2003 and 2004 were the high water mark as far as yearly sales, and haven’t been matched in the years since. I was still pretty much doing any and all work which came my way, although I had politely told a few of my lowest paying clients that I was not going to be working for them in the future. I was, however, still doing a lot of work for the Christian Reformed Church, and it is possible that during these two years it was also the high water mark for how much work they were handing me.
‘aches & claims’, 2003
The regular ‘aches and claims’ gig from the Wall Street Journal, and the quarterly assignments from AG Edwards were also a nice comfortable and reliable source of income this year. I also found myself working on many more Newsday and US Catholic assignments.
In my spare time (what there was of it), I was active with the Little League Baseball team my son was playing for, and we took sailing lessons from a local marina with the idea of buying a sailboat in the future. I also began taking my music hobby a little more seriously, dabbling in recording, and released a Christmas CD (to friends and family only) featuring many of my music friends.
Perhaps I was getting a little nostalgic for physical pen and ink drawing, but I began to keep a few sketch diaries around this time. Below is a sketch from a campsite we found ourselves in in the summer of 2003.
