So I got Door Dash to give me two deliveries last night. Perhaps it is meant to be an earn ad you drive along the way kind of app. It is not really for stationary use as a driver. Not really what I am looking for. But the two deliveries from last night were not too bad. I need it to give me more, though, to earn a bit. I have still not heard from Uber.
The first delivery was Mexican food like six blocks from the restaurant. The app gave me $7 for that. No tip. From my pizza days, that was usually a sign of a bad economy when people stopped tipping or dropped down to $2 or less. Right as I finished that up, I got an alert for a second delivery. Well, I hit accept right away. I don’t want someone else picking it up, do I? I have not scanned the screen fast enough to get details about the delivery, but the pick-up was close. It was the delivery that was a bit mad. I had to drive it down to Richmond. The app called that 16 miles! I called it a long delivery! I was figuring it would be limited to the area designated in the red boundary on the map, but that is apparently just the pick-up area. My kid will tell you, I was cussing all the way. But the app paid me out $12.99, and the guy gave me a ten dollar bill as I was telling him it was probably cold by now. He said he didn’t care. Okay! All set then! Pleasure doing business with ya! Hey, $25 is $25! But that was all for a Saturday night. It don’t look like there is a lot of earning potential in this thing. Certainly not enough to live on!
So, while it is better than nothing, and I can probably get some groceries in town while I am up there, such as bread and milk, it is nothing to live on, especially when wear and tear and fuel are considered. Will I carry on? Probably just to get a little money. That is a need. It is not the future for raising a family, that’s for sure! So, I will keep my eyes peeled for a job, and I will keep working on my stuff in the shop. But I am not confident in sales. Missus is having a hell of a time even getting anyone to stop by her little shop. She is spitting nails. I am with her on that. Does not one person see us opened up out there, and think, ‘hey! I think I will stop in and see what is going on there!” That’s right. In over a year of opening up most days. Not one. Well, one. One family did stop in once last summer. Three guys I know from around the neighborhood have stopped in, and one bought candles. Otherwise, the shop has been for naught. And that is so aggravating! People are just not into the things we are.
What are we into? Llamas, fiber, spinning and weaving. Missus also makes lots of things like her bookmarks, and wire flowers. The bookmarks include ones made from wood, paper, and even leather. She has prints for sale and has made little quote signs on magnets. She has put together tons of stuff for her shop and for her Farmer’s Markets. The Markets were always sort of break even. We would make back what we spent on some beef jerky and some drinks for the evening, and that was it. I don’t think we ever even made back the cost of the fees for the markets. Never mind the cost of the booth or the tables and chairs and such. I’d love to figure out how to do that still. It would be great to pull through this year. But I know she is not feeling it. That is a polite expression for what I know she is feeling.
So what now? We don’t have the next big trend for sale, apparently. We have always worked on a ‘back to basics’ mindset of self-reliance. Neither of us is into the trendy, but believe in the stability and reliability of traditional crafts, and their products as a means of securing prosperity. Why buy everything you need from cheap Chinese manufacturers when you can make it yourself or buy it from a local maker with higher quality and support. I know that speaking for anything I made, if it came back broke, I would fix it, and for free or minimal cost at all. We are set up here so we can do that. For me to make a new table leg is just a matter of a little time and a piece out of a log I have out back. I have access to the full supply chain that way. And I can replicate anything I have made with no trouble at all. Or in a worst-case scenario, I could just replace the whole piece outright. But that is will, and availability a the moment, and I have both. I don’t know what else to do. There is paying the billionaire on Facebook for ads. We are reluctant, I admit. That is aggravating. That is reintroducing to our model what we want to get out of it. But it may have to come to that. Will it target correctly? Or will we be pissing money into the wind?
What a looney situation it is! We can’t even get sales on the used car market, or with the saddles we have listed. It’s shit.
So, here we are. January… Wow! 26th already! Is it? That surprises me! That has gone speeding along! Must be the distraction of all the medical issues and everything Missus has gone through.
Anyway, so here we are, January 26th, already. And we need to figure it all out. I am trying to see if I can earn anything doing what I can best do for my old body, which is driving. I enjoy it. I enjoy the customer service aspect of it. I really enjoy meeting with new people, even if it is only briefly. I will try to build a few things, again, for the house to start with. Then I’ll replace them or maybe build a few for fun items and put them up for sale. I have got some happy enough workspaces set up now, and the tools I think I need to do just about anything I think I need to. I can do it and do it my way. From tree to furniture. Right in my own shop. That is such a happy place to be! January and February are meant to be the coldest, most awful months of the year. But thanks to that non-existent global warming, it is quite nice out, and perfectly fine on the front porch, though I find space a pretty big issue out there. So I am trying to figure out a nice little niche somewhere where I can push into and work. I have not figured out upstairs yet, because of wood shavings and carpeting. I cannot figure anyplace in the house where I could just go all day and evening, or night if I wanted. Everyplace else gets cold as soon as the sun is down, which is early this time of year. So… I’ll work something out. Imagination. That’s what I need.
I think come spring I will just plot out to the shop or under the willow tree with the Roman bench. That will be nice. I know that in the heat of the summer it is likely going to be night shifts for me if I want to get work done. If I am doing this myself, then I have that kind of adaptability. I won’t if I have to work to someone else’s schedule. One thing that has to hit the priority list is to finish that woodshed. It was jarring hitting the mallet the way I was. Maybe I can get used to it more? Then I could finish it and get the thing filled with next winter’s wood early in the season. That would be quite lovely! The dried wood we have been using this year has kept the house pretty easily warm. The wetter stuff, not so much. Well, like that comes as a surprise!
Oh! I got to work on some of that black walnut that the neighbor gave me. I turned a candlestick last night. It was a chore getting through that wood. Keep the tools sharp! That is for sure! But man, is it pretty! And it is tough wood. I am going to turn a couple of carver’s mallets from it and give one back to the neighbor. But I am also going to make a couple for me. Any more hand tools I need real quick? Holy crap! What a rich resource! I wonder if he can get any more? That is some nice stuff! He says he knows people who cut it down and throw it away. I’d take that stuff all day long! I may have to start a new scrap bin, and throw just walnut scraps in it, because who would want to waste the stuff? Holy cow! Which is a Hindu expression, I think.
Right. I am going to go back to sleep. An hour or two more, then get Sunday going. Why not? It is still dark out. Ain’t no sunshine just yet. But it will come.