A LENGTHY HIATUS
Yup! I still live in Gravenhurst and I’m still offering scathing critiques of most things political...I hate tax increases and I complain under my breath each and every time I get my water bill. I try to keep my lawn neat.....although it’s arguably a little longer than most lawns in the neighborhood, and I try to be a good neighbor and a decent citizen. And when I’m not mumbling about the run of the mill stuff that just about everyone else blathers about.....well I’ve been working on improving my antique and collectable business mostly, and writing very little except the monthly columns for the travel publication I assist, and adore, Curious; The Tourist Guide. This was a planned 12 month project to get our online business past the mediocre stage and into the realm of what a good retirement business should be. My wife and I have been working on making our antique enterprise a much more dynamic retirement income in the future, and it’s still a wee bit off the level we would both like to ensure the bills get paid with a few coins left over for our benefit.
In fact this has been a good and worthy exercise because we have stepped up our sales and practiced better buying habits than in the past. I’ve simply had to put writing on hold temporarily in order to devote the time necessary to make sure the business lives up to its responsibilities. I began the business for our family back in the mid 1980's shortly after our first son, Andrew was born, and it has been a typical small business since.....earning modestly but continuously. Now with retirement on the horizon, one of the primary reasons we set it up in the first place, it does command a tad more attention than it has received. We’ve been antique dealers and collectors for a long time but retirement always seemed a long way off. Now with about three years to go, there wasn’t much choice but to work harder, longer and more prosperously to get a business that can pay the bills in the future.
Truth is I’ve never really had too much faith in freelance writing.......to be able to pay more than a sundry number of bills at any rate...... but seeing as I am passionate about the creative process I’ve never let the monetary realities deflect interest from writing in general. I have been off the mark this year with my writing projects and I do offer an apology to blog watchers for my tardiness. But there was a good reason......call it economic survival of the antique-kind in the midst of a recession that bangs off antique dealers like sitting ducks at the carnival shooting gallery. I’m planning a very active fall and winter season this year, so please stay tuned for more from our homestead in Gravenhurst, Ontario.