Christmas was stressful.

RO has a sister with stage 4 cancer. Two days before Christmas she collapsed and was sent to the hospital. She has since recovered, but the family is very worried about her. RO and I visited her a couple times over the holidays.

We also took a Christmas morning hike around Cougar Mountain and by the Coal Creak falls with two of RO's Bear 411 friends.

Christmas evening we hung out at RO's sister's place.

The store... The store... It's doing ok. Not well enough to pay all our creditors, but enough for rent, utilities and few other bills. Better than the old location. But not enough for a pay check.

Not bad for being open three weeks.

Since we've opened, three stores in the mall have closed. It reminds us how hard the recession has hit small business and retail. RO and I hope that we can hold things together until things pick up. We are struggling. We have a few angry creditors. But we are holding on.

Fun weekend.

Saturday evening was holiday party for my day job. They put on an excellent party this year. The space was interesting. They had decent entertainment. They had great service this year.

The service made a big difference. In the past, you had to wait in lines for drinks and food. This year waiters were constantly circulating through the crowd so I could spend all my time talking to my co-workers instead of waiting in line.

There was a henna artist at the party. RO had a henna dragon drawn on his head. It looks great.

After the work party, we went to J&J's Christmas party. We didn't arrive till late. Still, there where many people there. We had a good time chatting with everyone.

Tuesday, Clem and Bates had the neighbors over for drinks. It was great to see them.

Bates kept the alcohol flowing. Too much so. RO and I were drinking scotch. Bates kept walking by and filling our glasses. We asked him to stop, but he responed, "Oh, I have a sure fire fix for hangovers. Just take two asprins while you are drinking!" Within minutes he returned with asprin for us.

RO and I both got sick. We both thew up before going to bed. No hangover though.

I'm too old to drink that much.

At my day job, Andie has quit. She probably wasn't fired. She was very smart about managing her money and she joined two years before I did; back when when Dot Com bubble was churning out new millionaires every day.

RO has been working very long and hard at the store. I worry about him. I hope he can keep up the pace.

The store is getting better looking every day.

My day job-- an old co-work is having problems. He's been a marginal performer for years. This was fine in a good economy, but now that times are rough, the marginal are being pruned. He's had an offical warning from his manager. Technically he may have enough time to turn his performance around. In practice, this is the kiss of dead. He is fairly high up the ladder, past the stage where he is learning and well into the part of his career where he should be a consistently strong performer.

He's manager and I talked about this. I'm going to give him a "I heard something bad through the grape vine. I think it's in your best interests to find another job. Your boss cares for you and is pulling for you, but people who think otherwise are paying attention and speaking up."

Well, the store is open. Now we face the next major hurdle-- keeping it open. There are many challenges ahead of us. Opening sales are not strong. The mall hours are long.

But, the store looks great. And some of RO's friends and family are volunteering for the store until it takes off. It looks promising.

It's Thanksgiving Day. RO, Matt, D and I have been at the store all day trying to get it ready for tomorrow. I'm not sure we'll make it. There is so much work to do.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I am thankful for my friends and my health.

It's Thanksgiving Day. RO, Matt, D and I have been at the store all day trying to get it ready for tomorrow. I'm not sure we'll make it. There is so much work to do.

MA died.

MA was a local popular bear. Two nights ago he died of a heart attack.

The bear crowd that I know is hitting their mid 40's. Very few of them take their fitness seriously. They are bears and bears are over weight. I don't like thinking about it, but I know we will be hearing of more deaths in the future. It's that time of our life.

I don't like the new look. Out with the new. In with the old.

Today is RO's birthday. Happy Birthday RO. Love ya!

Some bad news. The hot water tank is leaking. It's a slow leak. We spotted it before it did too much damage. It's a bit unsettling. I know that dealing with the the occasional leak is part of the joys of home ownership. That said, it makes condo living more attractive.

The hot tub, which has been off for months, was repaired today. Last summer it started shutting off almost daily, flipping the GFI and setting off safety lights. We drained it and turned it off.

When summer ended we decided it was time to repair the tub. Finding a hot tub repair guy was difficult. The store that I bought the tub from is out of business. It took weeks of googling and calling around to find a repair guy who knew my line.

This guy wasn't great on followup. We first contacted him at the beginning of September. He stopped by once for an estimate and to collect a cheque for needed parts. After that he never returned our calls. RO finally got a hold of him about a week ago. He showed up today.

He said some of tbe safety sensors had started to leak and fail even though the hot tub was fine. This is common for older tubs. He also pointed out that the electrical on the hot tub was not professionally installed and that a lose ground wire was probably causing the hot tub to turn off often.

I didn't tell him that I did the electrical.

He replaced the sensors, cleaned up the electrical, installed a new lid and raised the hot tub six inches so that the lid would close properly.

And now the hot tub is heating up.

My cousin's suicide has caused much family fighting. Her death was strange. She crawled along the support scafolding on the underside of a small bridge. There she tied the rope to a girder, and then sliped a noose, with less then 12 inches of slack, around her neck.

Why kill yourself that way? The bridge is out of the way. There are plenty of trees and poles around that are much easier to get to and every bit as private.

Murder you say. Why kill that way? Make her climb along the scafolding underneath a bridge and hold still while you put a noose around her neck.

My cousins brothers and sisters and fighting with her husband. Each blaming the other.

Nine years old. This blog is now nine years old. A gave the blog a new look as a gift.

It's strange to to skim over nine years of postings. People I thought would be great friends forever have come and gone. People I once had crushes on no longer matter. So much of what I've done is now just a distant memory.

Yesterday a cousin committed suicide. It's a little shock to the family. She hung herself from a bridge not too far from my parents' farm.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. She was always the black sheep. Arguably, her whole family was a little off kilter compaired to the rest of my cousins.

I don't remember much of her. I recall that while we were growing up, we didn't get along. We lost touch by the end of high school.

DR is an 80 year old woman that has been friends with RO for years. She was strong and indepenant. She volunteered for many things; the police, the Seattle Men's Choir, organizing farmers markets. She frequently helped out at our store.

But, in the last six months something has changed. She has problems remembering what she's been doing. She is frequently confused.

She has no children. Her nephew and her brother recently took her out of her apartment and put her in an old age home. She hates it. She's almost completely lost her Independence and has vowed to escape.

I'm don't see how this will end happily.

Mom and I drove along the Green River. This winter, the Green river may flood. The Howard Hanson dam, which controls the Green River water levels, is weak. To prevent the dam from bursting, they are letting out water as fast as they can. If we have too much rain this year (Army Corps of Engineers says a 1 or 4 chance) then the river will over flow its banks. Miles of sand bags are being setup along the river to contain the water.

There are *many* houses along the Green river.

I looked at some of the flood plain maps. For even a small flood, the old store would have been under about a foot of water.

Mom is in town for a week. This time around she get's to see RO and I as we really are. Usually when mom flies to town, we clean up. RO will do a great job decorating her room. This time with are so swamped with work that we washed her sheets and made her bed, but that was about it.

We want to open the new store on November 2.

While there is still much work to be done, the new store is starting to look like a real store. RO is working very hard to put everything together.

Today is the old store's last day. Tomorrow we close our doors to the public, pack things up and move them to the new store. Business has been steady but not overwhelming although we are having a small cocktail party in the evening. I'm sure things will pick up then.