I spent the weekend crooning My Way, dragging out the line that states clearly, “Regrets, I have a few,” adding a stunning vibrato, rivaling Old Blue Eyes.  All of last week was a reminder of my condition, or maybe the human condition.

I got a traffic ticket two weeks ago; no big deal, I deserved it.  My plates were expired.  I have a list of excuses.  I’ve spent over a thousand dollars this year repairing my truck, which sat undrivable for two months, while I scraped together money to get her fixed.  The work I had lined up at that time required the use of my pick up, so I was, as they say, in a pickle.  Having spent so much money to make her roadworthy, I ran out of money to get her to pass the emissions and safety test.  I need one more repair, and I cannot do it myself – the speedometer cable or sensor – no one knows which.

When I got pulled over I knew what was coming.  The officer was understanding, and he gave me only a ticket for expired registration, instead of impounding my old, white truck.  Funny, I drive an old, white truck to save money!

On Tuesday I had to chauffeur my wife to Columbus for a meeting.  I got a call from the officer,

Hey, real quick…

I am trying to generate some revenue to get my reused and reusable coffee sleeve into retail stores.  Many of you have stopped by cupThreads.com, and I wanted to say thanks.

If you buy one this week (please do because I’m really close to proceeding!) enter the coupon code “ryansfriend” and you’ll get yours for just $4.  Order 4 or more and I’ll also ship them for free.

Thanks so much.  I’ll be back to inspire you tomorrow morning.

art cred: outofmygord.com

Dear Regular Readers:

I’ve been away for a while.  I don’t know why.  I don’t know if there is such a thing as blogger’s block.  Normally I think blockages are reserved for people with real creative jobs, and regular Joes with blogs shouldn’t be subject to their rules.

As Norman Mailer once famously said: “Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.”  Perhaps I have taken this season of Lent a bit too seriously to be creatively productive.  I don’t know.

Life happened in its severest form this week.  Does that ever happen to anyone else?  I’ll be back next week.  I promise.

Now for a true story:

Yesterday was a snow day.  I’ll try to not sound remonstrative, but it sucked.  I had work lined up, the kind that pays real money.  Instead all three kids got the day off.  The snow day was on the heels of a 14 day stretch of housebound illness, in which I was both a participant and also primary caretaker of the rest of the invalids, as my work currently draws the shortest straws when competing with my wife’s income.

You get grumpy during a stretch like this.  I started out the day as usual, 6 AM, reading the bible and calling down fire from heaven to consume my flesh.  February is depressing. 

What follows is not true.  It does not have a “point.”  It is a story, and as stories go, I suppose it is intended to be enjoyable.  I was growing tired of blogging with a “point.”  Perhaps tomorrow I will write something with a “point.”  “Points” are wearisome, aren’t they?  I feel as if they should always be “wrapped up in quotation marks.”  All is meaningless; have a great, pointless and enjoyable day!

In my homeland round about this time of year, the obituaries began to run together, especially as the Winter weather eclipses Spring.  There are the few days of hope, maybe a day in the upper thirties.  But that day is followed by the doldrums of a two week cold-snap, where the sun tricks hearty, old Norwegians and stoic Swedes into believing the meteorologist might be wrong.

“I can feel it in my knees,” they say, “the weather is changing today.”  And so, with a heart bursting with expectation old men put on their boots

All right, this will be my final two-post day for quite some time, I promise.  I wanted to invite you all to visit our new family business at www.cupthreads.com.

A little over a year ago my wife Molly began making items out of felted wool from used sweaters and selling them, purses and scarves, etc.  I thought, this would be a great little upcycling business, but the income levels were such that her creations quickly became a hobby.

I began to play around with an idea for making coffee cup sleeves out of the material, just for a gas at first, as something that could be made rather quickly and generate revenue as a means of keeping my wife in the crafting business.  Over the past two months though, my playtime became a bit more focused.  I figured out a way to more than double, almost triple my previous production (and I’m not a very speedy seamster, by the way!).  Additionally, I believe that we have developed a way to grow this homespun business while keeping costs very low.  (Cue: Revolution – we all want to change the world!)

So we’re giving it a shot!

Our initial target markets are coffee and tea retailers in the Cleveland area.  We think our product is unique, and once it is held in the hand of a coffee connoisseur it will be hard to NOT buy one!  While we are waiting on packaging and other promotional materials to arrive, I’d like to invite you to be among the first to own a cupThreads – upcycled and reusable coffee sleeve.

kinder.cooler.better.

These are our driving principles behind the product (story here).  Our sleeves eliminate waste.  They are made of wool (highly renewable, just feed the sheep!), but not just any wool, already used wool, thoroughly laundered by the way – Kinder for our environment.  They look rad.  You can’t deny it! – Cooler.  They also cover your entire cup, adding an insulating value to the old standby, boring, wasteful cardboard sleeves you currently use – Better.

Please stop by cupThreads.  Then return to Ream of Paper (with or without placing an order, you’re still my friends) and let me know what you think.  You can email me your private responses at cupthreads(at)gmail(dot)com.  Or gush publicly!

Also pass the word about cupThreads.com on to your caffeine-addicted or environmentally-conscious friends.  There are only 60-or-so products listed, but we have literally hundreds more that are not on the site as of yet.

If you choose to make a pre-launch purchase, enter the coupon code: reamofpaper to receive a dollar off each sleeve.  Order three or more and I’ll ship them for free!

Let me know privately if you encounter any problems with the site or checkout process.  Thanks so much.

If you have some time to kill this weekend, check out Engrish.com.  Mistranslations are hilarious.

Have a great weekend.  See ya Monday.