The rumors are true.
But while I can’t pinpoint one reason, I can outline a few, I owe those loyal followers a little insight. Yes, everyone is a way of dealing with the health back and forth thing. The relationship and pending divorce thing is tossing around a good bit, and I’m finally tired of being hacked. The Groovy Woods website that is, a handful of times, the domain stolen, recovered and the new blogsite hacked. My phone was subsequently hacked and I was able to recover that use, while adding another line (thanks Mint) to try and get Verizon honest.
So far the banking thing has settled down, but certainly during the divorce of etsy and their policy hacks (customers receiving shipments and canceling for money), and other online business drama, its just time. And I don’t give up all that easily, but some of this stuff just makes it all less… groovy.
I started this whole thing easily enough, a nice hobby, then a nice side gig, then I just let it flow wide open. And it was good. Very good. Hundreds and hundreds of consoles sold coast to coast. We made a lot of money for etsy, ebay, 1stDibs, and other commerce sites. What looked like a no brainer turned to some challenges after an unscrupulous lying shipper picked up 9 of our consoles for a Christmas time delivery route down south, rolled over the trailer and trashed them all, and didn’t have insurance like he said he did. We spent a lot of time and money fixing that fiasco, only to see that shipper run out and steal customers, shop time, parts and components and even online images. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but they guy should have paid the $45,000 in restitution for his sins first. But be that as it may, we forged ahead. We can’t call him competition if his routine is merely throwing oil on consoles and shipping them about. I just wish he wouldn’t use our pictures.
All the time we have been wanting to get back to a simpler time of delivering good vibes and smiles in our genuine and authentic way. We even looked to expand that groove when we worked on the Galaxie project for a year. That ended up not going as planned, but it ended up being the right path. We don’t give it a second thought, but that just happened during a perfect storm of excrement.
I can’t blame one thing, but its really about the sum of the parts. Was it the hip replacement? Was it the heart attack and that ambulance and hospital stay? Was it falling and tearing both quads and learning to walk? Covid a couple times is nothing compared to the other stuff. All that in 4 years. And through it all, several hundred consoles and we’re proud of them all. Right down to the last dozen we are pushing to complete and get out in the upcoming week or two. Through it all, if we’ve let anyone down, its always been time. Time is the enemy in the current modern world. And it's the enemy with vintage electronics. The Rolling Stones crooned “Time is on my side” and we certainly did our best with it. Do the math and we really rocked it. But there will be some that just can’t understand that in this day and age, it turns into a math problem and it all boiled down to a simple equation…
3 (and more) hackings + 2 online commerce sites hacking + a phone access hacked + a new hip + bi-quad sheared -knees repair and learning to walk again + covid a couple of times + employee contractor theft + huge non-insured claim denied/nonexistent + separation + divorce + Oh, the age thing… = Retirement.
Yeah, I said it. Retirement.
Everyone has their formula. This hobby got in the way, became a thing, a distraction and then a nuisance. It was always supposed to be Groovy. And by and large, even with all the distraction and hobbyist detractors and thieves, it was GroovyAF 99% of the time.
I still have some really special consoles to finish for some special clients. And normal ones like me, average Joes. And there are some interesting projects lining up, and so, sometimes you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. And the fire for staying in Madison and keeping a rather vulnerable online presence resuscitating over and over lately, it’s time to let it run its course. Without regrets.
The life changes in the last few years have been many, and as badly as I wanted to paint the Abbey Road stripes on the sidewalk in front of our building, it became all too clear that the off market offers were too good to not listen to any longer, and with the impending divorce and other factors, it was just the right time to put this out to pasture.
I suppose the Beatles can best sum it up “... and in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make”
Stay Groovy.