It’s been about four weeks since the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp ended, and I have tried really, really hard to not burden you down with mid-summer fundraising.
Regrettably, the realities of having to pay a server bill, having to raise funds to get that $5,000 trip to Traverse City for training camp (with Aunt Annie in tow as I am her primary caregiver) covered, and having to do simple things like buy a printer and make money from working on my website, even if it’s a couple hundred bucks a month, all equal one simple solution staring me in the face:
It’s time to start fundraising again. I don’t like doing it, but without donations, TMR doesn’t exist.
Bluntly, I’ve been informed by Bluehost that I have to upgrade my server plan as we hover around the 5,000-entry mark because we need more server space, so it’s going to cost more like $400 than $300 to raise funds to renew Bluehost, Jetpack and the rest of what I use to provide this site to you.
Bluntly, I need to plain old buy a printer to help me function as a teeny-tiny small business of one, and I can’t even drop fifty bucks on the purchase right now. And our toilet is running and we need to hire a plumber, and in an ideal world, the blog–even a blog without advertising–provides some spending money to solve problems like having a broken printer or a running toilet.
And, of course, it’s important to get us up to Traverse City in September–with the prospect tournament starting on the 14th, we’re only 8 weeks away(!) from the trip–to set the scene for a fully operational space station, I mean blog with a good foundation to the 2024-2025 season.
Things are different here for sure.
I still have caregiving responsibilities to Aunt Annie that are more intense now, from managing 23 medications to working with her PT and visiting nurse as we attempt to help her recover from mid-April’s double hip replacement.
We’re at a point right now where, going into that 2024-2025 NHL and prospect season, if I go on a scouting trip to Grand Rapids or Toledo or wherever, the little 82-year-old’s gotta come with me.
And it’s just different when you’re a caregiver first and foremost, because as much as I spend big chunks of my entire day making sure that you get Red Wings news and content as quickly as possible, there are times that Aunt Annie has to come before the blog.
But this whole arrangement is working for me, in no small part due to my aunt’s support for what I’m doing, her encouragement, and her suggestion that “work comes first” when I’m not taking care of her.
She’s been a trooper about all of this, and when you’re a two-person household, it’s really useful when both people in the household are supportive of each other’s goals and dreams.
So, let’s get this over with–or started again, as it were. Because this is technically a for-profit blog to begin with, and we’ve got some money to make between here and training camp–and afterward.
If you’re willing to help, here are the details: you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, you can use Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, you can use Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…
And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”
As always, thank you for your time and your readership. And your support.
