Yes, my hometown got hit by a tornado tonight, and, yes, my family and I are fine.

About 5:45 PM my grandmother called our business office to alert us tornados were in the area.  As our house is only a few hundred feet away I orderd mom and dad to head home and get the themselves and the dogs to the basement.  I opted to stay at the office to shut down computers and I would join them in a few minutes.

I admit I took my time as we get tornado reports every year, but they usually end up being nothing, but as I stepped outside the rain had stopped and so had the wind.  The air was completely still.  For those of you who live near tornadoes, you know this means you really have one coming.  As I had gone to the gym today, I had my car with me, so I hopped in it and probably broke a land speed record getting down to the house.  Mom was in the doorway waiting to see if I was coming and I just yelled for her to go now, there probably wasn’t much time.

We did get all the dogs and ourselves down to the basement and then started listening on the radio for reports.  There was a total of four funnel clouds in our county, two of those were within striking distance of Kirksville.  The one that concerned me was the one coming east at 30 mph from Novinger, MO which, if you go in a straight line, would bring it awfully close to my house.  It veered someone what to the North and ended up touching down a few miles north of us.

There are conflicting reports if there were any fatalities, but for sure some homes were destroyed, and a car dealership is beat up pretty badly with cars overturned and the building’s windows blown out.

Here is the official press release from the city:

(Kirksville, MO)  — The E911 Dispatch Center has received reports of four tornados that touched down in Adair County this evening.  Two of these cells were located near Novinger and were reported at approximately 5:48 pm.  An additional tornado was reported in Kirksville at approximately 6:00 pm.  The Fourth tornado was reported in the Troy Mills area.

The tornado in Kirksville touched down in the general area of Industrial Road and continued through Jim Robertson’s and to the general area of Bobwhite Drive.  There have been numerous reports of substantial damage in the immediate area of this storm path.  At this time, The City of Kirksville has not received any reports of fatalities and an few reports of minor injuries associated with this storm.

The Local Emergency Planning Commission activated the Emergency Operation Center at approximately 6:15 pm. All emergency personnel that have been called into service should report to the Department of Public Safety at Truman State University, Franklin Street.

Highway 63/Baltimore has been closed from the intersection of Baltimore and Highway 6 West to Highway T.  The public is advised to stay clear of the area.  There are power lines down and emergency personnel are on-site.

The only noticeable damage for us was when I returned to the warehouse to record CobWEBs tonight, my desktop wouldn’t boot. After talking with Dell, it seems static built up in my system and we got it working again in under a half hour.

Unfortunately, others in Kirksville were not as lucky.

UPDATE: This post is getting far more traffic than I anticipated as people are looking for updates on what happened. For actual news I suggest you check KTVO TV 3 and the Kirksville Daily Express for all of the latest local coverage.

Update 2: At least two people out in the area of Jim Robertson’s Chevrolet (see flipped car pic above) were killed.  No names have been released at this time.

Update 3: I’ve made a post filled with videos of the Kirksville tornado and its aftermath.

It’s times like this that I think back to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“Don’t Panic”.

I won’t bother explaining the quote.  If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you get it.  If you haven’t done either, you still get it… it’s like a universal quote.

The insanity that is circulating around the recent outbreak of swine flu is staggering.  You couldn’t bat an eye on Twitter this weekend without someone talking about it.  Blogs are writing endless posts about what to do.  Television shows are being interrupted to bring you the latest news when an a confirmed case is reported…

ENOUGH ALREADY!

We get it, there is a flu going around… it is transmitted via human-to-human contact… people have died.

You know what this reminds me of?

THE FLU!

Yes, it is a bit worse because this one came out of the blue, and we do not currently have a vaccine for it, but, then again, sometimes the vaccaine is worse than the flu for those who remember what happened in 1976.  In short, the vaccaine ended up killing a lot of people, and the pandemic like spread of the virus they predicted never materialized.

I do think it is wise to inform the public, “Hey, this is going on, you need to be careful, wash your hands, don’t go to work if you’re sick”, etc, but these are common sense rules everyone should follow.  Course, if they did, then I wouldn’t have had to write a post like Social Etiquette While You’re Sick just last month.  Do make sure you go back and read that because it is filled with basic tips that may keep you healthy during any flu outbreak.

What gets me is how the media is just making this worse.  They are acting as if no one has ever died from the flu before.  So, I went and looked up the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports on flu mortality rates.  Here is the excerpt for just the 2007-2008 flu season.

As of June 19, 2008, 83 deaths associated with laboratory-confirmed influenza infections have occurred among children aged < 18 years during the 2007–08 influenza season that were reported to CDC. These deaths were reported from 33 states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin). Among the 83 cases, the mean and median age was 6.4 years and 5.0 years, respectively; seven children were aged < 6 months, 16 were aged 6–23 months, 18 were aged 2–4 years, and 42 were aged 5–17 years. Of the 79 cases for which the influenza virus type was known, 51 were influenza A viruses, 27 were influenza B viruses, and one had co-infection with influenza A and B viruses. Of the 63 cases aged 6 months and older for whom vaccination status was known, 58 (92%) had not been vaccinated against influenza according to the 2007 Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations. These data are provisional and subject to change as more information becomes available.

83 deaths in the United States alone. Where were the experts on TV to tell us how we should protect ourselves? Where were the flashy graphics? Where were the news conferences by elected officials? What about the travel warnings by other countries? Oh, that’s right, it’s because this happens every year.

There is an old saying in journalism, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Here you have a pre-packaged story for lazy reporters. You have deaths… in an exotic locale… a snazzy, brandable name (go and try to find a Swine Flu related domain name that isn’t taken… I dare ya) that is easy to say and can invoke fear because it’s short and weird sounding… hey, wait a minute, didn’t we play this exact same scenario out with Avian flu? Oh, and wasn’t it SARS a few years before that was going to kill us all?

Again, I am not saying you should be cavalier about this, do take precautions, I’m just saying they should be no different than the ones you should take every flu season.  And as for the people in the media… stop being lazy.

I think the Japanese have an awfully good idea when it comes to social etiquette while you’re sick.

If you’ve ever been to Japan, or even watched something on TV that shows every day life there, you are sure to have seen at least a few people wearing surgical style masks.  They wear them for multiple reasons, but the main one being it means they are sick with something and they are trying not to give it to the people around them.  As someone who gets sick fairly easily, I have always loved this idea, but somehow I don’t ever see it getting taken up here in the United States unfortunately.

I am currently suffering from a case of bronchitis, and after the doctor’s office this morning i had a couple of unavoidable errands I had to run.  I gave serious thought to wearing a mask because apparently the type I have is viral, but seeing as one of my stops I needed to make was a bank (although every teller there knows my name), I didn’t think walking into a bank with a mask on might be the smartest of ideas.

So, barring a sudden shift in American thought process where we all start wearing masks, there are some common courtesies I see people break all the time that would be so easy to remember if they just thought about it.

Things To Do To Prevent Getting The Lastest Bug/Not Spreading It Around

Turn your head and cover your mouth when you cough

As someone who worked in a retail store for years, I couldn’t believe the number of times people coughed in my face.  Is it really that difficult to turn your head, or at least cover your mouth?

One hand for coughing,  one hand for everything else

As I’m right handed, I always make sure to cough into my left hand as I use my right hand to open doors, handle items in stores and so on.  Sure I’m still infected, but at least I’m attempting to reduce exposure.

Cover your hands when you push a cart

This is easiest in the winter, but since that is when most people get sick, it works.  If I’m wearing gloves, I leave them on as I shop so I’m not handling the cart with my bare hands.  If I’m grabbing packaged foods in the grocery store I don’t worry too much about the gloves, but if I’m picking something like fruit, I take off the gloves and reach for the highest items in the bin as 1) I’m tall enough to reach them and 2) that means they haven’t fallen down the bin yet reducing the risk of exposure to infected hands.  A lot of stores or also now offering sanitizing wipes to wipe down the cart before you use it, since they’re free, do it.

Wash your hands, Wash your hands, Wash your hands

Do you have any clue how much you could reduce the spread of colds and flu if you just washed your hands more often?  I wash my hands numerous times through out a day, and I carry hand sanitizer in my car so I can wash my hands off quickly after leaving a store.  Hand sanitizer does have a draw back in that it can kill off good bacteria also, so do use it sparingly.

Don’t scratch your eyes or rub your nose

The quickest way for any virus to enter your body is through your tear ducts or nasal passages.  Unless you’ve washed your hands (see above), then keep your hands well away from your face.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the best ways to prevent yourself from getting sick, and Americans especially need ot learn this rule.  I am definitely one that lacks in sleep, so I’m certainly not guilt free in my health.

Things To Do If You Catch Something

Chicken Soup

Sure it seems like something your mother just said to you as a child, but it’s true.  Good old chicken soup will always soothe the soul and help your immune system.

Spicy Foods

I stumbled across this trick when I was in Japan in 2001 and came down with bronchitis just as I arrived.  (Yes, I get bronchitis very easily)  I stepped across the street to a MOS Burger as it was an easy walk, and I was unaware my burger came with a mayonnaise laced with chili powder.  I ate the burger, I could tell there was some sort of chili powder in it, I walked out of the establishment, and within seconds… evacuated one of the largest coughs I’ve ever had from bronchitis.  (I’m trying to be tactful)  The next day the same sequence of events happened, and I was sold on having mildly spicy food any time I was sick after that.  And it works!

Follow The Other Rules

If you have to go out, think of the people around you.  Somehow I doubt any of them want to be sick, just like you didn’t want to be.

Why You Should Follow Any Of This

I realize this list makes me sound a bit of a hypochondriac, but I’m really not. These steps are all simple and become like second nature to you once you start doing them.  Sure the mask would still be one of the simplest solutions, but since I don’t see that happening any time soon, you can at least take some small steps to help those around you, as well as yourself.

What are your tips for staying healthy?

This raccoon situation has gotten ridiculous.

Remember back on February 16th when I said I got rid of the problem coon?  Well, as we suspected, it wasn’t alone.  We did eventually catch another… and a very confused possum… but we could still hear one up in the attic of my warehouse.  So, just today we figured out how to seal the holes they were using to come and go, and got our trap wedged through the attic door to try to trap it.

I go home for dinner, come back an hour later, and I hear the trap vibrating like crazy.  Pop the panel to the attic, and sure enough, we have one.  HUZZAH!  So after wrestling him out and properly disposing of him (he’s fine, just had to relocate him to our other property), we settled in for an evening of catching up on work.

… -scratch scratch scratch-

Yep, there is still ANOTHER coon up there!

#$*@!

So, back up the ladder I went, reset the trap again, and now it’s just a waiting game to see how long it takes to get this one.  All I know is I am fed up with raccoons!  They are annoying pests that had made my life miserable thsee past few months, and I just want them gone!

-pant-

Stupid coons!

Listeners of my podcast, Scattercast, will be happy to know… COON HUNT 2009 IS OVER!

Peanut butter (non-tainted) is what finally got it.  We had placed it in the the trap around 6:15 PM, and by 8:10 PM… well, you can see the results to the right.  As I have been saying on the podcast, the trap is a “live trap” and causes the animal no harm beyond scaring them.  You can click the image for a much larger view.

This isn’t a fully grown adult, but it sure isn’t a baby either, so no taking it away from it’s mom, and highly unlikely it had any young ones of its own.  (No clue on the gender, and I wasn’t looking)  Hopefully the terrorizing of the cat is over, and also the tearing up of my warehouse attic!

I knew from the moment this story broke that video would eventually show up of the crash, followed by the first few minutes. As always, YouTube delivers.

In this day and age of camera phones, video survelliance, webcams and every other imaginable way to record a video, it was inevitable that we would see actual footage of US Airways Flight 1549 actually impacting the water.  While watching a plane crash may seem morbid, of course this time it is uplifting and inspiring.  Capt. Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger III is to be commended for his ability to bring the plane in the way he did despite losing all power.  If not for his skill as a pilot, this could have been a horrendous tragedy, and instead he turned it into a moment of triumph.

My only concern at this point is the amount of praise that is being heaped on Capt. Sullenberger.  I am certainly not saying he isn’t worth the praise, quite the contrary, it just worries me.  In the past, people have not been able to handle the attention they receive after such an event, and I am hopefully that he can.

However, I digress, this is about the video of the actual crash.  Duncan Riley over at The Inquisitr posted it after finding it on YouTube, and it is quite the show.  Shot by a fixed camera on the Hudson run by the U.S. Coast Guard, you can see the actual plane impact at approximately 2:03. By the time the camera zooms at 2:40, you can already see people on the wing, which I was fairly impressed by. The first boat pulls up the plane at 6:03, and I think huge kudos are owed to all of the boats that pulled up to help, and especially the quick response time they made it over there. All told the video is 10 minutes, with no sound, but it is well worth watching to get an accurate view of how things actually went.

Truly amazing, and so thankful that everyone made it out alive.

As a side note, leave it to a journalist to ask one of the stupidest questions I think I have ever heard at a press conference. While watching Mayor Bloomberg’s press conference shortly after the crash, an unidentified reporter asks, “Have they recovered the black box?”. Bloomberg shoots her a look that was tame compared to my deep laughter at the question. The plane is intact, where in the world do you think the black box is stored that it would mysteriously be the only piece of the plane missing?  “You know, in retrospect, perhaps we shouldn’t have installed the black box on the outside of the belly of the plane, Bob.”

For the record, they are stored in the cockpit to the best of my knowledge.  However, in a hectic press conference with people trying to get out all the info they could as quickly as possible, somehow I doubt that would have been my question.

As most people do, I have a love/hate relationship with my scale.

As I mentioned on Scattercast episode 24, like so many people in the world, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to lose more weight this year.  I was quite happy with the fact that I made it through the holidays with only 1 to 2 pounds in fluctuation.  I worked hard at making sure I didn’t gain, and kept up my work out regimen to make sure that didn’t happen.

Now as we get in to the serious part of the year, I stepped on the scale last night (something I swore I would not obsess about, but yet I step on it every night now it seems), and found I had another of my “What the hell…” moments where I lose 2 – 3 pounds seemingly over night.  I always wait a day or two to declare it “official” because it could be any number of very odd factors.  If this one holds true, though, I will have lost 70 pounds so far.

There is no denying I had allowed my weight to spiral out of control and I had gotten all the way up to the insane weight of 400 lbs.  In my defense, I am built like a brick house.  It was difficult to tell I was that heavy because I have a huge body frame (think linebacker).  When I realized where I had gotten to, that was when I got serious about losing weight.  I cut sodas completely, all fast food was a distant memory, and I began researching “healthy” ways to lose weight.

Pretty much everything I read said you needed to build muscle first, and then concentrate on the actual reduction of fat.  As I chronicled in Working Out back in September 2008, I did start lifting weights, and I am happy to say that I have stuck with it.  I do 45 minutes every other day (there is a long list of reasons why it is best to do it other day that I won’t bore you with, but believe me, it’s true), and I am thrilled I have gotten to that amount of time as it allows me to catch up on one one-hour show on a DVD set, or two 30-minute episodes of a show.  So not only am I building muscle, but I am multi-tasking and catching up on the DVDs I am so far behind on!

On my “off days”, I am trying to go for walks, with the constant reminding that I need to do so from the evil one known as “M”, but the weather has been fighting me hard on that one.  I would love to invest in a treadmill, but I am reluctant to do so until I find that I am going to stick with walking.  With the insane mix of winter weather we’ve had, it has actually been unsafe for me to walk outside, so we will have to see when that resumes.  For now I am speed walking through Walmart whenever I go there.

So, why do I think my scale mocks me?  While I am thrilled I have lost 70 pounds thus far, my original goal was 101 pounds so I could actually break out of the three hundreds.  Looking at the dial on that scale, the space for 31 more pounds looks like the longest space known to man.  Never mind there are 70 lbs behind me so far, that 31 just feels daunting.  I even try to remind myself that 20 of the 70 I have lost has happened in just the past five months (I have no idea why it picked up speed), and that means that I could possibly realize this goal in the next 8 months, it just feels like an insane amount of work.

… and then will come maintaining it.

Black Friday needs to be ended as we know it, and it needs to happen immediately.

This morning in Long Island, NY, a 34-year-old overnight stock clerk was trampled to death as he attempted to assist in holding back the crowds.  According to reports from the Daily News, the crush was powerful enough that the doors were knocked from their hinges, and the clerk was knocked to the floor and crushed to death.

A later report from the Post Chronicle lists that a pregnant woman was knocked to the ground and later miscarried at a local hospital from the trauma.

I’ve done the Black Friday sales in the past, but I’ve given them up because 1) my sleep matter more to me than saving a few dollars and 2) I didn’t enjoy the antics of the other shoppers.  More and more companies are taking their Black Friday sales online, and I am at the point that if it isn’t online, I don’t really know if I need it.

Do I think Black Friday sales will end?  No, they won’t, but precautions are going to have to be taken to prevent situations like this.  Looking at the Walmart, it appears to not be one of their 24/7 stores, and that probably added to the problem, but whatever caused it, it was wrong.  Some reports I saw through out the day said that a few people stopped to check things out once paramedics were trying to save the man, but otherwise people were too focused on their cheap TVs and $1.50 towels to be worried about the man they were trampling over or was laying there in pain as time passed.

Friends of mine worry about the fact I rarely leave my property unless I absolutely have to.  Tell me why I should?  People worry about the fact I like to do my grocery shopping at 12 or 1 AM.  Fewer people, folks, why should I go during the day?  We’ve all seen my feelings about grocery shopping etiquette.  I don’t want to turn in to a hermit to be honest, but can someone tell me what motivation there is to go out in to public with people that will crush a man to get a cheap TV?

Mankind never ceases to amaze me.  My deepest condolonces to this man’s family and to the woman who had her miscarriage.  To those who trampled and crushed forward… I have no words for you.

While I’ve mentioned on this site a few times that I’ve been working to lose weight, but I don’t think I ever mentioned what I was doing for exercise.

Well, as you might guess from the graphic, I’ve been lifting weights.  Nothing fancy, just barbells, but it is amazing how many different things you can do with them.  While I’m certainly not looking to turn into some massive body builder, I will say it’s nice finally having some actual muscles, something I have never really had before.

Therein lies the dilemmas, though.  First off, muscle weighs more than fat, so my weight number is holding fairly steady while my body mass is obviously massively shifting.  My clothes are constantly getting looser, so I know that I’m making progress.  Dilemma number 2 being that I am some definite muscle definition forming, but I have to find a balance between losing weight, getting good definition, and not looking like a total muscle builder.

I guess I should be thankful that I am actually making progress, it’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time, but now that it’s working, where do you stop?  Darn these catch-22 situations!

I think the most shocking thing is that I have actually gotten to a point where I enjoy doing it.  Sure there are some days I dread it, but once I get going, I guess I hit that “runner’s high” type of thing and I actually get to where I enjoy it.  Considering how many years I avoided all forms of exercise like a plague, it’s just surprising to me to finally see why people say it’s a good time.  How odd.

So does all of this have a point, or am I just rambling at you all?  Eh, yes and no.  I would say the point is if you keep putting off doing exercise for yourself, stop it.  I always used excuses like not enough time, too busy, all of the usual ones, but here I am working two full-time jobs with a host of other responsibilities, and I find the time.  If I can do it, I can just about guarantee you that you can also.

What do you do for exercise?  How do you fight those “blogger 15″, or any weight you gain from a sitting job.  How do you keep in shape?

There is no denying I am a coffee junkie.  I think I got serious about coffee around 14, and I’ve been drinking it ever since.  I grind my own beans at home, I know the perfect ratio of water to beans, in short, I am not just a casual drinker of the elixir of life.  Heck, I even buy it in cans from vending machines when I’m in Japan… I just love coffee… period.

That being said, I’m trying to cut back.  It’s not so much the coffee, but my caffeine intake in general.  I was drinking anywhere from 3 – 6 cups of coffee a day, 2 – 3 glasses of iced tea and then a cup of green tea per day.  After talking with a friend of mine who is a registered nurse this weekend, and being admonished for my trying to lose weight/gain muscle while consuming that much caffeine, I am trying to cut back.

My current consumption is down to no more than 3 cups of coffee (studies show 2 cups a day will lower your risk of diabetes, something that runs in my family) and my 1 cup of green tea (caffeine or not, the health benefits of green tea make it worth it)  Now you would think just cutting back wouldn’t be that bad, but I am finding it really difficult to get to sleep.  Apparently my body is not “crashing” like it was, and the past two nights I have laid in bed, trying to will myself to sleep, for over an hour.  Prior to the cutback it would take me seconds to fall asleep, but now I just feel too awake when I hit the sack.

I know this is for the better, and if it wasn’t for the diabetes angle, I would cut the coffee completely, only keeping the green tea.  However, I know my body will adjust with sometime, it’s just sucking having trouble getting to sleep due to a LACK of caffeine, I always thought it was supposed to be the other way around!

Why does it take a sporting event such as the Olympics to make the people of the world get along?

I am not speaking to the fact that the games are in China, not the controversy this fact has bred, but I am speaking to the basic Olympic values and principles.  While watching the opening ceremonies last night, I wasn’t struck by the grandeur of the show, which was magnificent, but by the athletes themselves.  As each country would finish the parade into the stadium, and then stand in the center area, I was struck by the camaraderie of it all.

Different ethniticities, political backgrounds, upbringings, pretty much any difference you could think of did not seem to exist for these men and women who had gathered from 206 different nations of the world.  They mingled, took photos, shaking hands and sharing in the moment they were sharing.  You would see basketball stars like Kobe Bryant having his picture taken with other athletes, then when he was done he would shake their hands and though you couldn’t hear him, his body language that he was asking them their names.  Why?  At least to my thought process, it was just an example that he may be a megastar in the United States, but on the global stage he is just another Olympian.

Is this sugar coated sentimentality on my part?  Of course it is.  I have no delusions of everyone holding hands and singing campfire songs together, but couldn’t we at least try to get along this well all of the time?  Does it have to be a special event every two years at the various Olympic events?  At the end of the day we are all human beings, we just have differing beliefs, but that doesn’t mean one is necessairly better than the other, and this does nothing but demonstrate that when we can all get on the same page, we can all act like the brothers and sisters we are.  How about taking this thought process we show every two years and extending it through out every day?

Feel free to mock, I know this is me just being caught up in the moment, but that doesn’t make it any less of a good idea.

Hard to believe it, but Splash Page Comics/AnimeUSA turns 22-years-old today.

Since I have gained so many followers over this past year, many of you may not even know about “my other life”.  Besides writing for Mashable, I have a “day job” working on the family business, AnimeUSA.  The store officially opened on August 4th, 1986 as a comic book store, but quickly started morphing over the years.

My mother had a costume shop in an old house on one of the major streets in Kirksville, and only 4 blocks from Truman University.  She didn’t have any use for the old garage, so at the age of 14, I asked if I could convert it into a comic book store.  After some convincing, the parents gave in and Splash Page Comics was born.  (For those who don’t know, a “splash page” is any page of a comic book that consists of only 1 panel taking up the entire page)

In 1993, mom was tiring of the costume business having been involved in it since she was 18, and I was quickly outgrowing the garage.  She opted to close the costume shop and give the bigger portion of the building over to the comic store.  We quickly outgrew that space and expanded into even more of the building.

1999 saw us doing so much business in anime products from Japan, we opened a sub-division named AnimeUSA.  We were traveling to more and more conventions around the country, and showing up at an anime show calling ourselves “Splash Page Comics” just didn’t make much sense.

By 2000, I was getting more involved with ecommerce, and our convention business was picking up so much that I was contemplating closing the retail store as it was holding its own, but was becoming a very small portion of our gross take, but the majority of our headaches.  I talked it over with a good friend of mine while we were flying to Japan together on a buying trip in August 2000, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

We were again on our way to Japan in August 2001, and he was with me again.  Again the subject came up (hey, it’s a 10 and 1/2 hour flight from Los Angeles), and after much hemming and hawing, I called my parents from Tokyo and told them to get ready to do it by the end of the year.

I returned from Tokyo just a little over a week before the events of 9/11, and that extended the time frame as we had other issues to deal with in regards to my dad’s job, and it just not being a priority on our minds.  I finally closed the retail store in December of 2001 after 15 years and 21 weeks of it being open.

We finally sold the building that in late 2002 when the gas station next door offered to buy it to expand their parking lot.  They offered us enough we could build a 3,000 square foot warehouse (the old building was 1,800 square feet and very broken up as it had been a house) on property we already owned, and we moved out in March 2003.

The warehouse is doing a beautiful job of keeping us contained, and it is so nice not going, “Which room is product x in?”  The old building was demolished in 2003, but I still smile every time I drive by it as I spent so much of my life there, but now I actually like the building we’re in as the old one was impossible to heat.

There are a million little facts about the history of the business I’ve left out as you would with any 22 year history, but this is a good general over view of the history.  Still, it’s impossible I’ve been doing this for well over two decades now.  Yikes!