Tax day, but they're done. Just going over the taggard remnants of my business plan. How to protect one's business from the effects of poor government? At any time they can come out and say or do something and clear the streets of shoppers. All four of them...

But I find the pace of life here in the valley is different. Not just the fact that everybody's still out of work. We no longer have conversations about portfolios and even house prices for the most part. Internet time is gone. Except for the constant chatter of cell phones, most folks are walking about disconnected these days. They aren't surfing the internet on their phones. The laptops are mostly docked. The palm pilots gathering dust. The blackberries destined for a garage sale. It's a bit more pleasant.

Even the IM wars seem to be mostly over. Why? People hate the bloody things. Nothing more annoying than having a 'UT?' pop up in your face. No, I'm not here. I don't want anybody knowing when I am either.

I get guitar players most every day, uhm "checking out the guitars". Nope. They're just here to make noise and try and impress me (or usually their friends) with their riffs. Usually a bit of Metallica and some poorly executed (but fast) leads. Yawn. Then there are the hypnotics. They pick up a guitar and sit in a corner with a sick puppy look on their face playing the same two rhythmic strings over and over and over and over and... Then they hand the guitar back. Like, top this. Yawn. Usually I just put the guitar away and let them think they're the guitar god of the moment. That's fine. Can't sell guitars by embarrassing them. When prodded, I've got it figured out. Nope, not any fast arpeggios. No tricky classical pieces. No jimi or eddie or joe. No, one chord and/or one note. That's it. And they back quietly away with their jaw dropped every time. It's all about attitude.