[rcooled]

I live in the greater SF Bay Area and although I have a few friends who've recently lost jobs, I'm still employed (biotech design engineer). In spite of the media hammering everyone with tales of doom & gloom, there's still lots of folks around here out & about spending money. I went skiing a couple of weeks ago and there was no shortage of people on the slopes who shelled out $50/ea for a lift ticket and another $35 for rental gear. My wife & I recently visited the newly-reopened Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Same story...the place was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people who paid a $25 admission fee. This past weekend we went to the SF Kennel Club dog show at the Cow Palace and guess what?....it too was packed with people who paid $10 to park and $15/ea to enter. I live in a tourist/university town and I haven't seen any drop off in the number of people visiting the local hot spots and traffic around town is still always jammed up on the weekends. Maybe the full impact of this recession/depression hasn't hit this area yet but I suspect it will pretty soon.