Long time no blog

Sorry folks, but I just haven’t felt much like making any blog entries lately. The adventure has become somewhat of a bummer. First, I left Old Corundum Campground on September 12th and returned to my aunt Martha’s in Molena, GA. Not that aunt Martha’s is a bummer, there’s a hook-up here and plenty of room to set up my equipment, it’s just that the people at Old Corundum were fun to be around, I made some good friends and the girls on “Estrogen Hill” had adopted me as one of their own. (see definition of Estrogen Hill at end of this blog entry). It was just hard to leave, but with all the medical bills from the accident, (more reason to be bummed) I could no longer afford to pay for camping when I could stay at aunt Martha’s for the cost of electricity. I am welcomed here with open arms and Martha and my multitude of cousins and cousin-in-laws make for an enjoyable stay. The main reason for my bummerness is Cutter. He is getting less and less able to get up on his hind leg; he is in some pain and just scoots his butt across the ground. The part that really tears me up is that other than the physical stuff he is alert and full of joy. I took him to the Vet and he explained that his age and the heart worms are taking their toll and there is not much I can do about it. Cutter is also becoming more dependent on me and doesn’t want to let me out of his sight. I find myself getting angry at him; I want to yell at him to cut the crap and just get up and walk like a normal three legged dog, but instead I pet him and sit with him and talk stupid dog stuff to him. Several times I have had to pick him up and put him into the trailer because he could not navigate the ramp. It feels a lot like when my mom passed away, in that for a long time she was incapacitated and was in pain. By the time she did pass, it was almost a relief that the suffering had ended. It was several years before I was able to grieve her loss. Not that Cutter is as important to me as my mom, but he does mean allot. It’s just that I can foresee, in the not too distant future, that I am going to have to put him down and I am not looking forward to that. He is getting worse much faster than I had expected. This is also placing my own mortality smack in my face. Let’s just say I have been in better spaces.

On the bright side I am getting better and better doing my stone cutting and wire wrapping. I have created several new designs and modifications, which pleases me. Here are a few of the latest.

From Year one September 2008

I really love this piece. It is a piece of rare Tampa Bay Coral.. It's rare because it is currently illegal to harvest this stone from the bay because people were destroying the bay collecting it.

From Year one September 2008

Click on the above pic and you can see more close up's of the other pendants

I have recently negotiated with a couple of ladies in Lauderdale, who are assembling a website featuring several jewelry artists, to include my stuff. As soon as the site is operational I will inform you. They have already taken pictures of some of my stuff and now all I have to do is to write a brief “bio” with a photo and my part is done. I am struggling with the bio, sometimes I have difficulty tooting my own horn.

Soon I will have enough stuff to begin selling at craft and art venues. I will start with local, small town affairs and work my way up to larger art shows. I anticipate things to be rough, with the economy the way it is and jewelry not being an item of necessity, but if I can make this work enough to sustain myself it will be better than crawling around on the ground repairing lifts. I sold a fair amount of my pieces to the campers at Old Corundum, which was nice and it boosted my ego regarding the quality and marketability of my work.

I’m not going to promise, but I will try to make my entries a little more often than in recent weeks and I will keep you apprised of Cutter’s progress. That part will suck but I know you will want to know.

I ended up selling the trailer I bought, mainly to help pay the doctor bills. I really hated doing that but it was the best choice under the circumstances.

Good, bad or indifferent the adventure continues because none of us get out of here alive, not even dogs.

AV.

Estrogen Hill: Old Corundum Campground is basically divided into two areas. There is the main campground which contains at least fifty or more camp sites and then there is an area I call “Estrogen Hill” which is outside the main park and across Nickajack road. There are about nine or ten spaces up on the hill. While I was camped there the occupants of the hill were four single women and myself, (I was in heaven) thus the name Estrogen Hill.