I knew a blood bath would ensue as soon as she was picked. While I have little faith in the political system, in fact anyone that knows me, knows I’ve basically checked out. I don’t sit around all day keeping track of who is saying what, dancing with who, praying with whomever etc.
That being said. I live in Wasilla Alaska. I’ve lived here for almost three years, and in the state of Alaska off and on since 1997. While I haven’t followed her career to a T, I’m planning on researching it much more in the coming days and weeks, and giving you a true Wasilla Alaskan perspective.
What I can tell you is this. I don’t agree with every decision she’s made. I truly believe it would be difficult to have a leader of any kind that you would follow blindly, and worship on every decision. What I can tell you, and I mean this in the most feminine sense, is that Sarah Palin has F’ING BALLS. In a good way. I believe she genuinely takes a situation, and tries to do the best for the MAJORITY, NOT THE MINORITY and special interest groups.
I can tell you that I’m working in a place, where we have sniveling sneaky shitheads trying to call and pretend they’re people they’re not, to get private information about the Palin’s, due to the international attention, and it makes me sick. We actually had a meeting and were given a script for christ sakes, on the protocol to follow if we’re approached by any type of media, phone, news, or on the street.
I understand being nominated for VP is a big deal. I understand our state is probably completely wire tapped, and crawling with secret service now, and I have no doubt that personal records if they haven’t already, will be locked away.
My point is, as I sit here very tired, and droning on, is that while I do not buy into the whole right left paradigm, and I’m not a bru ha Sarah fan. I think she’s a brilliant and strong woman, and if she stays on the right track, and doesn’t BECOME one of the good ole boys she’s fought against in the past, she’s got great potential. I’ll say it right now, SHE COULD EASILY HANDLE THE PRESIDENCY.
I have no faith in the political system as it stands. I think it’s corrupt. I think it’s bought and paid for. I’m just hoping Sarah’s not. And she can restore a grain of hope in my political compass.
In the prelim’s I jumped the fence, and voted for Ron Paul. I’m still undecided. But I will do my best to bring you insider info on Palin.
I think the fix is in on the election, and I think no matter who we all vote for, McCain will probably get it.
Sarah did a lot of good things for Wasilla. I will say one thing of sick of hearing, is how UNDERqualified she is. Please, give me a break. Maybe that’s exactly what we need. Not that the VP has any power. But what great experience it will give her. I just pray she’s not corrupted. And by the way, Alaska will sorely miss her when she’s gone.
I don’t like McCain. In fact, I don’t like him at all. But from living in Alaska, what I’ve seen out of Palin has been outstanding. Let’s just hope that she doesn’t turn into one of the “good ole boys”.
We had a nice thunderstorm today. If you’re at all familiar with Alaskan weather, you’ll know that’s strange indeed. The thunderstorm included thunder, lightening and HAIL. The hail clocked in somewhere between the size of a pea and a marble. Hitting our metal roof, it sounded like bowling balls!
It’s a gorgeous sunny day here in Alaska. Probably the best day of the year so far, and a Friday! Off to the bank for some SBA information and hope. Cross your fingers! Then hopefully i’ll go to the Friday Fling in Palmer, and see my friend Bethann hawking her wares. She should have a good day with this beautiful weather.
For those that know me, you already know what’s going on. For you newbies, here’s the low down, and why I’ve been so quiet lately.
The small company where I’ve been working for 5 years is closing its doors. Actually the doors are pretty much already shut. It’s not because the business at its core wasn’t or couldn’t be successful, it’s due to poor operating decisions (by sole owner), continuing lack of interest over the years for the owner to bust ass (he’s almost 70), and servicing 400-750K in debt over the past decade. It’s a really sad situation, and very frustrating for me. As the bookkeeper, I didn’t really know what I was walking into when I first started there. I walked in to a business that had been servicing this debt, and repeating the same mistakes for about five years prior. Two weeks after I started, the previous bookkeeper, that had moved laterally to try her hand at sales, walked out. I stayed, and quickly learned the flow of the business, and did my best to juggle things over the years, and try to keep things afloat. We had some good people who worked there, that came and went, and we had some REALLY bad people too. The bad ones didn’t help the situation. A slack sales department (when I first started), a boss that was vacationing out of the country for several months over the winter, and the slowness of the season, continued the downward spiral that has eventually led to this point in time, and the closure of the business.
My co-worker and I would love to keep this business going (under a new name of course), and without the assistance of the current owner. We’ve exhausted all avenues, even talking to the bank. I have really crappy credit. I have no collateral. She has good credit, but no collateral and is overextended, due to her kindness in letting others, including me, use her credit cards when they were needed. Additionally she’s about to get the shaft for 20K in credit card debt, courtesy of our defunct employer, who previously used them to buy inventory. I feel horrible for her. It may work out, that she’s able to recover part or most of the money, but the time and effort that will go into doing so, just adds salt to the wound. She’s been a loyal employee for 10 years.
The past three weeks, have been some of the most stressful weeks of my life. Aside from my divorce, which I think is a given. Although it is not a sudden shock that this happened, in the end, when it really comes down to the END, the realization is almost too much to take. When you’re actually peeling pictures off the wall, and clearing out your personal items. It’s a really weird feeling. Even when you’ve been slowly expecting it for some time. I guess you always hope for the miracle. Some last minute funding that will come through. Someone that will look at the potential of this company, with the same business model, same customers, same service, same employees, just without the nagging debt, and a President that continues to make poor decisions, and won’t listen to suggestions from employees, CPA’s, bankers, and other contemporaries. Someone that understands our business, and sees beyond the sad looking financials of years past. My boss is stubborn. This is not a personal attack on him, as stubborn as he is, I believe he’s a good guy. I think he has the gift of gab, and getting to know people, getting the businesses started.
I can’t really say that I wished he’d started trying to find investments, or funding sooner… because at the end of the day, the only way to make this business function properly, is for him to walk away, and bankrupt the outstanding debt. Without many tangible assets, unfortunately the company in its current state isn’t worth sh*%.
If the business could continue (even in today’s climate and economy) it would start turning a profit in about 60 days, once the inventory, and receivables started rolling in. It’s a great business for so many reasons. Some of the customers have been around since the beginning 15 years ago, and they are fiercely loyal, even when we’ve been out of product and over the past year, that has been often. We’ve whipped our local competition, even with slightly higher prices, because we always provided great customer service, gotten them the product fast, not over charged for “shipping and handling” (like we recently found out a competitor is doing), and developed personal relationships with most of our customers and vendors. That makes it especially hard.
So the moral of my story, if there is one, is that I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure out a way for a girl from the midwest, to keep this company going (with the help of the other vested co-worker). And over the last few weeks, this has been a BIG cause of stress and frustration. Yeah, I can get another job, but that’s not what I want. I want to be a part of a business that I have an interest in. I want to be a part of the business that I’ve already invested a lot of time in to. I want to be a part of a business that has great potential, a built in client base, proven products, and a sweet setup.
The flip side of this, is that because I’ve been a contract *employee* for the past three years, I don’t qualify for unemployment. And I don’t need to explain to anyone how badly that hurts, to have your income disappear.
I’m not totally giving up. I’m still trying to think of options for funding. Even if it takes a couple of months… we will lose some customers, but can build it back up. We have other products to diversify with if these become “extra” items that people don’t need. The Bush is our lifeline, and we’ve been servicing them for years. I feel bad for our customers, the ones that have come to depend on our products so they in turn can make a buck. And I feel bad for the customers that have placed orders (to the tune of 30-40K) that we can’t fill.
So 3 things:
1) Have you been in a situation like this before? What are your thoughts?
2) Know any venture capitalists or angel lenders, that want to bankroll some inventory?
3) Anyone need contract bookkeeping services? I can work remotely.
So that’s the reason for my silence. Other than brainstorming, I’ve been trying to put off the inevitable, and riding a roller coaster that some days leaves me in my bed in a fetal position or clinging to a small bone of hope that was thrown our way, always with disappointing results.
I think the best way to describe it, is the way you felt on the last day of 6th grade. Sick, excited, horrified, and wiser… all at the same time. I know about one door closing and 15 more opening. I’m just disappointed that a great opportunity right in front of me, is still out of reach. And it’s not even a large sum of money to keep it rolling.
I’ve been holding off on my whole frustrating last month, because I wasn’t sure what was happening, and didn’t want to publicly whine about something that could turn out Ok in the end. However, that’s not happening. So I’ll be ranting about my happenings, and asking the blogging community for ideas, thoughts, and maybe share stories of your own.
But for now, it’s really nice outside, sun and all, so I’m going to enjoy the day. And in the still of the night, when the midnight sun is fading. Watch out!
I can work remotely.
