A guy I work with had to go up to Detroit for a project last week. I saw him in the office the day he was set to leave; he had his roller suitcase all packed and was ready to go. He did not seem particularly excited about his most recent assignment.

"Detroit?" It's fitting that the winless Lions wear blue. The word just sounds sad to me these days.




I asked my co-worker to pay attention to the vibes in the air there, to see if he could gauge the mood of the place without asking any questions about it.

Jason was back in the office this morning, and he wasn't too high on the place.

"Man I was thinking about what you asked, about the vibe in that city," he said. "And you were totally right. You can feel it. They're at like 20 percent unemployment right now in that city."

"Twenty percent?!" (*I haven't checked this figure. But it doesn't sound too crazy.)

"Yes. And that's now. That is now."

"It's like interwar Germany or something."

"I went to this shopping mall," he said, not showing any indication he got the joke, "and it was a huge mall, like Katy Mills, one of those malls you see built out in the suburbs. Man, it's Christmas season, and that place was VACANT. Yeah, sure there were a few people, but --"

"But it was like, 'E-CHO! E-CHO! E-CHO!'?" I cut him off.

"Yes. Exactly," he said.

It is weird to be living in Houston right now. I do not feel "it" in the air down here. Things seem to be doing pretty well, except for the fact that I don't ever recall there being so few houses with Christmas lights up. Raja says people are "giving up on Christmas," but I don't know. Maybe. What I do know is that I see people with Starbucks cups in their hands, people take trips to Austin, and there are commercials on the radio talking about how great business is at some car dealership. The Bob reminds me every day of how lucky we should all feel to be living in Houston at a time like this; I'm sure that's part truth, part pitch to get me to stay.

But I know the storm is coming. I think everyone knows that.

What a strange feeling. To know it's coming. The final whimpers of the great party that has already drawn its last breath in California, in Florida and in Michigan. People expecting things to magically get better in 2009, 2010, well, they're going to be in for a serious shock.

It could be worse, I guess. The Texans could be the Lions.