Thanksgiving weekend, next stop Christmas.

My friend Janice says to me… “So why haven’t you written in your blog?  Get writing!”  Since it is thanksgiving weekend and I have actually taken the whole day off (well sort of) I thought that I would try put something in here.

Sunworks is looking better than it ever has looked.  Most of the fall stock is in and we’ve found room.  Meanwhile I met with the team on Thursday morning for a hour and we discussed this questions “Imagine we are going into the Christmas season and we have expanded the store to the second floor — how did we do it?”  It was a great way to talk about all of the things that would need to happen and it made it feel real for everyone, including me.  Andrea (who has the most amazing skill when it comes to process and problem solving) and I sat down and did a schedule of everything that would need to be done to make it happen.  On Thursday and Friday everyone worked hard.  Good progress was made.

Tomorrow I am going to paint apartment 200 and get it ready for flooring and tile.  I’m looking forward to furnishing this place and it seems that we’ll be able to rent it for a great professionals coming to Red Deer on short term contracts.  I’m hopeful that we can have that apartment done by November 1, but there is a lot to do yet.
As I stood in the apartment today I thought of how easily I could live there.  It is beautiful.

Lance, our contractor on these projects, has been hauling the dead ductwork and garbage out of the rafters for two days.  It amazes me how much stuff accumulated over the many many years that building has existed.  Who would think to store old bits of wood and duct work in the rafters.  Anyway, it is out now for the most part.  Terry and I may need to go up there and poke around a bit.  Next week we hope that the ceiling can be wired and then we can insulate the building for the first time ever.  Maybe this year in the minus 40 degree weather the snow will stay on the roof and not melt.  That should help us with your heating bill you would think.  If we can cut these bills in half and reduce other expenses, while increasing the revenue we might actually make some money this year instead of just breaking even all of the time.  Woo hoo, what a novel concept.

Can we get the expansion done  open before Christmas.  I think so.  It means that we may all have to work some long hours but if we can intersperse these with good quality time off I think it will work well.  Beginning next week I am going to take one day a week off, or at least, work from home.

On to the election campaign.  We have several people running for city council, most of the usual candidates.  Mayor Morris is running again for Mayor, and Jeffrey Dawson a former City Councillor is running against him.  The election issue this time around seems to be focused on the down town, which is making me crazy.  I’m so glad that I went to Carmel this summer and studied Appreciative Inquiry  The candidates are all thinking about how to “fix” the downtown.  No one is talking about building on the strengths of the downtown and there are many.  It feels like all of the work that some many people have done is being undervalued.  Still Mayor Morris is seen downtown supports downtown and sees the work that has gone into it, so I’ll vote for Morris again.

I’m working on a newsletter for the store that I want to have out but Thursday, and is only a few days away.  During that last election we offered to our customers the list of who we decided to vote for.  We had many calls and responses of thanks.  We are going to the forum on the 10th in the evening and we are going to make our decision that night and send it in an email the next day.  We will not tell people who to vote for, but rather to vote, and give them our list.

On Friday of this week, the new Thai restaurant opens.  The monks are coming to bless the restaurant and our prayer wheel.  It’s going to be a great day.  I’m really looking forward to it.  I’m so thrilled to have them on the street.  Now we have Cafe Pichilingue a soup a sandwich place, King’s for Lebanese, Thai Garden Restaurant for Lao and Thai Cuisine.  There are three gift shops, a hemp store, a wine bar, a flower shop, two ladies clothing store, and three arts galleries, and nearly every building along the street has residences in it.  Ross Street is such an exciting place to work.  It’s all very exciting.  Ross Street is arriving.

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