The computer shop is another question mark. I know that I’ve been breaking even for months and I’m the only one left making money over there. We’ve all agreed we have to sell something but nobody is agreed what that should be. I suspect that there is a general decline in businesses that require lump sum payments of more than maybe $40 at a time. The shoe shop is doing a steady trade.The neighbor to the south, the guy with the mother of all Christmas lights, has his place up for sale. I admit, it is perfectly maintained and in top-notch condition. He rakes the yard every day and I don’t doubt the interior is equally spotless. I sent Wallace on a snooping expedition and found out the asking price is $55,000. It will never bring in that much. The neighbor has lost his grip on reality, there are country estates for sale at those prices. It has no patio, no shade, no green zone, the entrance faces into the noon day sun and it is smaller than this place. I blogged pictures of his lights a few years back. Too bad he can’t sell those.
The high point of today was the opportunities for me to demonstrate my problem solving skill. Unfortunately I can’t get far relying on this skill since, for starters, I have to be physically present and see the situation. Today we had to fix some expensive outdoor furniture covers that required four hands to hold it during stitching. But there was only room for two hands. I aced that one in less than a minute. I put a temporary row of stitches using the greased twine meant for soles, but I fed it by hand. When done, the grease made it easy to slide out. Ta-da!
We will be closed on Thanksgiving, so I will go in on Friday, I need the money. Man, times are tight. I’d like to go up to North Carolina for a bit, but I’m having enough of a circus keeping it together over here. Shift work or not, that homeland security position at the airport is starting to sound better all the time. I always did look good in a uniform.
For the record, today I broke up officially with my first true heart-throb. We had separated a little while but this was the day she started seeing other men, and she found one in a marrying mood within two months. Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, and yes, I still miss her. That is one of the few situations in my life that seems like y’day. She is one of only two people from the past that I think about almost every day.
Speaking of the past, how about some trivia? The year that MicroSoft finally incorporated was 1981. Before that, they didn’t make much money, since they only did minor BASIC routines. I first programmed a computer when I was 17, but had nobody to inform me where that stood in the world. I did not know the spreadsheet had not been invented. I actually had more programming experience that Bill Gates, who was living 108 miles up the road from where Rusty and I had summer jobs in the Yakima Valley. I was 17 and Rusty was 15. We rode the bus into town.
Gates was, at that same time, claiming to be the smartest kid in the world. You can get away saying things like that when you are born a millionaire. I knew more about computers than he dreamed of at the time, but I had to go to work propping apple trees in the orchards. I don’t admire that man, for I am unaware of anything he ever did entirely on his own, but I do envy him, not necessarily a good thing. Other than computers and Washington State, there is nothing else we have in common.
