The days go by

Have spent the last couple days scanning the news about the bridge collapse in Minnesota. Both Puck and I have been over that bridge many times although it is not the main road through Minneapolis and St. Paul. I sent an e-mail out to my family that is still living up there and it appears that they are all safe.

My sister's family-in-law is all in the cities, as is her son and I have not yet heard back from her. My brother and his family are all fine. My baby sister is good too. My Step mom replied that if she had had tickets to the game at the metrodome (right next to the bridge) she would have been on the bridge too.

I grew up about 30 miles east of St. Paul and then went to college another 30 miles east. There are so many of our friends and relatives in the St. Paul and Minneapolis area that it is hard to know who will be affected personally. I do not recognize any of the names they have released so far, which gives me some releif.

I heard that my sister won her appeal for unemployment so that is good news. Things were looking a little desparate, although she did qualify for healthcare and foodstamps... they will need to reevaluate her situation now that she has some income coming in though. The really good news is that she qualified for the Minnesota workforce program that helps to retrain and relocate displaced workers into jobs that better suit them.

I am still very angry with Shalom Home for telling Lisa that resigning was a better choice for her and I believe I will be writing a nasty letter. It appears they had every right to fire her, but they did not need to lie to her as well.

We scoped out the town that my next show is in. Lake Geneva is a hoity toity little town in wisconsin with a lot of old Chicago money in it. It sits very prettily on a lake and was quite a vacation spot at the turn of the century. Now it is a thriving tourist community. It looks like the fair will be right along the lakeshore which will be very nice.

Because they get so many Chicago people I have decided to finally bite the bullet and become an acceptor of credit cards. I have set up a merchant account and gone through the training. Puck got me one of those Knucklebuster card sliders a long time ago when the shop he worked for went out of business. Most people have electronic doo dads so I will be rather old fashioned, but that is ok. My little plate and reciept slips came in the mail yesterday so I need to practice on some things. It is all so complicated. I now have to raise the prices of my rugs to compensate for the little pieces of my pie that will be lost as well. My dang profit margin is marginal as it is so this is a little depressing. I am hoping I can still get people to use cash or checks, but I fear plastic is the future

I hope this is a good show (it is at the end of august)