GEARLOOSE LAPIDARY LLC HAS BEEN SOLD!

[Gearloose]

It has taken 81 years, but I have finally retired. I started working at Age 15 after school shoveling cowshit on a dairy farm. Decades later, writing proposals, white papers and reports for Government Programs, I realized I had come full circle and was still doing it. "Yes, Govinda, we will again meet at the river."

Business Continuation and availability of products:
1: Ultratech has been licensed to produce the laps for a couple of years now. Ultratech originally offered to do this when we could not keep up with orders. It has worked well, and obviously Ultratech is not going anywhere.

2: Gearloose Lapidary LLC has been closed, but the webstore will continue to be up and running. We have tried to make it a smooth seamless transition, but expect some shipping delays till things get rolling.
The new company is Gearloose Lapidary Incorporated, registered in Arizona by Sam Baar.
In time they may rewrite the present Wordpress site.

Dylan will be flying out there to bless the transition and give assistance to finish the setups.

Gearloose inventory and materials and equipment have been shipped there on one pallet and fifty (50) UPS cartons. (!) What a miserable job at both ends. When an operation has been running for 25 years, there is a lot of stuff and surprises.

I have been working since 2024 cleaning out the house and returning it to pre-business condition since my wife died in January 2024. I want to make it easy for my sibs.

I went and prepaid for my funeral (I FEEL FINE!) and joked all through it...I had my executor with me.
"HI. I'm here to buy the Worm Food Box. Now look: I don't need the expensive GT Racing stripe my wife got on hers. A thirty gallon Hefty is fine." Upon leaving, I turned and said, " Well, I guess I will be seeing you ONE MORE TIME! Hahaha!"
He might need years of therapy.

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[Stephen Challener]

Congratulations! Quite a few people in my family also struggled with retiring but they didn't regret it when they did. I hope you'll enjoy more time and less stress.

[wilsonintexas]

I am glad to hear you retired. I hope you enjoy it.

I will miss testing your products

Thanks for taking the time over the years to help so many of us.

It has been a pleasure talking to you, working with you and most of all using your products.

[gembug]

Congratulations on retiring from your retirement!

It's a bitter-sweet bit of news - I've appreciated and benefited greatly all the innovations you've brought to the industry. I shudder when I look back to what I was using to cut gems originally vs the laps and cutting/polish options we have today. Your wing laps in particular revolutionized my cutting speed and enjoyment.

I'm intensely curious as to what you'll be up to next

-Allan

[mehoose]

SO many mixed emotions reading this but yay you for doing it on your terms and when you were ready. I absolutely treasure our banter over the years and just want you to know that now before I lose my marbles completely and forget to tell you.

You've done it the right way... I seem to be doing life arse about tit...guess who has to rejoin the workforce at 62!(where everything went is a mystery but it is what it is). Still trying to find a paid position but i'm absolutely loving my volunteer driving and getting folk to their appointments/shopping/activities etc and yacking my head off. I'm so grateful for those 2 days and feeling like I have purpose again.

Like Allan, I'd love to hear how you fill in your days so don't be a stranger... says she who hasn't written much over the years but I'm always popping in to see how everyone is doing.

Oh I'm finally cutting again. I've started back with cabbing opals but I'm keen to facet a few Welo and see how they turn out. Just scratching my head over what to dop them with because as you know they absorb...would they get classed as treated after absorbing a glue ..I'd never thought of that before..I must ask Barbara.

Jon, you've always mattered to me and that's saying something. Keep getting out there and enjoying life.

'hoose..aka mehoose(all lowercase) Merryn.

[GailAnn]

Jon, would you mind if I pass on a copy of this announcement in our newsletter? CWFG.

[Gearloose]

Sure! Tell the world.

I need to add what I consider to be a great gesture of compassion.
As most know, my loyal mascot died last year at 17 1/2. For most of his life he was the business's Morale Officer and he helped me greatly when I was widowed.

Look what the nice people at Miners Rock Shop did with their logo!

[Gearloose]

Someone asked how I have been filling my days:

Over the decades, the business had crept into much of the house.
It has been becoming a house again, after twenty years. It was like the story of the camel's nose in the tent.
A dumpster full of stuff, and six trailer loads gone. As much as possible has been donated to charities like the Viet Nam Vets, the Lions Club, the pet Shelter, etc.. I want to make it easy on my family, because I have seen what some have gone through when hoarders die Intestate.
I have done a lot to the house. The disreputable biohazard carpets are gone, and there are real floors now.
Those of you who have visited had seen the miserable homeless encampment of my office here. With the business I was just too busy to care about it.

[Gearloose]

PS: Windows 11 finally did it.
Three laptops and three desktops are now all running Linux Mint.
This is a Microsoft-Free house(I feel a draft. No Windows.)

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[Stephen Challener]

Congratulations! That sounds nice, I really need to reduce the defi ed business space in our house too.
I'm also considering moving a lot of things over to linux. We have a new business pc we are going to try it on first.

[Gearloose]

I use to use Debian years ago.
I think the fastest to learn right now is Linux Mint..I put it on 3 laptops and 3 Desktops. It is easy for Windows Refugees.

What did it for me was Windows 11. Nonstop sales- MS Office SUBSCRIPTIONS I have run the business for twenty years on Open Source Office.
Subscriptions as a service. Nowadays you buy a car and find out you have to pay an annual ransom for the brakes to work. It's time to start throwing furniture at the dealership till the police come.
Don't forget to log in with your Microsoft account so they can sell your keystrokes, and be sure to use their AI "feature" whether you want it or not. Oh, yes. Use the Edge Browser and if you open a different one, it will try to talk you out of it.
So:
It's drafty here. There are no Windows.

[gembug]

Must feel good to have some time to clean things up and not be a slave to the business any more. The office looks great - want to come and organize mine for me?

-Allan

[Dioptase]

Happy retirement!