A recent cartoon showed three men on a park bench, one of them a businessman, briefcase at his feet, angrily talking at length. The man in the middle turns to the third and says, “I miss the days when you asked, ‘how’s business?’ and they’d answer, ‘I can’t complain.’”

The cartoon does not quite compute in Hood River County, where during the prolonged downturn, business owners have generally rolled up their sleeves and persevered rather than complain.

For many in business, it would probably be easy to get down about what’s going on. The state reported this week that unemployment has reached double digits. This community has seen its share of closures of businesses large and small in the past two months.

But if business around here is not exactly booming, it also seems to be far from bust. Local merchants are staying upbeat and open to innovation. People are at least keeping their eyes on the horizon rather than at their feet. There are three prominent examples of recent and upcoming opportunities for interaction and sharing of ideas:

n Thursday’s Hood River County Impact Meeting. The 8-10 a.m. event at Columbia Gorge Community College is the Heights’ Business Association annual gathering of businesses and major players in local government. Decisions at the city, county, school district, and state level affect business as well as society as a whole. The Impact Meeting is a concentrated setting for learning about local projects and issues, as well as giving leaders some needed feedback. It’s open to anyone, not just businesses.

n The Columbia River Gorge Technology Alliance will hold its next general meeting at 6:30 p.m., March 24, at the Hood River County Administration Building at 601 State St. in Hood River.

The meeting will feature a panel discussion from local organizations with business lending programs. These organizations include the Oregon Investment Board, Mount Hood Economic Alliance, Mid-Columbia Economic Development District, Gorge Angel Investors Network and a private investor.

The event is free and anyone is welcome.

n The March 5 Small Business Showcase was a huge success, with hundreds of people filling the Hood River Valley Adult Center. A record 30 businesses presented information about their goods and services. The event was firm evidence of the wide variety of energetic small businesses that drive the local economy.

On the other hand, a customer service seminar scheduled for today was canceled for lack of registration. The seminar would have provided employees an opportunity to improve the ways they respond to customer needs at a time when there may be fewer people coming in the doors with fewer dollars to spend.

But the Showcase, Impact Meeting, and GTA meeting are broader, positive indications of cause for optimism. They make a good case for the enduring vitality of the local economy, if only because business people, and others, are looking for ways to stay connected with each other in a time when doing so is more important than ever.