The red journal: Eighty-seven plastic rhinos - the drought is over

I wrote:

"2007. Tuesday. Many overnights on top of each other. Lee & I were again looking at Pier 11 place when order for 50, then 87 plastic rhinos came in. More code fixing - up to 'hoofed' & part of 'insects.' He told staff about retirement ideas. What does renting a 'live-work space' mean to me & us? Lee & I looked at rental again. Wet floors."

I understand part of this, but writing in a small space creates half thoughts and vagueness that's hard to put together later. I have no idea what the first sentence means unless it's about working late night after night. About the rhinos - that's a great order. We were looking through the building again thinking about renting it when a phone order came in for 50 of the plastic rhinos in the photo, then he changed the order to 87. We had them - we had a lot. I think it was a rush order, which meant I had to get back and pack them up. And after such a horrible December, it was really nice to be able to do that.

The red journal: "The Goal" and Pier 11

From the journal:

"2007. Monday. I've been finding a little time at night to read "The Goal." Important business ideas. Looked at Mark's rental at Pier 11 w/ Mark & Lee, then w/ Sue. We all like it, but water is bad. Mark will make some changes. Not totally sure of layout."

You can just see the corner of Pier 11 - the red building at the left of the photo near the water. In fact, I wasn't looking at Pier 11 itself, but at the front part of the whitle building east of it on the same pier. It's been raining hard for weeks, and every flaw in the building showed to its worst advantage as far as letting the water in. In hindsight, although we all loved some of the aspects of the building, the layout would have been awkward to work with for what we needed. It's just as well that it rained.

The red journal: Change of pace

"2007. Sunday. Paid all bills & caught up with purchae orders. Lee came in late afternoon & packed backorders and the few new orders. Fairly early evening. He cooked tacos for dinner at his house. We read. A change."

The red journal: Catching up

"2007. Sat. More web work w/ Lee packing orders. Coffee with Jane. I started on bills & purchase orders late, then stayed up till around 2:00 working on the accounting after he went home. Not many new orders. Trouble going to sleep."

The red journal: In a quandary

"2007. Friday. Lee still agonizing over retirement thoughts & option to sell biz to X or not."

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"2007. Thurs. The site came back up in google tonight!!! After exactly a month of hard work & late hours fixing broken links & messed up code, IT IS BACK ON THE SEARCH (POS. 3) 'PLASTIC ANIMALS'!"

The red journal: I've about had enough

"2007. Wed. A lot of code fixing - reading & posting on Google webmaster board. Body hurting from lack of movement &/or from moving chair on rug. Back inflamed. Cramps. Need to stretch & exercise. Lee has been walking distances."

Second entry in the red journal

"2007. Tues. Somewhat rejuvenated after Bend although one day seems like the next working hard on the site. Postal holiday declared due to death of Gerald Ford, in his 90s. Lee helps w/ work of shipping."

A new year, a journal, and cloud waves over Oregon

Happy New Year! I'd told Kate that I was looking for one of those five-year diaries like I had when I was young. I always seem to find some way to journal (even if it's taking photos rather than writing), and I thought that during these busy years, the limited, organized work spaces would be a good way to go. My gosh, she remembered! I was surprised when I opened the beautiful red five-year diary. Due to my love of writing, we both wondered if it would really satisfy, but she got it for me anyway, and it was gorgeous.

On January 1, I wrote:

"2007. Monday. I woke up in Bend this morning. Lee and I have been here for the week. I did almost nothing but check code on the web site after our demise in Google. We drove home after noon. No celebration of N Year."

That's all there was space for, but it served to mark the dates. My Web site disappeared from Google around December 5th. I won't go into it now. It was a financial disaster. I spent the next month day and night doing anything I had to to fix it.

The drive from Bend to Astoria was mud, mud, mud. Mud over snow.

And then look at this! The sky is leaden, but the clouds are almost singing. I took this one somewhere en route to Astoria, but I don't remember where. I love the waves. There were some even softer waves to the left, but they're buried behind power lines.