Personal-ish: Job

Petunia (grandiflora?) 'Tidal Wave Silver.'
Second bombshell (of three) for the week, and probably the one my readers will find most surprising: I'm quitting my job. I told the boss on April 23rd. I'm going to be working through at least May 23, and then probably off for a week, and then maybe I'll be back one or two days per week through the middle of June or something. A lot depends on how horrible moving is, and how out-of-control life is feeling by late May.

I have mixed feelings about this, though overall I think it's more good than bad. If nothing else, I'm not sure my poor body would be able to handle another summer of this. I mean, we know the heat is an issue, and that time of year is getting closer. There are a lot of other reasons why this seems like the thing to do now. Some of the reasons sound better (or at least normaler) than others.

Rudbeckia hirta.
I've been kicking around various plant-related ideas for What To Do Next: I couldn't really become a wholesaler (startup costs are prohibitive), but in theory there's nothing stopping me from propagating plants on my own and selling them. The town to which we're moving is rumored to be starting up a Farmers' Market this summer, and many of the towns in the area have Farmers' Markets of their own, so that could be a source of income, in theory. Failing that, maybe EBay or something. I don't know. I've also been told a few times that I should look into writing, either for magazines or getting a book proposal together, which just as soon as I find out how and what one proposes to a book I will totally do that. Writing, at least, seems like a pretty duh kind of avenue to pursue, since I was doing that anyway.

The husband should be able to cover us financially, BTW, especially since the house payment is going to be about half of what we were paying in rent. I mean, we'd be giving some stuff up by not having the extra income, but since one of the things we'd be giving up are heat exhaustion and back-breaking labor, it seems worth it to me.

Catharanthus roseus 'Peppermint Cooler.'
This, like with the move, is also going to have repercussions for the blog, because (in theory) there will eventually be vastly more time available for writing and researching and photographing. I've been feeling guilty for quite a while now about not keeping up better with everybody else's blogs, so this might give me the chance to comment on other people's posts and link to other people's blogs and so forth.

The down side is that I'll have a much smaller pool of plants available for pictures. I mean, obviously I'll go back to my current employer from time to time, 'cause it's still the best source around for plants I might want to buy (though -- will it still have a selection perfectly tailored to my whims and needs if I'm not the one putting together the orders anymore? Probably not.), but I'm not going to be able to go back and spend hours looking around for photographable stuff. At least not daily. (Not that I do that now, but I do spend hours around the plants, and sometimes photographable stuff appears.) And also I'll have less inside information to share about what working in a garden center is like, or possibly I'll still have the information but it won't be as immediate to me, so I won't find it as interesting, or whatever. But that's maybe okay, right?

Verbena 'Aztec Red Velvet.'
I feel very weird announcing this, in a number of ways but mostly because this is something of a risk, and I'm not ordinarily someone who likes to take risks. (Though staying at the job was not without its risks, either.) Doing it anyway, but it feels weird.