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Nothin' happening.

Went for my walk, and my favorite spot was taken.  I think the same couple, who seems to be there in the mornings.  I'll try the afternoons.

Perforce, I went to top of Horse Ridge again.  I like that walk.  There is something inspiring about walking along the rim of a cliff, something that lifts the heart.  But it is a short walk and very dusty. 

Wrote my 2 thousand words.  I've got the first half of Tuskers III mapped out.

I really want to take a leap in the second half of the book.  Conceptually.  Make it "post" apocalyptic instead of during the apocalypse.  Make it kind of weird tech, steampunky.

I think I may jump ahead a few years, bring in some new characters.  Try for a different feel.

Don't know why.  Just feels like the right thing to do.

Finished my taxes yesterday.  I shouldn't have tried to do it in one day because I started making big transcription mistakes.  Broke away and napped for an hour and came back and finished it.

Somehow I seem to have spent less on product and overhead.  My best results ever in profit margins, this in a year where we had increased sales.  So a successful year.

Means my tax bill will be bigger than I expected, bigger than I can afford, which will put the crimp on the rest of the year.

Why was last year better?

Because I wasn't there to get into mischief, for one thing.  I'm sure the smaller ordering was completely due to me not constantly filling holes. 

The increase in business despite spending less -- is due mostly to my guys, Cameron and Matt (and Jasper for part of the year.)  They are bright-eyed and bushy tailed.  Just what I need at this point in my life.  I was the frontman perhaps for too long.  It wore me down.

I was talking to my friend Wes about how so many writers my age seem jaded and cynical, and how I was feeling very enthusiastic about it.

"Yeah, but you spent 30 years in your business.  How do you feel about that?"

"Uh...slightly jaded and cynical."

Not as bad as all that.  I managed to keep reinventing the store.  There were a couple patches, about 10 years in when sports cards collapsed, and then when I was near the breaking point when the credit cards got out of control, and then I got on a high-horse for a few years about people "not reading!" when I was not as cheerful as I could be.  But for the last 8 years of so, I've been good.  I regained some of my freshness.

Then I started writing.  I really let most problems in the store go these days.  Let the store be the store.

It seems to be working.