Life in the weeds.

"Purpose In Life."

The article in the Bulletin about local artist Francisco Cristich caught my eye.

Way back in the early 80's, downtown Bend was pretty Bohemian, and we were all just scraping by. Francisco had a small gallery in a nook near where Toomie's is now. There's almost no one left from that original crew. (Joyce down at the Curiosity Shop is another survivor.)

Art (or small business, for that matter) just isn't a way to get rich, usually.

What's really admirable about him, is he's stuck to it. Doing his art. Living the lifestyle. He is genuinely devoted to doing his art, come hell or high water.

As implied in the article, and true in my case as well, sometimes longevity is due to simply not knowing what else to do, or the inability to give up, the sticking to what we know and trying to do it better, and finding meaning in the struggle.

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I've been waiting for Crazy Heart to get to town for weeks. Weeks, I tell you!! The slow rollout strategy drives me crazy -- though my eagerness to see the movie sort of proves it works....

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In Deschutes, About 1 in 10 Mortgages Is Delinquent, Report says:
By Andrew Moore / The Bulletin
February 05. 2010

One paragraph in the story really caught my eye:

"The county’s December mortgage delinquency rate of 10.22 percent was not nearly as high as other areas of the nation. Las Vegas had a mortgage delinquency rate of 21.08 percent in December 2009, and Stockton, Calif., had a mortgage delinquency rate of 17.63 percent..."

As usual, I feel it necessary to add the word -- YET. We are running a year or two behind Las Vegas and Stockton and we may yet get to their levels. If you'll allow the analogy: the hurricane has leveled the towns close to the coast and is heading inland.

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We need to build more jails for all the cell-phone/ driving abusers...

They seem as prevalent as ever. I notice them, because they're the ones who are usually driving erratically.

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So much for timing my retirement investment. I pulled out of cash and into mutual funds about 4 days ago. The stock market immediately plunged....

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Store owner muttering to himself: "Why can't I get that? Why are they promoting it so heavily when it isn't available?"

The bane of a small store's existence is not being able to get saleable product. Mutter, mutter, darn publishers....