Friday will be my 61st
birthday. There was a time in my life
when I thought that would be a very long time to live. Now, of course, 60 is the new 45, or
something like that. I’ve always said
birthdays are so much better than the alternative. So, I’m not sad or depressed about the chance
to celebrate another birthday. I just
wish things were better with business and the state of the economy. We still don’t have a lot to celebrate here
in California
and certainly not in my neck of the woods.
We are still waiting for the space to open up for the new retail
collaboration we’re working on and not a whole lot else is going on. Robert and I actually worked last week at Pebble Beach
during the AT&T Pro-Am gold tournament.
It was great fun and we met all sorts of people from all parts of America. They were spending money but not what they
were spending just two years ago at the same event. Three years into the recession and the
glimmers of light are few and far between.
I know there are designers out there who are hanging on nicely and some
who are even doing more business than ever before. It all depends on where you are. Will congress ever get off its duff and pass
some sort of health care reform? Will
they ever return to governing rather than bickering? Who knows?
Everything just seems to take so long now. Once upon a time business hummed along and
jobs and work were flowing along. Now,
the banks won’t lend money and complain they aren’t profitable enough. Hello!!
If you lend money you’ll make it back with interest. No, they just sit on huge piles of reserves
they say are mandated by the government.
I wonder. Even if you can get a
loan the paperwork can take months on end and you’re never assured of the
outcome. Tedious is the only word I can
come up with to define how it all works right now. Americans, it is said, have a very short
memory. For millions of us this
recession will be in our collective consciousness for decades to come. I know I’ll remember it. Yes, for a long, long time.
Comments