Like much of the nation the economy is just terrible here. I paid $4 a gallon to fill up my tank yesterday. There might be fewer help wanted signs, but the unemployment rate keeps going down. Right now it's just awful. 3.5%! I've seen the economy
here when it was double that. Last year at this time it was 4.6%. It's still a bit better than the national. 3.9%. I can remember when the Federal Reserve considered 5% to be "full employment." They probably still believe that.

Speaking of filling up the tank: We eliminated the restriction that we couldn't pump our own gas--and the service improved. Someone washed my windshield the other day. Since the law changed I've only managed to pump my own gas once. The attendants
have been right there, even for the cheapest gas in town.

It used to be that the economy here was based on: wood products, farming, fishing, and tourism. In about that order. Wood products is one of the first things to slump in a bad economy, and one of the last things to recover. Now wood products are
somewhere around 15% of the economy and tourism has become very important in many areas. It used to be that the tourism business on the coast slumped to a crawl during the Winter. It's still off this time of year, but there are a LOT more tourists out
and about than there used to be. More nice RVs and more money being spent. The construction business seems to be doing well. I see a lot of big homes being built on the coast. Most of the businesses and campgrounds are open all year. It didn't used to be
that way.

TB

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