Update

Contemplating the fierce weather that is supposed to be approaching, wondering how that will affect sales, wanting on one hand for things to slow down, on the other, for sales to improve. Sales have been strong, the pace relentless at times, but not so strong that the fear of failure dissipates. My attitude from the start has been, we are going to make money. It has only been the last few days I have thought, at times, if these friends I serve do not make money, what a failure as Manager of this establishment I will be. Add it to that long list, those failures of mine. Of course, that is mostly nonsense. We are going to make money. Are we going to make enough money to transition into a party supply store? We are going to need one hell of a push. Anything could happen. We will be mentioned on KARE 11 three times this week. People keep taking pictures and video of me dancing in the street. Maybe one of those videos will go viral. Maybe Americans are just really bad procrastinators and we will do 3 times the sales the last three days as we have done in the last six weeks.

My whole world right now is this store. I turned on the radio recently and heard something about the vote. It sounds like the Republicans are going to make heavy gains across the nation. We have become such a foolish people. It was only four years ago the Republicans were in control. Should they gain control again, they will only set about the work of sky gods, the establishment of American Aristocracy. Then, four years from now, should there still be a Republic, we will vote them out, because four years of lax oversight and free-market genuflecting will result in another collapse of whatever bubble. Not that Democrats have much of an answer for anything, except to spend money that does not actually exist. Both parties are exceptionally good at that. GW arguably spent more unnecessarily than O'b has, relatively speaking. Whatever. I may or may not vote, in the election. I vote every single day with my dollars.

Almost every dollar I spend goes to a locally owned business, unaffiliated with any corporate elite. That is the great beauty and character of our business, that we do not have to answer to anyone unconnected to the reality on the floor. Many people appreciate that. It is clear, many make no distinction between us and any of the generic corporatized Halloween outlets. They see it as saving a few dollars. I see it as ill-advised, un-strategic support for people who don't give a damn about the health of my locale.

We are going to need that local infrastructure, particularly as it pertains to food. Ultimately, however, the strength of community is in the ability and character of its people. As fossil fuels decline there will be little more important than local infrastructure, which is why it is incredibly important to vote with my dollars now, for people with tangible skills and abilities in my locale.

Why is that important? Consider for a moment American's preoccupation with the macabre, torture and ghoulishness, primarily evidenced in film, otherwise on display in Halloween stores. I have no attraction to the macabre, I am even repulsed by it. I pushed against having a local master of the macabre set up a haunted house in our basement, or otherwise having anything to do with the set up of this store. Still, we have plenty of the macabre on the floor. Why anyone wants to display a severed, skinned leg on display in their house, I have no idea. But they sell.

That and our preoccupation with violence. Not one person of the tens of thousands to pass through here has commented on my toy gun sculpture, except to ask if the guns are for sale. One of the partners has begun to dismantle it, to sell the guns. Why do I even bother, I've been asking myself. Because, I do. I foresee a bloody time in America, if we do not ....

Oh, forget it. I just had a bomb drop in my lap. A special order that we have had a very hard time finding, that came in, and one of the partners sold to someone who did not order it. Gotta go.