Wayback Wednesday – Roses Anyone?

Courtesy of the “Wayback Machine“, I bring you the early entries I made in my online diabetes journal.  This was back before Blogger made things easy, and I had to write the entries in HTML.  The journal is no longer available, but thanks to the wonderful tools available on the internet, I was able to find much of my old stuff.  I’d like to share one of the old entries with you.

No, I’m not selling roses anymore…
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05 Aug 2002

Wow, can you believe it’s been since February that I have updated this stuff!!??! Where does the time go?

A lot has been changing in my life since the last update. Looking back on it all again, I REALLY wish I
had dated everything that I put in here.

I’m still fighting with all the depression, control (diabetes control AND weight control, or lack of it…),
self-esteem issues that I was in the past. The circumstances have changed quite a bit though. I’m now taking Celexa, which I think I like better than the Zoloft that I was on. However, as I’ll explain, much has changed in my life that might also be having it’s (positive) impacts on my life.

I got laid off from Qwest (formerly US West) on 6/14/02. That was a good thing. I knew it was
coming, and was prepared for it – in fact even asked for it. Qwest was not a healthy place for my spirit, and it was really a good thing to move away from.

Long before the layoffs were coming, I started working with a rose distributor from Ecuador. My wife had bought some roses from him, and really liked the quality of them, and the price was very reasonable. She told my mom about them, and my mom wanted to check it out. This place is very close to Qwest, and I happened to need a ride home that day, so my mom picked me up and I went with her to check out the roses. We started talking with the owner, and he needed some help with his web page. I offered to help him with that, as I felt he was giving my mom a very good deal on the roses she wanted to buy. I figured that if I helped him out, maybe he would continue to help my mom by giving below market prices on the roses she bought.

So, I started spending some time with him, getting a feel for what he wanted with his website, etc. While at his shop I was amazed at the number of people coming in to buy roses from him. After
a few weeks he started talking to me about opening a business similar to his retail business (his main line is wholesale sales to flower shops). With the layoffs coming soon at Qwest, and my general dislike for my job, I took it into consideration.

To make a long story short, I opened my own flower shop! My wife and I now own Garden Greetings, which is located in Anoka. Quite a change from the corporate world, and it has been challenging. But, things are going well, and I feel good about what I’m doing. I’m offering a good product

(fresh roses direct from Ecuador) at a crazy price ($12.50/dozen). I do not want to be the typical american businessman, who gets rich by stealing money from the public. Ok, maybe that is a bit harsh, but my philosophy is that if I offer a better product than anywhere around at a better price, the people will come!

It’s a much healthier “environment” for my spirit, and I feel that I am doing the right thing. Even though it has been a lot of work, this whole thing really fell into my lap. The way I look at it, when God gives you something like this, you just can’t pass it up. The timing was right with Qwest
- it’s not like I had to quit a good job, so why not try something different?

So, that is what is going on in my life right now, and I think it has had a positive impact on my mental health. However, my diabetes control has suffered with all the stress & work required to start a business. So, I’m about a month into it, and it’s time to try and get my control back on
track. My last AIC, which was on 8/25/02, was up to 9.8! That is too high for me!

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Related posts:

1. Wayback Wednesday – My First “blog” post?
2. Wayback Wednesday – Test Less?
3. Wayback Wednesday – Clincally Depressed
4. Wayback Wednesday – In The Swamp
5. Wayback Wednesday – Brain Meds