Day: May 20, 2002

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

In addition to storing away most of my worldly goods — except my computers, clothes, cameras, telescope, home made recipe book, CDs, books, and kites — I’m also closing down The Burning Bird Corporation.

I started Burning Bird under the name of YASD in 1996, primarily because companies had a problem employing independents; they feared that they would be stuck with the federal tax liability if the contractor didn’t pay the bill. The issue was further confused by the IRS’s infamous 20 question rule. If you’re not familiar with this rule, don’t worry about it. It’s really nothing more than typical paranoid IRS/government BS.

I managed to move the corporation from Oregon to Vermont to Massachusetts and finally to California. Not as easy as it sounds because you have to close down the corporation in the state you leave, and then re-start it in your new home. This requires filing Articles of Incorporation in the new state, along with giving said state copious amounts of money and an occasional sacrificed chicken or goat.

I was kidding about the money.

The need for an independent to be incorporated isn’t as much of an issue today. Combining this fact with not having either the energy or the funds to move the company, I’ve decided to close it down. Pull the plug. Absorb both the assets (too small) as well as liabilities (too large). File my final corporate dissolution.

I realized this afternoon while exchanging emails with Allan (he of the Dizzy fame) that for the first time in many years, I’m basically unencumbered by business, family, or belongings. I can travel the world — or not — writing and selling books and articles and doing an occasional contract.

When faced with two roads in the wood, the only thing stopping me from taking one road over another is my own inclination and interest.

Free As A Bird,
It’s the next best thing to be
Free as a bird.
Home
Home and dry
Like a homing bird I fly,
As a bird on wing

Free as a Bird — The guys who used to be known as the Beatles

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Today is a lovely, stormy day in Northern California, with enough rain to clean the air and the streets. Dark, forbidding clouds obscure the shore across the Bay, and the sun is just now starting to fight its way through the overcast; glints of gold melting into the pewter pools of water on the street.

Days such as today are built for introspection and reflection.

I am leaving San Francisco. On June 20th, movers will come to my apartment and grab my carefully packed belongings, moving them to a storage unit near my home. Home. At that point this place will no longer be my home.

I will then get in Golden Girl, my trusty metal steed, and ride her into the sunrise; riding into the sunset would put me into the Pacific Ocean and though Golden Girl is a dream on the road, she’ll sink like a brick in the water.

When I leave I will spend several weeks on the road, visiting friends in the Pacific Northwest, in New England, and in points between. When the urge to stop finally hits I’ll make my temporary residence in St. Louis, staying with my closest friend who also happens to be my ex-husband.

Not many people count on their ex-spouses to help them in time of need. That I can speaks of a relationship that started in love and ended in deep friendship. Though the friendship wasn’t enough to sustain a marriage, it is enough to sustain our closeness.

In St. Louis I will continue to write, look for work, and search for new adventures. I think I’ll try tornado chasing.

I’ll also focus on implementing the technologies I’ve been dreaming of this last year, but haven’t completed; being too caught up in life and this weblog and various other assorted things of interest only to myself.

I leave most of my belongings behind me in Bagdad-by-the-Bay. A woman marking her territory; a statement saying, “I will return”.