Retirement..

Originally Posted by DAND

Then I guess Brandi and I (non-drinker too) will be the only ones who remember what really went on. Bring your camera Brandi I feel there will be plenty of Kodak moments that should not be missed.

No doubt that would be some party. It would be spoken of for DECADES.
And the Kodak collection, that would be...priceless...

Perhaps a few designated drivers and lawyers should refrain from imbibing as well, lol......just in case

I'm not much of a drinker myself. I'll buy a few rounds for the ladies of course.

Well, if not a retirement party for real, maybe we can have one in chat in your honor. I know half the people in there are drunk most of the time anyway. hahaha

Originally Posted by DAND

Then I guess Brandi and I (non-drinker too) will be the only ones who remember what really went on. Bring your camera Brandi I feel there will be plenty of Kodak moments that should not be missed.

boy, I am one of those people who always has a "point and shoot" camera in my purse

and I can take like.. 20 minutes of video on it..


LOL


to REALLY capture the drunken moments..

Originally Posted by TattooLost

I know half the people in there are drunk most of the time anyway. hahaha

you leave shane out of this

Considered a sort of subletting scheme with Serpenco?

My understanding- which may be off of course, is that you and Connie do the bulk of the work, but that you have an employee or two who helps out.

Promote them, become a hands-off owner and just take a slice of the profits, while leaving them a sufficient portion to run the business and to feel that there's a direct return to themselves based on the time and effort they invest in it's success.

If the people who assist you are not *quite* yet as qualified, then consider a staggered retirement, educate them while shifting more and more responsibility onto their shoulders over the course of, for example, a year and then leave them running the show while you sit on (probably not a beach, I am picturing a firing range) and continue to collect an income (albeit probably a reduced one) from the business.

It leaves you with far fewer responsibilities, although detaching yourself completely would obviously be even less... it leaves you with some income, rather than relying entirely on savings and investments and it leaves you free to still do a little herpetological dabbling with the resources you have come to be familiar with.

You may be looking forward to different goals than you were five or ten years ago but I have this suspicion that the man who was writing excited, highly detailed and thought provoking posts about some of the projects he had been working on and detailing conclusions about some of the pattern and color mutations he had produced probably isn't completely ready to give up reptiles forever (although I also suspect that a contest between reptiles and your wife isn't a contest at all).

Cut out the headaches and the stress and the work... keep the good stuff. The exciting, interesting, fun stuff.

Thanks for the suggestions, Seamus, but that just is not going to happen. I would have considered doing it that way if I thought I could, but the labor pool available around here just doesn't make that possible. We have a guy who has been working with us for 7 years now, and although a good conscientious worker, he could never really take over the business. Even if I thought there was a possible candidate here to do that, the risk would be way too great that someone else would run my good name into the ground before I could react to the damage being made. So I believe now, while SerpenCo has a great reputation, and a very good selection of desirable stock animals, is the time for me to make my exit and hopefully pad the retirement nest egg so Connie and I can live somewhat comfortably during retirement.

As for perhaps having different goals in 5 to 10 years, certainly maybe, but trust me when I say that someone 58 years old has a much different perspective about things then someone much younger. And no one who is younger can possible appreciate, perhaps even understand, this different perspective. I know I certainly did not. I never even considered that things I could do at 35 years of age without blinking an eye could have me popping pain pills at 58 just to be able to keep going. When you are younger, you take medications to get CURED from ailments. Later on in life, you take medications to just keep on going.

As far as keeping the "good stuff", well that's a lot like asking a girl to just get a little pregnant. There is no such thing with live animals. If we have ANY live animals here, then we will not be able to take any trip longer than one week without finding someone to take care of those animals while we are gone. Which pretty much puts us right back where we are right now. Only we are now just limited to maybe three days for a trip. So a gain of just four days really doesn't gain us much.

What we REALLY want to do is to be able to just drive somewhere, ANYWHERE, without the worry of having to get back before something dies on us. Or worry about the dumb animals that might have crapped in their water dish an hour after we checked them before leaving.

Nope, we've just had enough. I've been keeping and breeding corn snakes since 1978. SerpenCo was created in 1985. I've been fortunate to discover new genes and named some cultivars which will carry over till after I am long gone. I've had my fun. No sense trying to drag this out till either Connie, myself, or both are bed ridden and then not ABLE to enjoy the rest of our lives.

Sooner or later, I believe most people will reach the point in their lives where they realize that they have been so busy making a living, that they aren't LIVING a living. That's where we are right now.

Rich... I believe I speak for most of us.... we hate to see ya go... but we do understand.

I just hope that you are willing to let us pick your brain on corns and genetics from time to time. I can say I am truely thankful you took the time to answer my PM and it has put my mind at ease.. if just a little bit. I will be checkin in on her on monday to see if all is well.

You are talking about taking trips and not worrying about the animals.

Have you thought about maybe trying to do a working tour of the country. And what I mean by that is...

Once a month (or whatever interval you choose)... schedule a confrence if you will in a different state... and discuss corns, genetics, tips and tricks to housing.. whatever. You can bring in some cash and also educate those of us that dont have your knowledge. It would be a productive way to see the country. Call it a year long vacation... you deserve it.

I know I for one would love something like that. I have been breeding corns for 3 years now and I still have alot to learn. What better place to learn it... than from one of the pioneers of cornsnakes.

Originally Posted by Southern Wolf

Have you thought about maybe trying to do a working tour of the country.

Well, not for the short term, that's for sure. We would have to be on a schedule, and right now I know I don't WANT any schedules. The way we are talking about doing this is to be able to just jump in the car, head out in any direction we care to, and just DRIVE. No place to particularly have to be, and no time to particularly have to be somewhere. And no time that we particularly have to get back home.

Besides, I don't think I would be a particularly good public speaker. It's just never held any attraction for me. And the subject matter concerning corns, especially genetics, is not something I can easily convey. Let me give you an analogy. I can ride a bicycle pretty well. But I couldn't tell you HOW I know how to ride it. I can't explain the physics of gravity and inertia, or the laws of conservation of energy. I can't explain the specifics of gear ratios for a 10 speed and tell you what sized gears are being used. I can't explain the technique of balancing while making a sharp turn.

Here's another analogy. When writing with a pencil and you make a mistake, most people can flip the pencil over in a split second to use the eraser. Most everyone learned how to do so at an early age, but just HOW exactly do you do that? So without doing it and taking note NOW, tell me what fingers you are using and what motions those fingers make in order to flip that pencil over.

The same thing applies to genetics of the corns. Yes, I have studied Mendelian genetics and understood the terms and what they meant, and applied that knowledge to my initial breeding attempts. But I've been riding the bike for so long that I haven't really needed to refer to the instruction manual any longer. I don't have to think about what I expect when I breed triple hets together. I HAVE learned first hand, however, what Murphy's Law is all about.

So if I was doing talks and lectures, I would have to sit down and figure out again how I flip that pencil over so I could describe that process so someone else might understand how to do it. I would need to crack open the text on anatomy so I would have the correct terms for the muscles being used in the fingers and hand. Is that really going to be FUN for me?

So when I get questions like "Rich, when you breed a Hypo Lavender Blood Red to a Blood Red het for Lavender and 66 percent change of being het for Hypo, how many Hypo Lavender Blood Reds might I get?", the question is meaningless to me. Because in reality the only TRUE answer is "Well, you MIGHT get anywhere between zero and all of them that way...." Probabilities aren't worth a damn when you are talking about such a small data sampling as a single clutch of babies. So I have stopped thinking along those lines a LONG time ago.

OK, is it just me? It seems that a question is in order... Rich I posted before that I wish both of you the best. I meant it then and I still do, but..... What of Fauna?

Originally Posted by Jerry_c_62

OK, is it just me? It seems that a question is in order... Rich I posted before that I wish both of you the best. I meant it then and I still do, but..... What of Fauna?

Its just you. For someone who claims to care about the guy you sure didn't read his entire post, did you.

Rich clearly stated in his first post that this site will remain for now as long as it doesn't cut into his own pocket, that it sustains itself financially trough advertising space and paid memberships.

Buck up and buy a paid membership or rent some advertising space if you really want this place to remain.