A little excitement. Electricity went out around 4:00. Then airplanes came flying close over our house. Neighbors all out on the sidewalk, some with apps showing the Euston Fire only two miles away, with a "Be Set" to leave notification.

Around 8:30, electricity came back on, but still on a "Be Ready" notification. However, they seemed to be saying the fire isn't progressing, so...

 

For the first time, I'm going to be taking money out of my retirement account. The Catbus and traveling costs have caught up to me. But I'm 72, so holding off this long is pretty good. I'll still be earning for another year and half, but after that it's a fixed income, baby.

Linda been drawing out for awhile now. She's four years older than me and when she retired, she retired, by God.  And good for her.

 

I think maybe I've gotten a week ahead of myself, at least for PRH, Scholastic, Book Depot, and S&S. My reasoning is, while Ingram shows up on the week I order, other distributors don't until ten days to two weeks later. 

I was more or less able to parse it out this week. The important number is the budget each week. So far, I'm a little in the  negative after the first six weeks of keeping track with a rolling average.  Not bad. 

We're ahead in sales and earnings. We're going to be spending a fair amount on product through the summer so we'll need to a boost. But no one has canceled Summer or Christmas yet.

 

I'm going to open up to the possibility of taking people's comic collections, if they want to donate them. You know, find them a good home. Our "Dungeon" is now open for business, and I'm giving Dylan some extra hours to work on back issues. I want to keep him, and I think we'd coasted a little too long on collectables. It's time to be proactive. 

 

Out of the blue, Dylan asked me if he recommend anyone be a writer as a career.

Without thinking, I said, "Oh, no.  Don't do that."

Then spent the next five minutes trying to explain myself. But the automatic "No" kind of surprised both of us.