt, and its HATRED towards the people of Bend. The future will be FUCKING GOD-DAMN UGLY. If you have any money or assets get them out of BEND ASAP.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"We did get hit hard by the economy and had to look for more consulting work far away, and we did get sick of trying to make our professional life work in Bend which, in our case, meant always traveling for gigs."

Most of the people I've known who've tried to run long-distance consulting or similar businesses from Bend have run into problems. Either they have to do a great deal of inconvenient (and expensive) travel or they find their clientele gradually drops away. You can do a lot of stuff via the Internet but there's still no substitute for face-to-face schmoozing with clients and would-be clients.

Bend really IS in the middle of nowhere, and no technology will change that.

Well, maybe teleportation would.

BTW, the loss of Sally Heatherton was a terrible blow. I've always wondered if "her" site was hacked by angry realtors.

H. Bruce Miller said...

Pedro: I'd like to see one that says:

"Paradise" My Ass!!!

H. Bruce Miller said...

Dunc, I'm wondering what your take on this KTVZ report is:

"Downtown Bend is no stranger to quick turnover; restaurants and shops seem to come and go without warning all the time.

"But right now, it's actually in a rare state -- almost at capacity.

"The Downtown Bend Business Association said that's because of a sudden jump in new businesses, 11 to be exact.

"We think it's a result of the economy turning around ever so slowly but a positive up-turn here in Central Oregon," DBBA Executive Director Chuck Arnold said Tuesday."

Do you see any "green shoots"?

Duncan McGeary said...

It seems to me that we have high turnover, but I've only been keeping my list for a couple of years so I have nothing to compare it to.

Might be interesting to know what broader average is over a two year period, but it would appear that we've had about a 30% turnover so far.

And I always like to point out, that new businesses are nice, but keeping older businesses is nicer.

New businesses really only mean that we have people willing to take a chance, whereas older business's leaving would seem to me to reflect real economics.

A fine distinction, I suppose.

Mrs Sally Heatherton Esq said...

holo grino's,

well during the last 1983 recession here the only way to eat was to reinvent yourself and go solo and do a startup, ... so its not surprising, to see new biz,

one breath of fresh air in Bend is all the places to eat for less than $10 that are good, like spice-box by village-bakery off 14th, good indian food go to, who would have guessed,

and FUCKING finally CART's everywhere now in BEND, cart's mean NO fucking BIG RENT, ... just like PDX now the best places to eat in the city are the $5 carts, about time this came to fucking bend-over

watch the fucking city-hall TAX the carts out of existence with FINES as mean spirited downtown folk hate to see the little guy make a profit, watch out dunc, DOWNTOWN is Bend FUCKED(TM), just like now the best place to eat & drink is brother-johns, deschutes is Now Bend-Fucked(tm), downtown is FUCKED, nobody wants to go there except dumb fucking tourists, which is a narrow fucking shoulder economy in this shithole,

Bewert said...

The real distinction, Dunc. One of the finest posts and comments lately.

Personally I've gone from bleeding money in Bend to building back my savings here in SLC. Makes me sleep better.

Duncan McGeary said...

I agree it's a 'real' distinction, but one that very few people seem to make.

Mrs Sally Heatherton Esq said...

'The Distinction' ... well as HBM and HOMER and et-al have said many a time, Bend is about turning 'great fortunes' into 'small fortunes'. The 'distinction' seems to be that an endless supply of kept-women keep arriving with daddy-warbucks in tow to dump their life-savings into Bend.

"But where are the old established biz the child asks??" Shsssh move along, .. High turnover fresh faces and the 2-3 year old biz quietly files chapter 9,11, 13, ... and great fortunes become small. Someday somebody will write a book about this phenomenon of Bend. All you ever hear of the BULL or SORE is the new & fresh, ... maybe somebody ought to talk about the death of biz and the hardship that having a biz in Bend and the downtown triple-net-lease, ... how its an anchor around so many folks neck who have actually survived here for more than 5 years.

No doubt that Bend continues with COVA, CORA, COBA to lure new sheep to be sheered by those that OWN this town.

But where are the small proprietor's yachts?? Where do all these dead folk go when they lose all in Bend? USA is about winning, and losers are never mentioned or cared about, ... only winners, trouble is there are no winners in Bend, just new fresh faces headed for the gallows, and the BULL&SORE continues to paint them as winners.