Posted by Dave Bull at 3:48 AM, June 3, 2010
Remember this picture we saw here on the RoundTable a few weeks ago?
See the fine wire up at the left arrving at the house just under the eave? That's an optical fibre line - my connection to the world.
Since I took that photo, the wisteria has finished blossoming and exploded in new growth. And that wire is a prime 'target' - this stuff would take over the planet as long as it could find a line to follow, and it has decided that the houses across the street look like prime targets ...
As much as I like having the wistaria here, I have to recognize that enough is enough, so I arranged for one of my neighbours - a guy who works in roofing - to come over with a ladder and some strong shears.
He scampered up there with no problem, and got to work:
He would happily have cleared the whole thing, but I asked him to stop about 1/3 of the way down the roof. There are no wires at the back of the house, so we'll let it have a free run back there ... Here's the result:
Looks kind of bare right now, but in a couple of months, it'll probably be like nothing has happened. We'll see ...
This job had to be done now, because for the next couple of weeks, I won't be around to watch over the place. Next week is my parents' 60th anniversary, and the family is having our annual get-together in Vancouver to celebrate it ...
But what about my next Mystique print, you ask? Don't worry. My part in that is done, and Ichikawa-san is now getting them wrapped into their story sheets, and packaged ready for shipping. I'm taking a CD-R with my bookkeeping software on it, and will be running the invoicing on schedule from my mother's computer:
- I'll run the invoices around the end of the second week of the month, as usual
- Collectors will receive an automatic email notification at that time ...
- Ichikawa-san has access to a private webpage that is updated automatically by my bookkeeping system, and as soon as she sees each payment come in, she'll drop the matching package in the post
Once I'm back, I'll finish up the carving on #4, and print it in time for shipping in July.
Ichikawa-san is also holding the prints from other sets (Solitudes, etc.) that are due to be shipped as 'back numbers' on the usual date of the 15th of the month, so there will be no delay of those either. (And she also has a stack of 'Your First Print' CDs, so shipments of those can continue without pause while I am away ...)
So I'm 'done' ... caught up, and ready for a break! At the turn of the year, when I made the initial decisions on the new series, and also decided to hold an exhibition in the spring, I knew that I was in for four or five months of non-stop work, not to mention a very tight time financially. I drew up a long 'timeline' chart to help me keep on top of it all:
I wrote the jobs in place in pencil (being practical) and you can't see all the erasures that took place along the way, but anyway, it served the purpose ...
Now that we are well established in the Mystique series, I'm not sure if I'll continue with this kind of planning. The schedule is set in place very firmly, and as long as both Ichikawa-san and I keep one eye on the calendar, we should be OK for the next year and a half ...
And the $ stuff too, is slowly coming back into balance. A couple of months back, the clip containing my unpaid bills was fatter than it has ever been, but because prints have recently been heading out the door on a firm schedule, it is shrinking week by week, and should be completely clear by mid-summer.
What else to say ... I spent all of this morning attacking the kitchen, and I'll putter around the rest of the place this evening, cleaning it up bit by bit. Tomorrow morning, I'll throw some stuff in a bag, shut the place up, and head for the airport.
Mission Accomplished! :-)