I am generally a man in good spirits – and that is true today, too, but this year has been one pain-in-the-ass after another.\u00a0 Most of these have been in the “real world” and not modeling related, but they have bled over and have affected and continue to affect my business.<\/p>\n
Today, I turned off access to, and sales of, the Superior Props Old Timer props.\u00a0 I have limited stock-on-hand and no idea of when I can have them available again.\u00a0 I do have a supply of basic freewheelers, but as that diminishes, that category will also be disabled.<\/p>\n
The backstory:\u00a0 10 years ago, I visited Bob Gourdon in Louisiana and decided to purchase the Superior Props business.\u00a0 I had a plan.\u00a0 While I was still employed full time, my father would do the machining of the props as I needed them.\u00a0 He had careers in carpentry, cabinet making, as a machinist, and finally a toolmaker.\u00a0 He had retired 10 years prior and a new opportunity in woodworking and light machining gave him a new and enjoyable project in his retirement.\u00a0 My plan was to eventually take over the prop shop myself – but that was in my wild-eyed youth and before I had grown Volare Products into what it is today.\u00a0 Maybe both of us knew that plan would never come, I don’t know.<\/p>\n
Regardless, after my mother died in 2020, his focus in life changed.\u00a0 Now, at 84 years old, he has been spending 30-40% of his time in the Netherlands.\u00a0 Again, I have plans.\u00a0 But these plans are the slowest moving plans I have ever had.\u00a0 A modeling friend of mine here in Michigan volunteered to take over the operations and we went down this spring for training.\u00a0 One thing after another has prevented us from moving the shop north (my dad’s house is in Ohio).\u00a0 At this particular point in time, I do not know when the move will happen, nor when Superior Props will be back in operation.<\/p>\n
But that’s not all.\u00a0 I am backlogged in my little shop and that dates back to early summer.\u00a0 I’ve been trying and trying to catch up, but there have been events that have just kept punching at me and which have been preventing me from doing more than treading water.<\/p>\n
The future looked bright in the spring of 2023, but there were clouds on the horizon.\u00a0 My wife and I tend to take a summer vacation every couple of years and we schedule that in August as that month is usually light on contests.\u00a0 We checked the calendar and adjusted appropriately.<\/p>\n
In preparation,we had to consider my aging dog, Marcus.\u00a0 He was 14, and getting weaker.\u00a0 We had gone somewhere for a couple of days earlier in the year and when we brought him home from the kennel, he could barely walk.\u00a0 It was a hard decision, but in early June we decided to put him down since a) he was suffering daily and b) it would be a terrible existence for him in a kennel for two weeks.\u00a0 Anyone who has had a close pet understands – he was my daily companion since the day we rescued him from the pound.\u00a0 He was there for months (as a puppy) – no one wanted him because he was deaf.\u00a0 Anyway, that hit me hard.<\/p>\n
Right on top of that, my sister-in-law told the family that they needed to get to Alabama to visit my brother.\u00a0 He had been battling pancreatic cancer for a year and a half, declared cancer-free, and then hit with a recurrence – all in a year and a half.\u00a0 We all decided to visit and I went down a day earlier than my father and other brother.\u00a0 It is a good thing I did.\u00a0 I spent the day with him and he passed away that night – before my family could visit.<\/p>\n
One good thing that happened (but still took time) was the wedding of my younger son.\u00a0 This happened at the end of June and was a wonderful event, and stands as a highlight of 2023.<\/p>\n
July came fast after that. Bang-bang-bang:\u00a0 A week in Geneseo for the FAC contest, the next week in Muncie for the AMA contest.\u00a0 And then two weeks in Scotland and Italy.\u00a0 We get home from that vacation and both of us are diagnosed with COVID.\u00a0 More downtime.<\/p>\n
I spent August and early September preparing 50 Scale glider kits for the FAC Outdoor Champs and got them ready.\u00a0 The weekend before leaving for Muncie, I was “attacked” by a kidney stone.\u00a0 Not only did I miss the contest, but I was diagnosed with an associated infection and had not one, but two stents (one after another) installed between my kidney and bladder.\u00a0 This turned a week of periodic intense agony into a month of intermediate-grade discomfort and pain.\u00a0 Now we are into October.<\/p>\n
My father announced to us that he will be moving to the Netherlands and wants to sell the house and its contents by this coming springtime.\u00a0 At one time, he and my mother were authorities in Early American Pattern Glass and wrote dozens of books and monographs on the subject – and the large house was jam-packed with all types of glassware.\u00a0 They were antique dealers and collectors.\u00a0 As my mother was declining, they disposed of most of their collection, but the house is still full of a great variety of antique furniture and family artifacts and history.\u00a0 My brother and I are struggling to figure out what to do with it all in what is turning into a very short period of time.\u00a0 Oh, and the Prop Shop is at my dad’s house still.<\/p>\n
This has been hitting me harder than I expected.\u00a0 All of my childhood memories and artifacts are being dragged to the surface.\u00a0 What do I keep?\u00a0 What do I let slip out of my life?\u00a0 Where do I put everything I want to keep and pass on to my sons?\u00a0 Of course, this also highlights my own mortality.\u00a0 Oh, the anxiety.<\/p>\n
So, I have turned off some of the Superior Props.\u00a0 I am slowly doing analysis on my entire product line.\u00a0 I am flooded with orders and struggling to make progress and eliminate this blockage of backorders.\u00a0 By eliminating items which are a hassle to produce and package, maybe I can ease some of my future work.\u00a0 The part I enjoy is kit production.\u00a0 Well, let me clarify:\u00a0 I like designing and developing kits; I don’t particularly care for packing and shipping kits!\u00a0 But there are parts of the business I like even less than packaging kits, so those items will slowly disappear.\u00a0 This is easy – I just won’t restock the times and I will remove them from the online catalog.\u00a0 For example, why am I stocking glue stick when anyone can go down to the local supermarket and buy the exact same product off the shelf?<\/p>\n
Anyway, 2023 had been one of the more challenging years in my life and I will be happy to turn the illusionary corner that is New Years and get on with something new.<\/p>\n
Have the happiest holidays that you can manage.\u00a0 I hope to see you at the next contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am generally a man in good spirits – and that is true today, too, but this year has been one pain-in-the-ass after another.\u00a0 Most of these have been in the “real world” and not modeling related, but they have … Continue reading