Funny how so many of the classic phrases honoring monarchy involve their salvation or ability to remain alive. After the last several weeks, I can certainly see why.
So I am now two and a half months into running the computer shop and I feel as though I have a better idea of what I am doing and how the energy flows. It is by no means a money maker as it was described to me to be. It’s a long-ass drive and this weekend, I sold a $5 VGA cable and that’s it. Originally, I was told that the cold winter months were the problem and I was certainly willing to accept that was the case. For weeks now, however, the weather in California has been warm and sunny and mostly dry. There have been good weekends when I pulled in a few hundred dollars. The previous owner (since I purchased) has several times insisted, “This business will sustain itself.” Unfortunately, if I am going to give up my entire weekend and drive ninety minutes one way to get there at 5:00 in the morning, then spend ten hours working there and drive back, I need for the business to do one hell of a lot more than sustain itself.
Several of the key components of the business were misrepresented to me and those slips did not become apparent until I was well into the process and had already invested a hoop of money into the set up. Now, although I would love to just let the whole shebang drift into anus of time as a bad memory, I decided to work harder to find a way to make it work for me. In our spiritual path, February 1 – March 21 is the time of confirmations and redirects where we are shown what is working and what is not. Since what I am currently doing is not working, I have decided to revamp the entire shop to my liking.
I do enjoy some of what I do with the computers, but I need smaller, more “impulse buy” items. There is a huge, overwhelming pile of outdated e-waste I need to dump for starters. I will rearrange the shop to open it up more and get rid of some imposing fixtures that do not serve a purpose commiserate with size of their footprint. In a tiny shop like mine, every inch counts.
You can’t see it very well, but there is a green door on the left and a red door on the right. There will be a sign on the green door that says “Zen” and one on the red door that says “Tech.” Both, of course, lead to the same room. After I strip out a good bit of the stuff in there, I will set up the green side as a sort of metaphysical shop with books, soaps, candles, incenses, gifts, little statues, candle holders, books, and that sort of stuff. The red “Tech” side will take up less than half the shop and will remain devoted to computer sales and repairs. It’s a last ditch effort to stay vital before I scrap the whole thing and move on to something else the end of October. Since this is in a (freakin huge) swap meet environment, my hope is that smaller, less expensive items will become popular. As I tapped my sons to help out with the computer repairs, I have asked Delena, my daughter, to assist me with the Zen side since she is my partner at the festivals we work and this is completely her field of expertise.
I am now several blog entries into my gig at Patheos.com and it is going well. Two posts a week is tremendously time consuming, but so far, I have managed. I am disappointed that between these two projects, plus homeschooling Nathan (15), plus trying to maintain a household, I rarely have time to work on the books I write. They are coming along, but at a snail’s pace compared to before when I had the luxury of writing for hours on end. Oh for the good old days!
I miss my old life. I miss me. I am not thrilled with the place where life has taken me, but I trust that in ways I cannot see now, it is all for the best.