Gareth Kelly

Uggghhhh I know, I know. I am such the procrastinator. I host this big old shindig to ‘launch my blog’ on my birthday, write this wonderful first post and then vanish. I only have myself to blame. As a professional procrastinator I have been ‘too busy’ to sit down and write my second blog. It’s not like I sit down and Facebook for hours at a time, send and read emails about trivial nonsense, cruise around Instagram, search Craigslist for sailboats I have no money to buy and look at the BBC Football gossip column on an almost daily basis!

So what have I really been up to?

Well, ironically even though I haven’t written a blog since early January I have been writing quite a lot. My two articles in the SLO City News, Bay News and Coast Newspapers, all part of Tolosa Press, on a weekly basis have been warmly received and have really got me used to writing on a regular basis. Each week I meet with my editor, ‘T’, on a Tuesday afternoon and we discuss which business feature and which lifestyle or ‘coastal culture piece’ I am going to write about. Thus far I have written 21 articles ranging from a wooden mantle found at the bottom of Lake Nacimiento to a local world champion archer. I am meeting some amazing, interesting people and acquiring some wonderful feedback. As this is all relatively new to me and it warms the cockles of my heart to run into people who say “I saw your piece in the paper, I really enjoyed it, well done.” So to all of you that have been reading, I greatly appreciate your support and your opinions. The paper as yet doesn’t have a digital archive to view old stories but you can always view the current edition of all three papers at www.tolosapress.com and I plan to add my own archive section to this blog where I can post all my stories for your enjoyment.

One of my favorite realizations of this new part of my life is that I am now officially regarded as ‘press’. No it’s not the LA Times or The UK Guardian, but it’s a start, and as a professional wannabe I realized I could now use this newfound credibility to blag my way into cool events. I mean who doesn’t love going to cool events for free? I was lucky enough to attend the recent SLO International Film Festival, which like last year was bloody awesome. I didn’t make it to many movies, as my cruddy regular concrete slinging job got in the way, but I along with my Movie Mogul VIP pass did make it to most of the foodie, drinky, VIP’y type parties and gatherings. I was lucky enough to meet the original Batman, Adam West, and numerous up and coming directors, producers and actors. The King Vidor recipient this year was ‘The dude’, Jeff Bridges and even though it would have been nice to meet him and get the proverbial selfie to post all over Twitter I decided to not join the rest of the vultures at the reception in crowding the hell out of the poor man. For such a small town we are truly blessed to have such a wonderful, world-renowned film festival.  All credit must go to all the volunteers and organizing staff that put it together.

So what about that concrete thing?

You mean the bain of my existence? Well I still have it. Its still my day to day job that pays most of my bills and I loathe it more and more each day. Dont get me wrong. I occasionally get to go to some cool places. I have recently been pouring concrete for a Hollywood actress and her husband in Big Sur and I meet some wonderful people and have some fantastic regular customers that always make me laugh. All that being said I cannot wait to not have to deal with all the shit that goes with owning and operating what is in essence a trucking company. The bureaucracy and the hoops required to jump through has severely increased. Quite simply as one person it has become almost impossible to continue, but most importantly, especially on bad days when something breaks, I feel the business sucking the life and creative spirit from within me. I notice it in my writing and my general mood. As someone that has been unhappy in his or her job for some time my advice to any and all in a similar position is  “get the hell out as soon as you can.” Happiness is priceless.

So what’s the immediate future got in store?

Fingers crossed I recently found a potential buyer for my business. A local regular with the knowledge, experience and resources to take the business to the next level. As a back up I have also talked to an auction company about simply selling all the equipment. I don’t want to go this route as I want to see this 14 year old local business stay local and stay in business but the auction gives me a last minute backs to the wall get out plan. Hopefully one way or another I will no longer be in concrete two or three months from now.

Once out I hope to be both writing more stuff for the paper and also working more on Remora. “Wait what is Remora I hear you ask?” Remora is a marine cleaner start up company I am involved with. As yet I cannot go into too much more detail as we are currently in the middle of awaiting the results of a patent search but fingers crossed when we get given the green light you’ll hear much more about it. As the sales and marketing director this will hopefully mean me spending more time all up and down the West Coast of America in marinas messing about on boats trying to not be too naughty.

Finally I just wanted to say I have been humbled by all your support recently. As people I meet discover I am changing my life, walking away from my income in order to pursue my dreams I am thankful for the amazing support I have received from friends and acquaintances throughout the community. Your words of encouragement simply add to my motivation and commitment to chase my dreams and strengthen my resolve in my decision to make this life change. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.

Please feel free to shoot me any questions and until my next blog enjoy the read.

Included below are a few pics of life from the past couple of months!