By the time the paper is published, 2014 will be upon us quicker than we can imagine.
When I think of how life was after retirement toward the end of November and what Jack and I took on in the spring of 2013, I certainly understand why so many people have questioned our sanity.
We took over a business from owners who required us to vacate the premises before a contract would be signed.
That meant finding space to rent, redesigning that space (going from 2,700 to 1,200 square feet), rewiring for computers/phones and disposal of loads of furniture and equipment in less than three weeks. A moving day more than a week prior to the sale necessitated finding strong men to move and courageous employees to economize, then dust off their long-stationary necessities (since 1996) and move these to the new building.
Over the weekend, Jack and I cleaned the old building and set hordes of things out on the street where (thankfully) people came and picked over it like crows.
The new office re-opened as the Idyllwild Town Crier and Visitors Center Monday, June 24. Whew!! Now, I felt ready to get back into newspaper publishing. And then a small flame on Monday, July 15, became a crisis burning more than 22,000-acres and leading to evacuations and relentless online news updates until the following Sunday.
And my operations manager (daughter) took maternity leave, having little Finn on Oct. 8 — a deadline day, of course, so that Jack and I were in the desert all night to greet our beautiful new grandson and arrived back about noon to push getting the paper to the printer.
We continue to work through the bumps because we know you, our readers, need and want this litttle community newspaper, even with all its faults. We appreciate all the support you give us from readership to advertising and wish you all the best in 2014.
Becky Clark, Editor
