July sucks, too...

Dear Blogspot,

I'm back. Not much to say yet because of time constraints. But eventually I'll have more to say and post. Have started my drawing of "Satan" and his minions, which I've found to be great therapy. Rhonda may not like it...unless I really have lost my abilities. And I've done some sketching to get back my chops at drawing pretty girls. Can't help at this point quoting the late Dan Decarlo..."Kid. If ya can draw a pretty girl, you're never without woik..."

I did visit my grandmother's grave July 1. More to come on that. Survived a "boss visit." More to come on that. I've lost 25 lbs!!! Definitely more to come on that. Am saddened to be losing some really fine kids going off to school. And even though it's a yearly thing, it still has a certain sting to it. One that seems worse this year. Can't work at the "carnival" all your life.

Got a package from a buddy who wants to do a webcomic. We talked about it at I-Con last November and he sent me a script. Haven't had time to really dig into it, but I have glanced at it. Hey! It's monsters and chicks! How can that be bad?

But it's now time for me to do 2 more of the 3 morning "S's"...already did one. And sweat through my clothes, again, before 1pm.
I have gone from morbidly obese to just obese. Next stop, to "fat," then to "chubby," then to "pudgy," then to "portly," then to "big boned(no obscene comments, please)," then maybe I can be a skinny old man with his pants up under his armpits.

I'm really kicking myself for not going to Comicon this year. But I probably wouldn't have come back from San Diego. Need to see me an ocean!

a long month...

I fell in love with the "Veronica Mars" tv shows when my wife and I discovered it a little less than mid decade. For some reason, there was a really good period of excellent writing for the tv media...Veronica Mars was one of those examples.

Ironically, 2010 would've been a benchmark year for the show, had it survived. Like a lot of shows, it had some "sophomore" blues in the 2nd season, but even then it still shined brighter than most of the dreck, particularly the reality gulag that has taken hold of most networks. But 2010 would mark Veronica's graduation from Hurst College, and the chance for her father to run, again, for sheriff of Balboa County.

In another post to come, I'll go into the "Worley" version of what took place. For this posting, I'll illuminate an earlier thought I gave to a friend as we discussed the show during its run. It seemed to get a bit off-track, and I wondered if it might need to return to its roots to regain footing. So, at the time, I suggested a "Dallas" style rebooting for a 4th season. Veronica awakens from a coma of 3 years having been drugged and raped at the end of school year party so prominently mentioned throughout the run of the show. Lilly Kane is still dead and her murder unsolved. Keith Mars is not a PI, but trying to just get on with his life, a broken and near penniless man. Veronica awakens to find her mother by her side, having dutifully returned upon hearing of her daughter's coma. Veronica has lost 3 years of her life and now has to, not only reclaim them, but find out what has been happening. She goes back to Neptune High, now an older student completely out of her element. Everything is familiar, but not. Also, she discovers that she, not Meg Manning, delivered a baby. She has a child, and doesn't know her whereabouts.

But that was in 2007 when we were hoping the show would be back. Alas, it wasn't to be. But ain't fan fiction great?

As for life, I've had several "body blows" over the course of the past month. Some I'll comment on later. But for now, I'm going to the movies with my wife.

"Todah!!!" And "Shalom!!!"

...gooey goodness...

The last leg of my journey last week from Cleveland to Columbus took my boss, Brad, and I to a special place with nothing but Smuckers and other Pillsbury products...

...complete with tagline...

...and the entrance to fatguy paradise...

...lard and sugar...the diabetic's best friend...

But what intrigued me was a display of "Poppin' Fresh," the Pillsbury Doughboy!...

You see, years ago I met a comic book "Golden Ager" named, Martin Nodell. For comics fans, he's known as the creator of the golden age "Green Lantern." After retiring from comics and heading into advertising, one of the accounts he worked on was Pillsbury, and he designed "Poppin Fresh." Here's a sketch he did for a fan...

...and he also created a funny animal character for comics called the "Terrific Whatzit"...


Both Marty and Carrie Nodell are gone now. They were two of the nicest folks I ever knew, and I'm proud and pleased to have been able to call them "friends." I miss them...


...but all the good memories came back upon seeing this icon, and I couldn't resist having my picture taken with the Pillsbury Doughboy. Haven't figured out yet how I morphed into a bowlegged fat man...

We ended our rambling roadtrip by pigging out at an Amish restaurant, before having to get serious about making it to the Columbus airport.

Next up...musing on my daughter's graduation from college, and "Veronica Mars"...

...musings on the way to the Columbus airport...

In my last posting, there was a serious and "heavy" atmosphere to it. The trip out of Ohio was anything but. The stop at Kent State was sandwiched with some frivolity beginning at "Mike's Place."...

Not entirely sure what it was, but it had a replica "X-wing Fighter." No geek can pass that up...

...and my own geek moment...


And on the way to Akron, I caught a glimpse of one of the Goodyear blimps...


Before I get any further, I have to plug one of my better experiences in Ohio. I love fine convenience store stuff, and found that the chain in Ohio I liked was a store called "Sheetz." The had a breakfast menu, which featured "Shmuffins" stuffed with all kinds of eggs and pork, even a "Shbisquit," and their ultimate...The "Shmonster!!!" I even took home some "Shweets" for Becky, who really enjoyed the "no-bake peanut butter cookies." You can find them online at http://www.sheetz.com.

Now back to more tomfoolery.

WE WENT TO CANTON!!! WOO HOO!!!...


Here I am doing my best fat-QB-Sonny Jurgenson-JaMarcus Russell-imitation...except they can throw the ball more than 20 yards, and actually hit something. Guess that's why I was a lineman...


The "Hall of Fame" game kicks off the NFL season and is played in a stadium right next to the Hall. It's quite dinky...



We only had time for the gift shop, and I bought some things. A Browns retro jersey for Becky. She's not a Browns fan, but I thought she'd like the colors and the "Brownie" image from the '50's. Rachel got a Colts "Peyton Manning" jersey. I bought a Chiefs Christmas ornament. Not a whole lot of Chiefs stuff there, which really does show where they rate and rank in the league...not very high.

There was some art, which caught my eye. This is a painting of the last true warrior of the NFL, the Eagles' Chuck Bednarik...

He once hit Giants' running back, Frank Gifford, so hard the players thought he'd killed him. Put Gifford out of football for about a year and a half.

Here's some "sports cartoons" from various papers. Guess sports cartoonists have gone the way of the dodo...






That's it for now. The next post will be the last leg of our trek to the airport, which included a stop at a really "sweet" place, and a surprise remembrance of a dear friend.

Good night!

Eve of destruction...

Years ago, my wife and I lived in far western Kansas for a short time. Passing to and from Garden City, we would have to go by Holcomb, KS. It is an idyllic little town. Just common, out of the way folks. But there always seemed to be a pall over that community. I suppose when the glare of the news media, a best selling novel chronicling a singular tragic event that had happened there, and a blockbuster movie from that novel descends on such a town, it leaves it never to be the same.

Such is what will be commemorated tomorrow, May 4...the Kent State Massacre...


I don't remember anything of that day. I was like most of my classmates...trying to survive my freshman year of high school. Vietnam, the draft, hippies, etc., all seemed like something very far away. The music had changed, coming into the late '60's/early '70's. More protest songs. Songs with anger in them. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I doubt I was alone among my peers, I had a great dislike and distrust of then-President Richard Nixon. It was just a strange time.

Fast forward 40 years, and my boss is taking me to the airport after attending the Kaman's Art Shoppes new manager training/orientation. (Rhonda. Have you found me yet?)...sorry. Inside joke. We had talked about Ohio, and I had lots of lag time before having to be in Columbus to fly out. We were up in the Cleveland area, which is where the home office is located, and as it turns out, so is Kent State University. So we took a side trip to visit. Here I am at the memorial on the campus...

...they were planting daffodils for the occasion...


...this is what I saw as I came up the hill, and it's the spot the tragedy took place...


These four stones represent the four students slain that day...

It was hard to pray. What I could get out was the first line of the "mourner's kaddish." I'm not sure anyone can approach such a place with a cavalier attitude. Even though I have a reputation as a jokester, it was difficult to choke back a lump in my throat.

These three stones are in order from left to right...




From what Brad told me(and if my faulty memory has it correct), over 50,000 daffodils will be planted for all Americans who died in the Vietnam War...


This is a stage of some sort that was being erected. I'm sure it will be for whatever "remembrance" will take place at Kent State...

One of my other bosses went to Kent State. She joked about it being 5 1/2 years of blissful partying. And in many ways, that seems to be college life. Even the deprecating humor that most have for their "alma maters." She texted me, "Can't Read, Can't Write,...Kent State," which I'm sure is a standard joke from most alums. But in the American psyche, it will never lose the image of a time when Americans were killed by other Americans in such a tragic way, and a time when peaceful assembly as a basic right in our country was under such challenges. We had to look at ourselves differently from then on, even if it is the burden of Kent State University.

So with apologies to Neil Young...

"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio."

...livin' in sin with a safety pin...

My cousin told me that I hadn't posted in about 6 weeks. Life been very topsy turvy of late.

Kaman's Art Shoppes...(have you found me yet, Rhonda?...)

Sorry for the interruption. Just had to sneak that in.

Coming soon will be my thoughts and memories on recent "new manager" orientation/training. And some of the things I saw on my way to the airport for my return flight. Met some really nice people at the home office. One was the HR rep, which explains my above "burping." (Hey, it would be nice to know these mad mutterings were viewed by a few more out of the 6 billion on this planet.

The sign was one I found at a place in Ohio. Couldn't pass up getting a pic.

Hope you all enjoy Free Comic Book Day.

Lates!

April...

April is here. Soon the park will be open, whether I'm ready for it or not.

I did spend the Saturday before Easter visiting my brother and his family. And this year they had his wife's family, too, for the weekend. Quite a house-full, but lots of fun.

The photo operation is still in flux. While the folks who do it for the company have told me not to worry, with assurances they know what they are doing, I still have this nagging bile in the back of my throat. There just doesn't seem to be much "margin." Or, not enough for me.

The one person who put a relaxed face on the thing was in town a while back, and while we were waiting on some official "sign-offs" from his boss, I sketched him as a "Simpsons" character. Here's how it turned out...


Gotta go!