Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Assorted Miscellannia

I haven't posted here in a long time.  I'm due to get back into the habit, so this is my first attempt to do so.  I have so many things to talk about, but it's all swirling about in my head, so this time out I'll just be throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks.  More coherent blog entries will follow in future days.

The Trump Impeachment Trial begins in the Senate today.  I don't honestly expect anything to come of it.  His sycophants and toadies will do what is necessary to keep this a farce instead of a true trial.  It is so ironic that so many men who were willing to impeach a President over a blow job are now claiming that REAL crimes aren't worthy of impeachment.  Our country is broken and I'm not sure we'll ever really be able to fix it.  It's always had nicks and cracks in it, but we were on our way to getting those patched.  The current atmosphere, though, shows just how deep those nicks and cracks run, with hatred and bigotry so much more common than I could ever had dreamed. It's a nightmare, and makes me want to cry on a regular basis.  I used to believe in the basic goodness of humanity, but every day erodes that belief a little more.

My Dad's health is getting worse.  I live in dread of the day that I get the phone call.  I know it happens to all of us, and that death is a part of life, but that doesn't make it any easier.  Oddly, I'm more comfortable with the idea of my own death than I am with the idea of the deaths of the people I love.  Is that weird?  I'm not afraid of death for myself, and I'm not really AFRAID of death for anyone else, I just...don't want to not have them here.  I guess I'm selfish, but I don't care in this case.  I want my loved ones to live forever.  But right now I just want Dad to be happy and healthy. 

The store is doing well.  It's exhausting, and stressful (hey, there's a theme in this blog entry!), but overall it's good.  We exceeded our sales goals for 2019, and 2020 started off rocky for the first week but has picked up immensely this week and is looking good so far.  Who knew that Magic: the Gathering Pre-Releases could make such a difference in the financials???  But it's more than that, because M:tG was less than half of our increase in income last week.  The rest came from people walking in and buying other things.  A lot of them came over from the Arcade that opened across the street. 

It's very cool to watch our end of the street become such a strongly synergistic whole.  We've become Date Night.  People come down and get dinner at the sushi restaurant or the sports bar, then go see a comedy show, then meander down for a cigar, followed by a trip to the arcade for drinks and games, and while they're in there they see us and come across to do some shopping and watch people play Warhammer or D&D, then back to the arcade to close down the night.  All of the businesses down here are open late, especially on weekends, and we all make a point of sending people to the other businesses around us.  It's awesome to see it happening, and we make a point of letting the rest of Downtown McKinney know that it DOES work if you do this sort of thing together.  They all still close early though.  Their loss.  We'll take those evening and night-time dollars if they don't want them!

George Takei is coming to Dallas Fan Expo this year.  We're actually going to be there because we'll have a booth.  It's really tempting to print out a copy of my previous blog post that has an open letter to him about his fatphobia and bigotry toward fat people and give it to him.  I doubt he'd read it, and I really doubt it would penetrate his consciousness, but it's still tempting.  It's really disappointing to have someone who has suffered discrimination, bigotry, and hatred suddenly develop a blind spot to his own faults in those areas.  Especially when everyone around you idolizes him.  I don't hate him, and I'm not mad at him, I'm just...sad.

Other than all of the minutiae that are swirling around in my head, though, life is decent.  We're busy, the store is starting to pick up, and I'm hoping that it won't be too many more years before we don't HAVE to be at the store every day and I can at least semi-retire.  **crosses fingers**

Have a great day, everyone, and I'll be back soon to post something less chaotic!

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