Sister Sue and family visited, and to my delight, we all ended up sitting on the back lawn while my two nephews, Nick and Carl, tumbled and rough-housed. Which is the image I always had of the back yard -- friendly and comfortable.
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Didn't get a chapter done for writer's group, so I'm still stuck at four chapters. Summer has always been harder for me to write. Often, I get the urge to write about the time school starts, which I think is just a Pavlovian reaction to to the Fall season.
But I'm still committed to the story, and will make absolutely sure I have a chapter done for the next group.
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Sales were down about 25% from last weekend. Which is better than the 50% drops I used to get. Considering there are literally 10's of thousands of people downtown, it seems just O.K.
My guy on Sunday actually seemed frazzled. "You wouldn't believe how many kids were in here running around!"
Heh.
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Have been having ostracism dreams as usual. Last night I was wandering New York city, lost, trying to find the subway, and finding store after store after store, in a bewildering maze.
Second dream, I was at a golf course where the clubhouse was more like a funhouse. Tiger Woods was with me for awhile, but he was a real nincompoop, so I ditched him. Couldn't find the dining room and my food was getting cold.
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A site called Business Insider had this to say about Bend:
The Best Housing Markets For The Next 5 Years.
#2 Bend, Oregon.
Projected annualized growth 2011 to 2016: 11.7%
The time to buy in Bend is now. The market is projected to trough in Q3 before several years of accelerating growth. Home prices are down over 42% from peak.
Annualized growth: 11.7%.
I guess if you believe that, you deserve whatever happens. Since we'll probably still be dropping for a year or two, that would mean the last two or three years of that timeline would be, what?, 18% annualized growth? I know that 5% growth in ten years adds fifty percent to your beginning number, so I'm assuming that 10% growth over five years would have about the same result.
That's a pretty crazy number.
It would be funny if it wasn't sad. I mean, I think bringing people to Bend to spend their money is great -- but I think I'd feel guilty if I didn't at least post a word of warning.