Eclectic Arcania is Cleaning House!
In addition to the aforementioned detail I have also culled the herd of my blog postings here eliminating over three dozen posts that for various reasons I wished to delete. I also deleted all past pending posts that I had neglected to finish and publish here all of which were from the period 2008-2009 and were exclusively related to rock shows I did during that period. By now I have forgotten many/most of the pertinent details relating to the experiences of those shows and in some cases never downloaded the accompanying photos which are now no longer available. I have kept all previously published rock show postings however as I feel they hold some value and benefit to me and perhaps others as well.
I have also culled the herd of Kimmer's Favorite Blogs while also adding a number of blogs to that list. The remaining blog links have all been checked that they are still active and that the blogs are still active in most cases.
An upcoming change here is going to be the visual look and layout of this space which will better reflect who I am and what this blog is all about. My ex-girlfriend did a fine job setting it up in early 2008 when it reflected our creative collaboration. However, that collaboration ended a year and a half later in 2009. Yet this blog failed to reflect that change as I lacked the emotional wherewithal to bestir myself to carry on without her given how much I associated this place with her and needing to move on in regards to her I also needed to take a break from my creative activities here. Fortunately, that period is now over as of last month and Eclectic Arcania is back.
K&K Earthwerks Store Redux
As with my blog so now with my Ebay store I have been unable to bestir myself to do anything with it because I strongly associated it with my ex-girlfriend and needed to walk away from it for awhile for the same reasons as my blog. And as with my blog so now with my Ebay store I am ready to start over anew and am eager to transform K&K Earthwerks Store into my store instead of "our" store as it was when my ex-girlfriend and I were still together and the store was our collaboration. She did a great job and I am forever grateful to her for her getting me set up and established on Ebay given my chronic technophobia.
I will soon be culling the store inventory of things that have not sold and will not ever sell and will instead dump them in my friend Ryan Adam's soon-to-be-opening art gallery in Atascadero. I will only leave in my store inventory the sorts of items that fit my niche of rare and unusual if not at times ugly minerals from hard-to-find places that in some cases are now closed and no longer producing that connoisseurs of such seek out.
I will be adding a line of Benitoite and Neptunite from New Idria as well as a line of Cinnabar nodules from the New Almaden Mine as well as a line of Elmwood minerals as well as a large line of Dale Harwood rare and uglies that are typically Ebay gold. I also plan to cull my personal collection of anything that I do not love and that has provenance. The stuff I do not love and that does not have provenance I will dump in Ryan's gallery and price it to move. Since I'm upgrading the quality of my store the prices will reflect the elevated niche I will be occupying but my prices will be reasonable for what I'm offering.
Spring 2011 Semester is Over!
Week before last I finished my 2010-2011 academic year at Cuesta Community College. Although our grades have not been officially entered into the records I already know I got straight "A's" in my three classes (8 units total). I achieved the same outcome in the two classes I took the previous semester which means I completed a total of 14 units this past academic year and earned a 4.0 GPA. I feel the Lord is directing me to increase my course load to about 14 units next semester and stop working for Dave Richter except for the local shows. This means I will need to find some part-time work locally which will require a "God Thing" to happen... again.
God Gave Me a Car...
Within a short time after posting on my Facebook "Wall" that I needed to purchase a used car within a certain price range I received a call from an old friend. She received a 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue for free from her church, Harvest Bible Church, here in Paso Robles. She is the volunteer church secretary and during a time of severe need a year or two ago a car that had been donated to the church was given to her as a gift. She is now back on her feet financially and purchasing the soon-departing pastor's current car and asked him what she should do with her old car. The pastor told her to give it to somebody else ala "Pay It Forward". She was contemplating whom to give it to when she saw my Facebook Wall posting and knew that moment she was to offer it to me. So in our phone conversation she laid out the details for me and by the end of the conversation I knew I was to accept this beautiful gift. The plan now is for me to take receipt of it this weekend. I will need to smog it and get the brakes fixed and some minor electrical things dealt with and then I will be outfitted with a car that actually works. This will be the first car I have owned since early September 1990 when I traded in my 1988 Chevy Beretta for a 1990 Chevy S-10 4WD Blazer which I in turn traded in for a 1994 Chevy S-10 4WD pickup in June 1994 which pickup is now broken and can't pass smog and is not worth fixing assuming I could even afford to fix it which I cannot.
...After I Got Pulled Over
The #1 cylinder in my V-6 4.3 litter engine has inadequate compression and the unburnt fuel going into that chamber is going out my tailpipe. As that fuel passes through the catalytic converter it is destroying it. I can feel the diminishing power over time whenever I try to accelerate. I can't afford to fix it and have not since last year before my registration expired at the end of June. I have been driving the truck around with an expired registration since that time and have avoided detection through a combination of luck, pluck, providence, and skill... until about a week ago.
I was traveling southbound on Vine Street here in Paso Robles a few blocks north of 24th Street when a northbound San Luis Obispo County Sheriff patrol car that passed me suddenly swung around. I immediately pulled onto the nearest side street but he saw the maneuver and followed me and pulled me over.
I had dreaded this moment for a year and finally it was happening. I just fell into God's hand in this and trusted Him to make things work out because there was nothing I could do but simply plead my case and cause. This was about to be my third interaction with SLOSO deputies inside a year as I dealt with Deputy Kemp the day I found my friend Dave Brooks dead last August and then I have attended a few bible studies at the home of Deputy Calagna. Both men are class acts and I hoped to experience more of the same.
Two deputies got out and came up on opposite sides of my vehicle and the lead one on my side explained that my tags were expired. I immediately explained my mechanical and financial situation and that I was working on a solution. I also pointed out that I had a valid driver's license, up-to-date insurance, and that I had paid the registration fee for my pickup so that I was paying to use the roads just like everybody else but that because of merely this smog issue my tags were expired. I also revealed that Cuesta College police had already ticketed me about this very thing. The deputy was very reasonable and understanding and professional but firmly yet politely admonished me to get this situation resolved because technically I should not be driving around in my pickup under the circumstances. Approximately a week later God gave me a car!
My Pond Is In Place
I have now successfully installed a pond in my backyard and cleared the area around it in preparation for a herb and flower garden which my next door neighbor Lori will help me design and plant next month. In the meantime I'll work to get the pond ecosystem thoroughly balanced and established. At present I have algae mats and some sort of water vine in it plus small fish and tadpoles and polliwogs and water skeeters and some other assorted stuff in it. I'm trying to find snails for it but have thus far been unsuccessful. The Salinas River has been the source of these flora and fauna. I used a plastic pond insert that used to be in mom's backyard when she had a pond during the previous decade.
Kiler Canyon CSA
I have joined a Community Supported Agriculture operation several miles away whose drop house for their vegetables and herbs is next door where my neighbors Lori and Dori live and whom both work there. Kiler Canyon CSA is a wonderful agricultural endeavor that provides me with an amazing array of the bounty of the garden for a mere $21 a week for a half bushel basket which is the smallest consignment of food and still more than I can get through in a week. I plan to devote an entire blog posting to Kiler Canyon CSA at some point in the near future.
Fini
