We live in a very mixed neighborhood, from very old to brand new. Our house is 13 yrs. old, but it started out as a 1916 hovel. The one to the north of us dated from the early '30s and was torn down and a new house is going up. That's happening all over town. I've never experienced the door-to-door, though.

With the little driving I do, I see that some of our roads are in pretty bad shape. And it wasn't that long ago we actually had a whole bridge fall down. A few people blamed the Governor for not wanting to spend money on such projects because it would mean increasing taxes or something when the word of the day was tax cuts to the job creators. I think that was a time before "the recession" hit.

Now we have a brand new ballpark for the professional baseball team with ticket prices from $50 a seat to $800 a box. I haven't checked it out but I suppose there are some seats that couldn't possibly fetch more than $20 because there are also hotdogs and soda pop to buy.

All in all, I think a recession is a good idea. People were getting a little too affluent and living the lives of "luxury" that didn't really exist. I hear some people say they are having to change the way of life they'd become used to. That's probably a good thing, I believe.

I have noticed many "anchor" stores have closed in shopping malls in my area. Realtors are usually quick to find replacements because without a good anchor store an entire shopping mall can make it or break it. Today ...they are breaking it.

Every year, except for a hiatus during WWII, for the last 90 years, there have been July 4th fireworks over Lake Union in Seattle. This year, however, no single sponsor can come up with the $500,000 needed to put on the display. Unless a group of sponsors are found, there'll be no fireworks.

I can understand the reason, but I'm going to miss the show.