A measure of success I can hope to obtain.

"'Phenomenal' return: Three salmon back to damn so far." Bulletin, 6/22/11.

Gee. If only all endeavors could be termed a 'phenomenal' success with only a 3/10th of 1% return rate!

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"Paying admission at the bookstore."

This would seem like a bad idea.

However, I'm sympathetic since the last signing I did (and the last signing I'll ever do) had a huge turnout -- and minimal sales.

I had just assumed the attendees would reward the writer (and the store) for the effort....

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Global Insights, the same people who predicted we were the most overpriced market in the U.S.A. during the bubble, are saying we won't have the same level of jobs in Bend as before the crash until 2021.

2021.

I'm just going to hold my breath and make a big wish!

I think the best thing for a business to do in Bend is not expect improvement, maybe even plan for further downturns. Sad, but true.

But hey! everyone says to me. Look at all the new businesses downtown!

Thing is, they are NEW businesses. Ask yourself what happened to the old businesses....

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The sprinkler guy got the system up and working again. I planted the two lilacs and the rest of the plants, filled in the rest of the dirt, and it looks really good.

This garden could be show-off worthy in a couple more years.

I have a couple of huge, enormously long and detailed blogs about all the plants and the process...which I might post soon, with a warning. I don't know that it will be all that interesting to most people. But I wrote them, and the internet is large, so just ignore them if you please.