Great Recession Update

There have been a lot of bad signs of the horrible economic times in town this week and it's almost getting a bit overwhelming.

1. The 1 and only Blockbuster video in town was seized by the bank last week. Customers and employees showed up to find the locks changed and the store stripped of everything. Apparently the owner defaulted on a $160,000 loan and the bank seized the assets of the store to be sold at auction.

2. The house down the street has gone into foreclosure. It sold in 2007 to a family from California for $900,000, but they just up and left one day and it is now owned by the bank and on the market for $500,000. That is really going to jack up our property values.

3. Another house down the street had a huge auction over the weekend selling the entire contents of the house. I don't know the particulars, but it didn't look good.

4. The bike store/ coffee shop/ snowboard rental store down the street from my office downtown is suddenly empty. We drive by every day and on Friday everything was gone and there was a huge for lease sign out front.

5. There are 2 more office for lease signs on the street my office is on. Another engineer is moving out, and someone else. That puts my chances of sub-leasing my space at slim to none.

6. So far this year there have been a total of .......7! housing starts in Flagstaff. Seven permits in 6 months. That is insane. No one is building.

7. We were turned down by every bank imaginable this last week for our new truck purchase. We finally found a bank in Minnesota, but every local bank wants nothing to do with us. Even American Express, a company we've been with for the last 5 years won't help us. It's ridiculous how banks have stopped lending on even the most mundane things.

I'm usually very optimistic, but this is starting to look grim.

The only consolation is that the shipping business is rocking. We are so busy.

Carl, who has been working from 5am to 7pm for the last few weeks, is seriously rocking a David Beckham physique. I guess running around all day in 80-90 degree heat lifting 50-150 pound boxes while running is a great workout. Who knew? He's starting to get hit on by all his late 20's to early 30's customers at the mall. He has become the "hot delivery man" to all the store managers.

I am sad to say that he currently weighs only 9 pounds more than me while I rock a Renee Zelwegger in Bridget Jones Diary or Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed type of physique.

I'm looking for a sign of good things to come, but I'm not too hopeful yet.