"Post No. 644"

"Bob" Cat might look like he's soaking up the heat and sunlight today, but this has certainly been the year of the storms and tornados here in S-Central, Kentucky. The evening of the 15th. of this month I was at work, looking out the large front windows when I noticed something peculiar. The area in front of me to the left was as clear as day, but the area to the left seemed extremely dark and windy. Stepping outside between customers onto the porch, I saw what appeared to be a funnel-shaped cloud coming towards the business from the East; it was quite distinct. There was much rotation on the ground with dust and such and it had that unmistakable look of a funnel.

Needless to say, I got back inside pretty quick and watched it from there as it veared off to the left and behind the buildings across the street. I would estimate it to have been perhaps a half a mile from me at that time.

Later, according to the weather radio, it had indeed been a twister and had already knocked out the power to 12,000 people in a close-by town and torn the roof off a couple of warehouses, plus downed power lines and several trees.

When it was finally time for me to go home, I had been previously told that the power was also off there. When I got there, the traffic lights were on as well as much of the downtown section, but the wind had knocked down a utility pole on Main Street leaving my section of town without electricity. It was off for 5 solid hours.

In the lightness of such things, many children were outside playing, rather than having their noses stuck in a pc game or computer, and older folks were sitting on the porches talking with their neighbors and some even cooking out on grills due to not having working stoves (as well as any air conditioning).

My wife and I walked down the street to my mom's and we sat outside in the coolness of the evening for a while, and then I did some yard work since I still had plenty of daylight. After that my wife and I took a walk up to the town square and around and window shopped a little, completing the day. By the time we got back home the power had come back on for a good 25 minutes.

And, speaking of my wife, she was laid off from her job of six years the day before that, and the owners are selling the business. She had worked there, as I said, 6 years, and a good 12 years in a business that was located just across from it that finally also went out. So she went out and put in multiple applications for work. We weren't too worried as something always seems to come up and she has a good work record, (but that just shows that even a small community such as this can be affected by the current economy and not just the large corporations), and sure enough she found a similiar job just a few days later and even within walking distance from the house.

And...

I finally emailed the seller of the Funny Folks 6 and Harvey Hits 7(which I mistakenly noted as a No. 6 in a previous post) since they've yet to arrive, but haven't gotten any reply. Hopefully they'll eventually arrive. A lot of modern comics will perhaps make it in before those two older ones (and I just paid for them last week).

I also won copies of DC's Strange Adventures #'s 144 & 156, from the 1962-63 era. Both have "Atomic Knights" app.'s, and the 144 was the only Silver-Age AKs' cover. Actually, I already have a 156, but this one was in the lot and looks like maybe it was a bus station copy, i.e., it looks like it at some time it had a circular sticker over the twelve cent price on the cover. This is pretty much a dead giveaway that it was either sold at a bus station in the 1960's (which sold comic books for fifteen cents each, rather than twelve cents), or came from a vending machine back then (yes; there actually was such a thing as a "comic book vending machine", usually found at "glass houses", which used to be businesses located between the mediums of the interstate highways at various places which also had restaurants and gas stations). Obviously, the seller (or someone) removed it before listing it for sell. I may just keep it as well in my collection of SAs.