When Bellingham Herald Building celebrated its 100th year since it opened.

The Bellingham Herald Building just celebrated 100 years plus a few months since it's opening in 1926. Celebration was Sept. 26 2026. There were tours and festivities. We even got to the roof. I was there.

The Newspaper is not there anymore. Bellingham Herald's offices are in Barkley Village. The old building still has many uses, however.

Big turnout for tours going most of the day. Tours by the Bellingham Good Time Girls organization.

Old flooring in a beauty salon that used to be production spaces for the newspaper.

Tours were booked full due to the chock point of elevator capacity. How many folks can fit in a Volkswagen?

More of us could be accommodated if we took the stairs. I was happy to do that.

We got to the roof above the 6th floor. There is also a penthouse that would be a partial 7th floor.

Yes, a unique perspective on Bellingham. Rumor's Cabaret, the red building, has solar panels. I didn't know that before.

Looking down to the corner of Chestnut and Railroad.

Walking on the roof.

Under the iconic Herald Sign.

What some of the hallways look like.

Dancing to 1920s music before a community group picture.

Getting ready for the group picture.

I'm in the group pictures they took with my bright green shirt and bicycle helmet. Photo from Daylight Properties Facebook Page.

Will Alberta become the 51st US state? No, but an even dumber idea is for Alberta to become an independent country.

That referendum is being voted on Oct 19 and it isn't expected to pass. If Alberta was to leave the great nation of Canada, it would be North America's only landlocked country; something like Mongolia, which is stuck between Russia and China.

Part of this referendum is probably for political leverage as that landlocked province wishes to push more oil and gas out through pipelines to the BC coast. This helps to avoid depenency on the now more unfriendly US, for bringing product to market.

Oil and gas consumption is still a reality around the world. Transition to greener energy is happening too slowly as demand and populations continue to grow around the world.

Much of the world's fossil fuel supply comes from authoritarian, places in the troubled Middle East as well as Russia. There is the opportunity for Canada, a more democratic society that respects human and gay rights, to cash in on supplying more of that continued world demand.

Some Canadians say it is better to produce the oil and gas in Canada where there are more environmental controls. Much of the consuming world is in crisis with cutoffs of supply from the war torn and troubled parts of the world.

Living in Bellingham, WA. I listen to lots of Canadian news on the radio.

A solution for trying to buy a remanufactured computer in Bellingham.

My next desktop computer is on its way. Ordered from Amazon. Turns out local businesses use Amazon and other online platforms as their retail outlet. I've been learning about how much of retail business is done in the field of remanufactured computers.

AI suggested I go to IPC, a large electronics recycler who deals in remanufactured products. They look like just a warehouse and loading dock, but, supposedly, they do retail for things they have refurbished. Turns out their retail is on Ebay, a large website for buying and selling.

I rang the doorbell at the loading dock. The door rolled open and I ask a young fellow if they sold computers. He said they sell them over Ebay.

I mentioned that in more chats with AI and the AI I was using thanked me for the correction.

Riding my bicycle, I tried Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity. They don't do windows, I mean computers. Habitat for Humanity does have windows.

Office Max only had 3 brand new computers at quite high prices.

Then I decided to try a repair / retail shop across town. At first, the staff person looked like he was asleep, but the sound of the door awakened him.

He was quite friendly as I explained my story. Not a lot of choices there as well, but they service computers. He offered to be the safe place I could have my computer sent to for pickup. Better than my apartment building where it may not get to the right door, or Amazon's often full pickup desk.

Problem solved. I ordered from Amazon.

Chatting more with AI, I discovered that medium sized cities don't have enough resale volume, or choice, to make it worthwhile. It might work in a big place, like Seattle, with businesses like Boeing Surplus.

Many local businesses, in the computer field, have now pivited toward customer service and repair; rather than maintaining large inventories themselves. They tend to use the giant online sellers, like Amazon and Ebay.

Shopping around through traffic is more difficult than shopping online. We do live in a constantly changing world.

Bellingham, like most American cities, has quite a few of these type of choices.