Monthly Archives: January 2022

I Didn’t Buy a Franchise Today

I didn’t buy a franchise today. Let me be very clear about that. 

But I was sorely tempted to investigate it and consider it and even weigh it against the financial goals that I’ve got. 

It was an estate sale business and it includes mailing lists. And websites. And employees. It’s a well-established name and it has the functionality for bidding that means it will thrive even in the current COVID climate. 

I’ve been to their sales and I’m on their mailing list. I’ve run downsizing sales and resale is one of the things I love. (Seriously, ask anyone and they’ll tell you that I love turning a profit on small things and not so small things. That early in 2021 I was trying to make a go of this exact type of thing.)

And yet, I walked away without even asking for more information. I walked away because if I didn’t, I would have put myself into a frenzy trying to figure out how to afford it. Or be willing to pull the trigger without really thinking about it rationally. I deleted the email that offered it because if I had responded and asked for more information, I wouldn’t have thought too much about why to get it and not enough about why I should walk away. 

And I should walk away. I have enough to do in my life. I don’t need one more thing to divide my attention. I’ve been working diligently to sell things on, to clean things up, to make room, to prepare for the inevitable downsizing, and to work off my debts. 

I recently turned 45. That means I’ve got thirty to forty years left. I have books to write and short stories to pass on. I have non-fiction catalogs and a biography I haven’t even started to touch. I have a death pile for eBay that’s the size of a small (large) storage unit and a half dis-assembled piano to use for art prints and strange sounds to make. I have dollhouses to renovate and miniatures to assemble. And forty years is not enough. 

I have to safe-gaurd my future. 

And to do that, I had to not buy a franchise today. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Business, Life in Random

Books to Read January 2022

The Accidental Guerrilla – David Kilcullen

The Anatomy of Courage – Lord Moran

Echoes of Gallipoli – Terry Kinloch

Getting to Yes – Roger Fisher & William Ury

An Intimate History of Killing – Joanna Bourke

The Rommel Papers – Ed. by BH Liddle Hart

The Signal and the Noise – Nate Silver

Think! – Edward de Bono

Weapons of Myth Destruction – Cathy O’Neil 

The Death of Jane Lawrence – Caitlyn Starling

Leave a comment

Filed under Books, Uncategorized

Sunday Night Music: Killing Me Softly

Leave a comment

Filed under Music

Quote of the Week – January 28, 2022

We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and out little life is rounded with a sleep.

William Shakespeare

Leave a comment

Filed under Quote

Sunday Night Music: Crazy

Leave a comment

Filed under Music

Quote of the Week – January 21, 2022

There is only one proof of ability: action.

Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Leave a comment

Filed under Quote

Love Poem

Leave a comment

Filed under Music

Quote of the Week – January 14, 2022

I fling my past behind me like a robe … I have outgrown it.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Leave a comment

Filed under Quote

SOS

Leave a comment

Filed under Music

Quote of the Week – January 7, 2022

The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

Marcus Aurelius

Leave a comment

Filed under Quote