Yep…
Two weeks from Saturday, I leave my day-to-day job. It’s time.
My fingers, which are essential to doing the one thing I do well — craft words — have taken a beating, first on this job and at a previous one.
Physically and mentally, I need a break.
So, I’m taking my two bucks and change and walking away and I plan to spend the summer being a beach bum on the rocky, mussel-encrusted shores of Penn Cove and writing.
In 21 months of doing Coupeville Sports, on the side and around a “real” job, I have produced 2,045 articles.
That’s 97.3 articles a month, more than three a day.
I cover varsity. I cover JV. I cover middle school. I cover little kids. I even toss in some drama, a little science and a smidge of band, just to keep you guessing.
If you’re a star, I put your name in bold. If you’re a bench warmer, I write a feature about you … with your name in bold and a couple of exclamation points in the headline.
The Canadian-owned papers are the dad in the easy chair, comfortable and half-asleep.
I’m the (sometimes) annoying little kid who has crawled up the back fence and is screaming out all the gossip to anyone with two ears in the neighborhood.
And guess what, Canucks?
I’m going to have a lot more free time on my hands and those hands are firmly grasped around the paddle headed for your over-privileged fanny.
My hope is, if I can make the few bucks I need to cover my minimal bills (frugal is replacing Alan as my middle name), that I go forward 100% with Coupeville Sports from this moment.
No more conflicts, no more other job.
So, readers, what is this worth to you?
Do you want an independent voice on the Island, a guy who has not only lived here for 25 years but actually swims in Penn Cove daily, or are you content to bow to a corporation owned by a kajillionaire up in Moosejaw who, if he thinks of our town, thinks of our town only as a dot on a spread sheet?
Do you want to support a company that took the vending machines out of the Whidbey News-Times’ office (is this Russia?!?!) or support the guy who successfully pulled off Cookie Wars 2014?
Is it worth $5 to you to keep the dream alive? $10? More?
Unlike the Canadian-owned rags, I won’t charge you to read anything on this blog and won’t put pop-up ads on here to annoy the livin’ Hell out of you.
Ever.
If 2,045 articles and 783,087 photos in 21 months is not worth a penny to you, feel free to keep reading for free. You don’t even have to feel bad about it.
But, if you do feel like fueling the rebellion, and choose to click on the donation button on the top right hand side of the main page, your $1 or $5 or whatever you feel OK about parting with, will do one huge thing.
It will make it more likely that, when the fall rolls around, I am doing this 100% of the time.
That I am attending every home game, and not just the ones I can get to around a “real” job.
That my turn-around time for getting stories written and posted (already pretty darn quick) is never compromised because The Man requests my presence at work 10 minutes after a game is done.
That I continue to show Canada how Coupeville should be covered.
So, think about it. I’ll be over here, soaking my fingers in Penn Cove.
Coupeville Sports 