Well I'm doing MY part to stimulate the fucking economy!
Yep, over the past couple of months I've stimulated:
-- the veterinary industry. Zeke, Oscar, and my brother's cat Annie all needed some pretty major workups. Good news on Zeke, ok news on Oscar, bad news on Annie. All damned expensive. And Oscar could cost substantially more over the next several months/years. Annie won't cost much more, but the near future will be sad (she has a large mass -- almost certainly cancer -- and any treatment other than pain relief would just be futile).
-- the "make-nice-art-prints-on-your-own" industry. A couple of items in this section. For the past four years I had been having someone I thought was at least a friendly acquaintance do this work, but early this year I could no longer tolerate her taking months to do jobs she promised within a week or two. She would also not respond to repeated attempts to contact her when she was late on jobs, so I never had a clue when my work would be finished. Not at all cool when people are waiting for orders. So I had to do something else.
1) Entry level large format printer, plus a stock of papers and ink to keep it going. This has the potential to be a really worthwhile investment, but right now it's a huge drain on my finances. Will enable me to provide much better service at an attractive price down the road.
2) Image capture for Steve's art. I found a local company which specializes in large format scanning and has scanned many artworks for local museums. They also do all the colour correction and give me a disc with a high res scan for each piece. It costs more than what my "friend" was charging, but the quality is higher, and when I take in several pieces at a time (which is typically what I do with SK's art), I get a discount on the work. However, it's still more money than I have been paying, and I just had a batch of 16 pieces scanned. Ch-ching!
-- the local framing industry. You would think I'd be all set with all the frames I have left over from Steve's exhibition last year, but nooooo, for his new exhibition he did five paintings in a larger size (22"x30" before framing vs a previous largest size of 18"x24"), and the larger the painting the more expensive they are to frame. Plus I had to get a few new frames for the smaller sizes because I didn't have quite enough. And we decided to use black mats for the paintings this time (instead of white), so I needed to get new black mats for all 20 paintings. (the black mats look fabulous though!) Let me tell you -- framing ain't cheap. If you go to the exhibition, want to buy a painting, and are ok with the frame and matting it's in (which granted is a basic exhibition setup -- they are designed to be consistent and make all the paintings look good together), you will get a good deal. I've only charged enough on the framing to not lose money.
-- and last (so far anyway), but certainly not least, the car repair industry. Fuck. The car has a broken spring, shot struts, and a bad gasket/seal which is causing a vacuum leak which in turn has made the mpg plummet. The broken spring obviously has to be replaced -- you hit a bump just right and you're in trouble. Since there are lots of bumps and potholes around hitting a bump just right is very possible. And I pretty much knew from the way the car was handling (and the overall mileage) that the struts were probably bad. And it's still cheaper than making payments on a new/good used car. But damn...I really don't need this big-ass repair bill right now.
So there. I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy. Shouldn't I get some kind of prize or something?
-- the veterinary industry. Zeke, Oscar, and my brother's cat Annie all needed some pretty major workups. Good news on Zeke, ok news on Oscar, bad news on Annie. All damned expensive. And Oscar could cost substantially more over the next several months/years. Annie won't cost much more, but the near future will be sad (she has a large mass -- almost certainly cancer -- and any treatment other than pain relief would just be futile).
-- the "make-nice-art-prints-on-your-own" industry. A couple of items in this section. For the past four years I had been having someone I thought was at least a friendly acquaintance do this work, but early this year I could no longer tolerate her taking months to do jobs she promised within a week or two. She would also not respond to repeated attempts to contact her when she was late on jobs, so I never had a clue when my work would be finished. Not at all cool when people are waiting for orders. So I had to do something else.
1) Entry level large format printer, plus a stock of papers and ink to keep it going. This has the potential to be a really worthwhile investment, but right now it's a huge drain on my finances. Will enable me to provide much better service at an attractive price down the road.
2) Image capture for Steve's art. I found a local company which specializes in large format scanning and has scanned many artworks for local museums. They also do all the colour correction and give me a disc with a high res scan for each piece. It costs more than what my "friend" was charging, but the quality is higher, and when I take in several pieces at a time (which is typically what I do with SK's art), I get a discount on the work. However, it's still more money than I have been paying, and I just had a batch of 16 pieces scanned. Ch-ching!
-- the local framing industry. You would think I'd be all set with all the frames I have left over from Steve's exhibition last year, but nooooo, for his new exhibition he did five paintings in a larger size (22"x30" before framing vs a previous largest size of 18"x24"), and the larger the painting the more expensive they are to frame. Plus I had to get a few new frames for the smaller sizes because I didn't have quite enough. And we decided to use black mats for the paintings this time (instead of white), so I needed to get new black mats for all 20 paintings. (the black mats look fabulous though!) Let me tell you -- framing ain't cheap. If you go to the exhibition, want to buy a painting, and are ok with the frame and matting it's in (which granted is a basic exhibition setup -- they are designed to be consistent and make all the paintings look good together), you will get a good deal. I've only charged enough on the framing to not lose money.
-- and last (so far anyway), but certainly not least, the car repair industry. Fuck. The car has a broken spring, shot struts, and a bad gasket/seal which is causing a vacuum leak which in turn has made the mpg plummet. The broken spring obviously has to be replaced -- you hit a bump just right and you're in trouble. Since there are lots of bumps and potholes around hitting a bump just right is very possible. And I pretty much knew from the way the car was handling (and the overall mileage) that the struts were probably bad. And it's still cheaper than making payments on a new/good used car. But damn...I really don't need this big-ass repair bill right now.
So there. I'm doing my part to stimulate the economy. Shouldn't I get some kind of prize or something?
posted by eek at 8:39 PM
2 Comments:
Eek,
Sorry to hear about Annie. I hope she goes quietly without lingering in too much pain.
The spring problem you have with your car sounds like what’s wrong with mine. When I drive over uneven roadway it goes crazy in the rear (swerving & bucking). I haven’t taken it in yet because I’m afraid of what the repair will cost. I won’t let my husband drive it because I’m afraid he’ll hit a patch of roadway the wrong way too fast. Whereas I drive the same route each day and know every lil’ bump but it is frightening when you let your guard down.
I hope the exhibition goes well. I didn’t realize all the work, stress and expense which goes into it. Good luck and God bless.
Freddie
Annie's getting some of the good drugs, so right now she's feeling pretty good. At least she can spend some time hanging out on the deck in the sun.
Got the car back on Friday and it feels really good. Kind of nice to know it's not going to totally let go on me when I'm driving down the road. I already had that happen last year with my old car (the ratty little gerbil car). Luckily I was on a regular city street and not an interstate at the time. I don't need that kind of excitement right now.
This exhibition isn't nearly as stressful as the one I put on for Steve last year. At least with this one I'm not responsible for the entire thing. That's a huge relief!
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