I'm sure you've heard that old, old saying...
You gotta MAKE HAY while the SUN SHINES!

Well, obviously you ain't gonna be able to make much hay in the dead of winter, not even when the sun shines in winter. Cos, at night, after the sun shines, it's oftentimes even colder 'cos there ain't no cloud cover above to hold in what precious little warm temperature degrees exist that time of year, especially in Northern Idaho, where I come from. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is definitely a four-season place if there ever was one. In summer, the temperature will go from above 100 degrees (not all that long ago, in fact), to 10, 20, and sometimes more BELOW ZERO in the winter. Brrrrrrr. I can hear the sounds of fenderbenders and pipes bursting all over the place now...

So, up there, (as is everywhere else in the northern hemisphere, logically enough), right now, temperatures are a-warmin', tourists are a-flockin', and Coeur d'Alene, as well as a gazillion other tourist towns, are puttin' on the Ritz, doin' everything possible in order to rake in them tourist bucks, 'cos come November, well, there ain't gonna be much of them to go around. Yeah, there'll be Christmas dollars that time of year, but it's hard to count on that one season to consistently put yer average business over the top when Christmas receipts have been shaky in these last few years, with many businesses having to mark down things BEFORE Christmas. It's a nationwide trend; the 'talking heads' of business news have a field day reporting such financial disasters.

So, really, a business needs a good tourist season to help tide things over. And there's one business in CDA that's a really big business. And it houses other businesses. It's a big hotel with shops in the lower level, and "attached" shops that can be reached from a skywalk from "aforementioned hotel" if indeed you don't wanna take your life in your hands by crossing the street. Gits crazy down thar sometimes. And if those businesses can make money in the summer, they can pay their exorbitant monthly rents to the owner of said hotel/business complex, and manage to survive a while before they have to try and figure out how they're gonna make money in the ever-desolate months of January and February, when the whole town sorta goes into hibernation. So, I wish the best for my hometown, and hope merchants there are able to rake in a lot of these during this current tourist season:



...the abovementioned hotel and its humble proprietor, always looking out for the corporation...

There are a few other businesses in the downtown area of Coeur d'Alene, who don't pay rent to this guy, but at the same time, are hoping for spinoff traffic, hoping to glean what little of these bills (pictured above) are left over after outta-towners spend their bucks at the hotel-associated businesses, which of course, are right smack in the middle of the downtown core. I remember Coeur d'Alene fondly, but at the same time, I can remember that the only downtown business I ever frequented was a coffee shop. I don't have much use for overpriced trinkets, and never have...even when I've been a tourist.
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Basically, this post is a poor excuse to justify the inclusion of the above sabotaged dollar bill, but you probably already came to that conclusion before you read it all. Oh well, 'twas fun.