For anyone just tuning in…
I let my blog go dead, but with social media the way it is, perhaps it’s time to dive back in!
The last chalk art ever at Seattle’s now-defunct City People’s Mercantile.
Since someone might actually visit my site, I’ll at least get things updated to 2026 on here!
I spent all of 2024 and a bit of 2025 working part-time at the last outpost of Seattle’s City People’s Mercantile - an “everything store” with a True Value Hardware section, a pet section, a garden store as well as toys and housewares. It had the advantage of being mere blocks from my house - I am always up for a short commute.
Sadly, between the most recent owners having health challenges, the store being oversized and burdened with rent, too many people shopping online especially after the pandemic… well, the place went under, despite it being a “local favorite”. My daughter worked there briefly, too, and her chalk cartoon of the store mascot Winnie the cat outlived both her tenure and the cat. I kept up a running set of slogans and other illustrations, ending with the one pictured above.
I spent a lot of time in 2024 and 2025 shuttling out to the East Coast as my father’s physical and mental health worsened, helping wrangle my parents’ move to one retirement community in Philadelphia, and then another after my father went into Skilled Nursing. At that point, my mother could get into a community where she could get on their LifeCare plan, without needing Dad to “qualify” as well. He passed away soon after the second move, but honestly, he’d been essentially “gone” for over a year by then.
At about that time, we finally wrested our intellectual property back, and now we’re having the fun of trying to make a real go of it as a game-design studio, which is a lot easier with a full and well-regarded back-catalog to license out!
In more blog-related news, the guinea pigs are still with us! Pinky is now on two heart medications, and harbors some sort of a lump inside, but at her estimated age of somewhere over 7 years, her continued thriving is a sort of miracle, and no further treatment is considered wise. Lucinda has continued in rude good health as well, after having her own lump removed years ago. They have slowed down, sleeping more, and being even more food-focussed than ever, and Pinky has “lost her squeaker”, begging for food with a barely audible breathy hoot. But they still trot around in Pig Paradise, savor their treats, and enjoy a bit of lap time. We will cherish them while we have them.