Sales Pitch

[For Charleston-area readers: there is a sales pitch you might find interesting at the end of this post. If you don't want to endure the rambly stuff up here, skip to the end and subject yourself to what it is i have to offer].

Alison and i have had an ongoing discussion about "how much money is enough?" We've been in that sticky place of having a bit more money year after year, and consequently, having a corresponding higher standard of living year after year. This is good, but when does one have enough?

So we talk about how we can avoid the slippery slope of ending up like couples who collectively make a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year and still lament that they're "having a hard time making ends meet." We've notived how easy it is to get into that predicament, and don't want to be there ourselves. I think we both believe that this is an important ethical consideration--and not just one of economics or mere frugality.

Sometimes the discussions that surround this are heartfelt and realistic, and sometimes they're just dreamy. Example: Alison's car recently broke down and we're chosing not to replace it for the time being. We're gonna try and get by with one vehicle. (i want to point out that i try to remember and be grateful for having a choice in this matter. It's a wonderful luxury not having to ask how we're going to afford one car in the first place. I've been there and it isn't any fun at all.) We also are doing tiny things like trying to eat out as little as possible. We've gotten rid of cable television.

Sometimes, however, these discussions are the dreamy type: thinly-veiled ambitions concerned with how we both secretly wish we were mind-bogglingly successful (and not just monetarily, but, you know: famous). So one dreamy thing i've decided is that when Baxter Sez is a world famous blog, it still won't have advertisements on it. Isn't that considerate of me?

But anyway, i'm mentioning all that because i'm fixing to break that rule right here and stick an advertisement on our blog. It's for me, though. Hopefully that makes it better than putting an ad on here for viagra or something.

I've just gotten out of school. I've yet to decide what it is i'm gonna be doing for a livelihood here in Charleston. If i follow the arc of my graduate career i'll be an artist that depends on writing grants for public work. I'll probably also do some adjunct work teaching art this coming fall. I may just open me a gallery. One arty thing i'd love to do is buy some of these tiny, tiny houses here on the peninsula, rebuild them as effective, affordable living spaces and offer them--with the help of private lenders--to working-class single mothers, at affordable, achievable prices. They'd be called Freedwoman Cottages.

Anyway, the options are limitless. Currently, however, i'm in limbo. I'm here at the house blogging and cutting holes in the walls of our house. This is fun, but it don't pay the bills.

So, that's why (get ready for the sales pitch) i'm making this special one-time offer (replete with the sentence fragments that are the stock-in-trade of advertisements):


Have you been dreaming of finally having those built-in bookshelves? That special one-of-a-kind piece of furniture to impress your friends and be the envy of your neighbors? A redesign of the bathroom that will have you bathing in bubbly tranquility? That's why i'm offering to you, today, a chance at a discounted rate for quality, creative craftspersonship.


But seriously, i've got two weeks before i start teaching a short woodworking class here in town and want a gig in the meantime. If you actually do need some built-in bookshelves or whatever (the "one-of-a-kind" furniture isn't really a realistic option as i haven't set up a proper shop yet), drop me a note at walter.biffle@gmail.com, and we'll get it movin'.

If that weren't enough already i'm gonna follow alison's advice and play on your sympathies:

Please help pay the medical bills of this poor, pitiful, conehead cat.



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