Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Ashland, Oregon

Early morning as we had to head off to the shop to get opened and then take a friend to the airport. Tired. Exhausted. Passed out early last night to downloads of “Gotham City” (a new favorite) although didn’t finish the episode as snoring was the effect. Having a store front is much more demanding and draining, imprisoning than I would have ever expected. I think i like the mail order / internet orders / and festival business better. At least then I had more time to write. I’ve decided I’m going to force time to write/blog. I need to. Otherwise I’m gonna lose my sanity. Originally I imagined wouldn’t it be cool to have a store where I could hang in the office, write my books, process my photos, do my art and greet customers who would walk through the doors and buy cool treasures I found on journeys or think they’d like and it would support my art? Well – inventory, networking, advertising, accounting, bookkeeping, pricing, POS, shipments, overhead, etc. all take away from that. Uggh. Not to mention – you can’t have a sick day nor a vacation day since its your business and you have no-one to watch the shop while you’re out. Gotta maintain open/close hours. Can’t afford yet to hire someone. Its been hard. The other reason was so we could spend more time with our son and not have to do daycare. Well that at least is accomplished. However, having a toddler running amuck in the store while fun at times can have its own draining factor, not to mention once you arrange something on a shelf, he’s out to re-arrange it several times afterwards thinking he has a better sense of style. Or the artwork with magic markers he decides to enact wherever he likes, or scatter his cars and toys around the floor so you have to constantly pick up after him. We’ve got a sweet schedule at least to take turns spending some quality time with him during the days – since the first half of the day’s hours are covered by a partner, Etain runs the shop while I kid-sit and take him on field trips – swimming at the YMCA (not this month as they are renovating the pool and he was doing sooo good), to the park when its not raining or snowing, to the library for wobbler reading time (and for him to play with Thomas the train engine in the kid’s area), or off to Medford to Kid’s Time for him to explore, learn, and play with other kids. Or we are off doing errands, running to Staples for office supplies, treasure hunting, or thinning out our storage units. Etain is greeting customers, answering questions, cleaning shop, filling orders, doing web listings, and managing the Leaf and Dragon. Come 2 pm, we head back to the shop and I dive into the world of inventory, sales, accounting, web listings, advertising, and business – stuff … hopefully blessed with the toddler being exhausted from morning activities he’ll take a hour or two nap so I can get some things done. We are only supposed to be open until 6 pm, but its more like 7 or 8 pm these days (especially with holiday shopping) before we lock the doors. Then the evening starts with grabbing a quick dinner and trying to get caught up with internet orders. Where did the time for writing and leisure go? i have no clue.

Cian gets antsy for attention around this time and we don’t successfully get him off to sleep until 10 or 11. If we don’t pass out by then and slipping in a episode for a break. Then late hours begin trying to finish work and accounting while he sleeps. Then 3 or 4 am gets to me and I have to get to sleep. Up by 8 to start again. This is pretty much EVERY day. Something has to change.

Of course if we were doing things differently working a job in another shop or cubicle, we’d be working all day and get home maybe have an hour with Cian before he’s off to bed and then off to bed ourselves, rinse and repeat – we’d have weekends off perhaps. At least we get to spend alot of time with our son daily, quality time, and we don’t have to pay extra for daycare. A guaranteed or dependable income would be nice. It would be nice not have to live paycheck to paycheck or hope that sales are gonna pay the bills for the month.

This morning, we had to use the upper showers as the ones by our RV are being repaired (been about a week now) – so we did the family outing on the way to work, went to the showers and cleaned up – Cian is taking some time learning to like showers without screaming bloody murder. But once his hair is washed he’s liking being in the water and its hard to get him to accept turning the water off. Then commute 6 miles into town to our lovely shop to drag out the clothing rack, the grid, the newsletter table, a sales table, our signs, vacuum the floors, polish the windows, cabinets, clean up and arrange things out of place – boot up the POS and get ready for customers. Maybe with enough time to make some breakfast before the first customer walks through the door. This morning after setup headed off to pick up Phaedra and drive her to the airport as she heads off for the holidays. Cian in the back seat watching Thomas the train engine. Then we headed off to the festival trailer to winterize it, make sure the solar panels are still charging the marine battery, and no leaks – all safe. Bob our trailer storage space landlord wished us Happy Honnaukah. We wished him Happy Holidays back … then a pitstop at Starbucks for a Chai creme frappacino for an energy burst while Cian downed his apple juice. We made our way to downtown Medford to adventure within Kid’s Time – digging up dinosaurs, exploring a historic farm, playing with balls and blocks, light pens and trucks, while Cian flirting with little girls and did acrobatics on the mats. Onwards to Phoenix we pitstopped for a monthly clean-out of the Explorer – car wash, vacuum, and re-organize the clothes, luggage, and camping gear we have in ready-go-state if at moment’s notice we wanted to go camping or be prepared for armagheddon should it decide to happen some day. The solar panel battery drained for the car as overcast skies not providing power meaning a need to bring it home to charge up on the power grid. Grabbing lunch to go we head back to the shop to relieve Eadaoin finding some inconsiderate car double-parked over our space, so I pull in tight blocking entrance to their car door. Moments later she comes in asking if its our car and saying she can’t get into her car – well no duh lady you double parked (not to mention parked in a space you’re not allowed to park in) and blocked easy access to our paid parking spot. Not happy. Then an interesting conversation with a new customer about medicinal applications of dragon’s blood. He had some South American poisonous tree frog medicine embedded into his arm in a series of dots and sealed over with dragon’s blood resin. He wanted to know about its medicinal applications – so we researched it best we could google-style. He bought some resin from us. More customers flowing through the doors, we finally get a break to eat lunch and Cian off for an hour nap while we work on inventory, arrangements, and catching up on internet orders. Before we know it darkness fell and the cold seeped it. We closed the doors for the day at 7:30 pm. Yet its almost 9 pm and here we still work. Its time for dinner yet I don’t know what we have to make. Maybe slip in a walk downtown for some exercise? Tonight is a late-nighter while catching up on work. Uggh. Looking forward to Ireland.