The time is well past for me to clear this situation up, and I do not have any exculpatory explanation with which to defend myself. All that I can do is to explain my situation and the events of the past two months simply and honestly, and attempt to make any reconcilliation possible. I trust the members of this community and will stand by their judgment.
In November I accepted a job with WalMart at the new store in Hadley, MA. Though due to open in late January, I agreed to join the set-up crew which began work in December. I spent as much time as I could in my shop in Sharon, MA, trying complete outstanding projects I had at that time (I live in Sunderland, MA, 2 hours away). Unfortunately, I still had many projects underway when work began on Dec. 6.
This is where I began my mistakes. Instead of contacting people whose knives or orders I had and asking them to accept a delay, I decided I could drive to Sharon and back on the weekends to finish the knife work. While setting up a large retail store is an interesting and enjoyable process, it also proved more exhausting than I expected. This combined with the adjustments of moving (from Amherst) to keep me from heading to Sharon on the weekends.
Did I contact people and explain the delays? No, irresponsibly I convinced myself each weekend that I would make it to the shop on the next one, and that would "make everything alright." I let myself fall down his slippery slope and left many folks hanging. I also dropped out of site on this community and online in general, from a combination of my busy schedule and apprehension about the problems I was avoiding.
I want it clear that this is in no way an excuse for my behavior - I neither claim nor deserve any. It is simply an explanation. My behavior turned a fairly minor problem (delays) into a major one (my disappearance and abuse of people's trust). I cannot reverse this, but I hope thatI can "make it right" to some extent, and also re-enter this community that I have missed very much.
Here is the situation. I have 6-8 knives which were sent to me for work. Some are actually packed and ready to go, others are untouched, most are somewhere in between. I am going to Sharon now to do some work and get a clear inventory and the paperwork which I keep there. I will be contacting their owners individually in addition to this public statement. I would like it known that I have not taken anyone's money for work that is incomplete - any checks or M.O.s that were sent to me are still uncashed.
My proposal is this. I will finish any work requested and return the knives as soon as possible, without any charge. Now that the Hadley WalMart is open my schedule is less demanding and trips to my shop are realistically possible. If that is unacceptable to anyone, there knife can be returned in its original state immediately and I will work out with them personally some compensation I can make for their inconvenience. In short, either wait a bit and get the work you wanted for free, or forget the whole thing and get your knife back now.
For any folks with whom I discussed making knives, I am still willing to go forward, but it will take some time. I deliberately neither discussed money nor schedules on these projects to avoid complications. I'll also contact these (two) people in the next couple of days.
That's basically the situation. I know that some folks are upset and I invite their criticism (or anyone else's) at this time. More than that, I'd appreciate input on how I can "make this right." I've learned some things about myself in this mess and will know better how to avoid it in the future (by curtailing the number of projects I have going at once, for starters). But more importantly, I'd like to patch up as much damage as possible and return to this community.
Finally, let me not omit the most important part of this statement (as our president did): I'm very sorry for what I have done.
Thank you.
-Drew
P.S. - I have set up new email not attached to UMass. Please contact me at:
littlebearknives@yahoo.com
