Monday 18 September 2017

#RalphSays - All Days Above Grass Are Great Gifts

#RalphSays - All Days Above Grass Are Great Gifts

So here we are, another week and time for another update. It's been a stressful week for Clan Newcomb (ps: there is no Clan Newcomb, but you know what I mean). Will start with the big news of the week and get that out of the way and then go on to some lighter bits of news.

The Big 'C' in the Family

The big news, you see, is about Ralph's other daughter, Wendy, has been living with a Bowel Cancer diagnosis, and the stress of a major upcoming operation for months now. 

It's been a massive worry for her, and of course all of us. The operation was on Friday and we are pleased to report that it went very well.

She's still in hospital recovering, about to get sprung later. It's not going to be an easy month or two, but she'll pull through. She's had so many thoughts, prayers and healing vibes (even her own hashtag #wendyvibes) being sent her way, and it's our hope that she's kicked ass cancer's ass for good. 


Ralph Still Works

Ralph still likes to work whenever he can. He's showing no desire to retire. I think maybe that should be his next t-shirt, though someone has probably already done it.

It would be nice if he could relax and do fun things but, for my whole life, I've know that Ralph Works (cue new hashtag). That has always been his raison d'ĂȘtre.

It would be good if he had an actual career that he could still go to, as it's what keeps him going. Anyone want to hire Ralph? He's old, he's frail, he can't walk too far, but he's still got most of his faculties and he's pretty funny, sometimes. Am I selling him well? Perhaps not.

This new t-shirt business, I suspect, is my attempt at getting Ralph living and more involved. It's something fun to focus on.

Speaking of tees...

Ralph Says Things on Red Bubble



Since I've yet to be approved by Merch by Amazon, I've turned my focus to Red Bubble and separated our two shops. Now there's the Ralph Says Red Bubble Shop now and then there's TNTs - but on both cases, the royalties from either Red Bubble merch go to Ralph anyway. 


On that note, I'm delighted to say that this week, we received our first royalty payment of fourteen dollars!! Whoohooo! Ok, yeah, it's not a lot, but it's a start...As Lao Tzu famously said, "the journey of 1000 miles begins with that first step" and we've taken it. 

So I'll ramp up the Ralph Says work over the coming weeks. The more we have on there, the more chance one or two designs will sell. If you want to collaborate, do let us know. We're happy to do a revenue share with some creative types out there.

Ralph's on the Move

As reported on a recent blog post, Ralph is going mobile...He's moving to Santa Cruz in a few months. Apart from the Santa Cruz mountains, in the 70s, Ralph's only ever lived in the South Bay - Cupertino, San Jose, Los Gatos, and Campbell...so this move is a big move and to a small space. A trailer. I'll be honest with you, it does break my heart every time I think about it, so I try not to. I suspect it's more of an ego thing than anything. I see this man who worked hard his whole live, built million dollar homes (that we lived in) and each move he makes gets smaller and smaller. It feels like it's gone the opposite way than it should have. But to be fair, Ralph doesn't seem to care too much, so why should I?

Upsides to Everything

There are pros and cons to everything in life. My mother, (Ralph's ex-wife), used to have a bumper sticker on her home salon mirror (she was a hairdresser in the 70s) that said "look for the good and praise it". I never really understood that until around 1999 when I got royally dumped and soon after launched soyouvebeendumped.com. Sorry, I digress here...the point being is that I find the good in everything now. I'm hard wired to. So after the initial reaction to the news of Ralph's impending move, I started to look for the bright sides to it. There are many.

He'll be near Wendy and the beach. Top of the list of course. He'll worry less about money. A big thing. I do visualise that it is the making of him. That he'll make some new connections in the trailer park and enjoy the salt air.

Of course I also hope that our t-shirt business is so good that he'll be able to move to somewhere better in no time...but que sera sera, n'est ce pas?

In case you missed some posts on RST Facebook, here are a few you should view...

A heartwarming pen-pal story via Kimba - our friend in "Oh ho ho" (as Ralph Says)
A cute dancing baby - the grandson of a friend Tim
A Groovy 70s Newcomb family portrait in our #TBT

Wanna Support Ralph?

You don't have to buy anything to support Ralph Says Things. You can follow him, in the following places, and help with a like, comment, or share.

Or simply tag Ralph Says Things in any great content you come across of old people doing cool shit. We appreciate it.



Red Bubble Merch:
Ralph Says Things is here.

Cafe Press Merch:
Ralph Says Things


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