Blog - twits.

Man, if you look at the national unemployment maps, it's like -- Revenge of the Red States.

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Bend keeps popping up in the top five of all kinds of negative indicators. Someone more ambitious than me ought to collect them all in one place.

But anyone that ambitious probably wouldn't want to wallow in all the bad news.

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A customer offered a rational explanation why so many parking spots downtown are empty -- the heat. People are parking in the garage to escape the heat.

Makes sense, except it hasn't been all the hot until lately, and it didn't seem to be this way last year or the year before.

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Foot traffic, schmoot traffic -- I did twice the business yesterday with half the number of customers than Thursday.

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I didn't get my gold star for customer relations on Thursday. Had a real putz in, and I asked him. "Are you from around here?"

"Why, no," he says.

"Good," I said, emphatically.

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Lost my twitter access for about ten days, but I still picked up a smattering of followers.

I don't understand twitter....

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HBM has offered to show me how to download music. Don't I have to buy some fancy do-hickey? Something eye-pody? I have no speakers on either of my computers. I don't like the constant noise...

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I topped off my gas tank last fill up because I wanted to check my mileage. Now I come to find out that I can't top it off this time, which thwarts me.

I do so hate being thwarted.

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Any bets whether the OSU College of Education will actually move to Bend?

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We just don't seem to have the trouble with trash and graffiti and swearing and loitering that Wall Street has. Knock wood. I think it's really interesting how the city council imposed a big fine for skateboarding at almost the same time the police department withdrew their downtown patrol.

That really worked.

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So is there a consensus that this economic era will be called the Great Recession? Sounds about right.