Are Recessions Always This Busy?
Piggybacking on the “Busy is Good” post, I have continued to remain incredibly busy since the beginning of the year. I would have to say that I am not personally experiencing the downside of this recession yet and I hope that continues to hold true. I’m not one to “knock on wood” but I am also keenly aware that everything could melt-down tomorrow. But I have to say that I almost feel guilty when people ask “how’s business?” with a trepidatious tone and a hanky ready to wipe up the puddle of tears that is surely ready to pour forth as I confess all the horrors of dried-up business and clients gone belly-up and all I can say is, “I’ve never been busier.”
Busy Is Good
I’ve found myself caught in the enviable quandary of not being able to update my blog due to an increase in business. I’ve had three unpublished posts sitting unfinished since the middle of January and haven’t had the time to really develop the thoughts out the way I would like. For me, posts do not usually fall into place (with the exception of this one) because I am forcing myself to post something–even if it is “thrown-up” so to speak.
It also seems ironic that the busier I am and not able to finish blog posts, I seem to get more ideas of potential good ones. For example, I’m just itching to write another post about AppleTV with all the news out the last week and a half about it. The only problem is that if you don’t sit down and start writing right away, specially if it involves breaking news regarding technology or politics, your final post–when you get around to finishing it–won’t be as fresh and relevant, not to mention, other news can break that might render your unfinished ideas and points moot anyways. So, the pressure is on to strike while the iron is hot and get that post finished.
In the meantime, back to werk!
Snopocalypse in Coeur d’Alene
Well, we’ve had a doozy. Just got done digging out of over 30″ of white stuff here in Coeur d’Alene. While most people aren’t surprised that it snows here in North Idaho, the fact is, it doesn’t usually snow this much. In fact, it never has snowed this much. At least as far back as they have been keeping weather records for the area, which is 1881. The old record of 15″ set in 1955 was trounced by almost double that amount (official Cd’A depth was pegged at 25″ but most places even within city limits got more than that).
I do have to say that the saving grace in this storm is that it was cold and the snow was light and fluffy. So, while shoveling light, fluffy snow can be a challenge in itself (think eating peas with a butter knife), it is not as hard as shoveling wet snow. And I have to give a big shout out to my neighbors who pitched in shovels, backs, snow-blowers and plow-equipped ATV’s to help everyone shovel out each other’s driveways. Even with all the help, I pretty much missed a whole day of work shoveling. And I work from home!
So, I’m enjoying the effects of Advil now and resting up for another storm supposed to hit on Sunday that they say will bring possibly another 4-6″ of snow. Bring it on. What’s 6″? Heck, I’ll take 12″! I just hope I don’t have to shovel 30″ of snow in my lifetime again!
Virtual Water Cooler Talk
Last Friday morning I was at the Coeur d’Alene Online Marketer’s Group monthly meetup at Calypso’s Coffee in downtown Cd’A enjoying a remote presentation by Matthew Ray Scott on “Virtual Business” (did I get everything?), and during the presentation Matthew mentioned that while there are many benefits to being able to work from home, that he still needed a virtual water cooler environment (yes, I know that I am violating one of Matthew’s recommendations to get rid of the word “virtual”, but for this story it applies). I had just been thinking about that very thing yesterday and realized that my combination of IM (iChat) and Twitter (Twitterific) sort of filled that need but I was trying to put my finger on what was missing that you receive from a real water cooler environment (besides cooler water).
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Channeling Cesar Millan
Cesar Millan has transformed our household into a bunch of Dog Whisperer wannabes. Being as that we’re in Idaho (and not just Idaho, but NORTH Idaho!), we’re not expecting Cesar to come toolin’ down our cul-de-sac in his Jeep and camera crew in tow anytime soon, so we’ve had to resort to the next best thing: throw all of his episodes into our Netflix queue and start “shushing” our dog ourselves. And our next-door neighbor’s dog. And our next-door neighbor on the other side. And our neighbors down the street and basically any dog that comes around our neighborhood.
Updated Site Look
Short post today just announcing (or at least acknowledging) that the site has had a facelift. This site since its inception has been a case study of “the cobbler’s kids have no shoes.” Well, I finally forced myself to at least do a little sprucing up around the place. There’s still an awful lot to do as I’m also working on a complete overhaul of Whitestone Design Werks too, but it will get done eventually. I just need to keep plugging away. Hope to add a Colophon page here soon.
Summer’s Swan Song
With the economy in a roller-coaster meltdown/frenzy, I am enjoying the last vestiges of summer-like weather here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Woke up this morning and took some interesting shots with the D80 of the sunflowers on our patio (see left) and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee as well as one of the last times this year that I’ll be able to walk out on the grass barefoot before 7:00 am in the morning.
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