#105: RETIRED!!!

Hello from Chino Valley, Arizona!

The high country desert here is beautiful. The weather has been crisp in the morning (as low as 15º), but yesterday and today the afternoon high was/will be 65º. I am training at Gunsite Academy, just 10 miles north, and today is the fifth and final day. Tomorrow I will start my journey to HOME, SWEET HOME. Between here and Flagstaff is Sedona, which is certainly one of the most beautiful towns in the U.S. and home to Red Rock State Park and its stunning red sandstone formations. I hope some of you have been following my @exoticfauna Instagram. I have posted loads of pix from this epic road trip, which include visits to Vegas, Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Sedona and much more. This three and a half week road trip is coming to an end and I can't wait to get back to my house and my parrot Jesse. I don't have many spiders left, but the 50 or so that will remain in my private collection are certainly waiting for a feeding and watering.

It is 6 a.m. and as I woke and checked my email I got word from my final customer, who has been waiting patiently for safe shipping weather and me to return home, wants to cancel his order after all. I couldn't be happier. That means that I have no pending orders, will sell nothing else and am FINALLY COMPLETELY, FULLY, ENTIRELY RETIRED!!! Or at least retired from a very long career in pets, exotic pets, herpetoculture and arachnoculture. SPIDERSHOPPE is boarded up. Kaput. Finito.

But as I wrote, I do still have about 50 eight-legged "pets". Some will be given away. Some might be sold to personal friends (not "customers"). Some may even be bred. Any spiderlings from whatever I might breed will be wholesaled in bulk. Entire sac to one person. That's as much spider business as I will conduct. What do I still have? My Harpactira pulchripes. A nice group of Monocentropus balfouri (most of which were part of the order I just refunded, but now will continue living in my office). A large group of Idiothele mira, which are not in my possession but have been given to John Apple on permanent breeding loan. And, of course, some Pokies. Mostly I have my personal favorite tarantula, Poecilotheria subfusca. I'm not ready to not have a few of them living with me. I have retained both "highland" and "lowland" "forms" and also have two female P. rufilata, one giant old P. vittata, and one 10-year old P. metallica. I have a pair of Avicularia sooretama, which may be my final true breeding project, as well as six or so juveniles. I have 3.2 subadult P. langenbucheri and six juveniles, but those will go to Chad Campbell. The other odds and ends that I may bestow on friends are a female A. "metallica" and another big adult female Avic that was traded to me as "metallica", but is ? I have a few "Phormingochilus carpenteri"/"Cyriopagopus sp. Sulawesi" that also will go to good homes. I think that's it. The downside of these fifty or so "pets" is that it means I still have to order crickets (and get them shipped alive in winter). Oh well, at least my doors are finally closed and I can just consider myself a mostly retired, sometimes traveler and sometimes firearms instructor.

Travel is eternally rewarding. On February 28, my bonus dad Joel and I will leave for Dublin and Bristol, England. I'm not even home yet, but I can't wait to be "on the road again".  The best part will be seeing the Pennells and friends. The bonus part will be getting my right sleeve finished and one of my spider tats recolored (fixed) by Mark's apprentice, his daughter Brandon! Another bonus will be the BTS Lectures and seeing all my BTS friends.

But during the month of February I will be focused on my new enterprise, Triggercontrol Tactical, LLC and working around my house. I have a number of projects to occupy my mind and time. The SPIDERSHOPPE era, which also included "Jacobi Herpetoculture", "Chicago Reptile", "The Living Terrarium", "Frog Sanctuary", as well as stints working for Noah's Ark Pet Centers, Strictly Animals and Northwest Zoological Supply, has come to a close. That's me riding off into the sunset. And the sunsets here in the high desert of central Arizona are glorious.

My best wishes to all, Michael