The Days of Wine and Roses...

Here's a picture taken at Larabee State Park last New Year's Eve.

I try to remain positive, but things by far aren't always wine and roses (although roses do grow exceptionally well out here). Below is an e-mail I sent to a friend, which pretty much sums things up on the other side of life. Sonny is an old friend and veteran of The Six Mard Gras. He and his family recently moved from Albuquerque to Massachusetts

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It's not entirely great out here: You have your share of Californians coming in and basically wanting to make just like the place the are fleeing because they trashed it with sprawl and strip malls and crappy tract housing.

Bellingham is filling up with those types of people, but fortunately they stay out in the suburbs where all is safe and they can go from their vehicles directly into their garages (or gated communities) and only deal with those preselected people with similar looks, world views and income.

For me, the money runs out in October, but at least my cushion of savings seems to grow every month. But as a friend told me, when you work for yourself, every day you wake up unemployed.

And Sheri and I also split up, so that has been a tremendous drag. But probably no more stressful than growing a business. Few things in life suck more than a shitty marriage. We both love (and will stay in) Bellingham - just in separate parts of town.

I hope to keep the house, as it is an old coal miner's (or lumberjack's) house, but it has some charm, is super convenient, and (if I were a gambling man) I'd bet it will outlast any of the crap built today. You know how it is Sonny - you have an old house too. The siding is old-growth cedar which is tremendously rot resistant. Not like the new crap they grow today. Actually they recycle alot of buildings they dismantle, as the wood of this is type is no longer available.

Gotta get back to work.

-Jeff