"Post No. 652"

Here lately I've been just too tired to either read much, work on any reviews, or even try to post, but I'll attempt to do this one today just to catch up a bit.

As I probably stated before, July 20th. when the gas meter man came by to do a monthly bill reading, he discovered a leak. According to him the gas amount under our house was a whoppin' 12%, thus he turned it off and sealed it until we could make repairs. And in that is the problem.

Our house is pretty old; about 100 years in age in fact, and houses built back in those times around here were almost sat right down on the ground. There's only about 2' of clearance for anyone to work under there, and that's the taller spots as it angels upward on the east side. This was a reason "why" we couldn't fix a hot water line one time to the kitchen in that area, and had to crawl as far under as possible, use a hole saw to cut it to the edge of the kitchen wall and "t" PVC pipes up to the ceiling and across, then down to the sink to fix that problem.

These gas lines under the house are probably the original ones, and if one area is pitted enough for a leak, then others may be as well. Instead we needed to not lay new ones under the house at all, but either on the outside or around the interior baseboards.

Plan "A", was to have the gas company (Atmos Gas) relocate the meter to the opposite side of the house in a area between the heater in the living room and the dining room, tie into both of these and then eliminate the gas water heater altogether and replace it with an electric one. The gas company quoted over $600. just to relocate the meter.

Plan "B", was to run black pipe along the side of the house from the meter, "t" off through the wall to the old water heater, then "t" off again to the front of the house and run the line under the door frame and over to the next corner and around to the same location between the two heaters using elbow-connection, of course, and reconnect. Black line is NOT a cheap method, and our plumber (who's also an old friend), suggested a Plan "C".

He had plastic gas line that could be connected the same way. It was cheaper, but we'd have to have it earth-bound; that is, it had to be buried 6 to 8 inches under the soil. We'd start at the meter, "t" off at the water heater, then up to the corner. When we get to the sidewalk he had a long auger bit to bore a hole, then we'd go in the house on the corner, connect that heater, run the line down the baseboard, bore through that wall and connect to the other heater.

So. For the past two days while I've been off from my regular full-time job I've been digging, by hand of course, a 50 foot trench, 8 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches deep to lay that line. Thus far I've got about 30 foot or more of that completed. In the meantime, I've either been heating up water on the electric stove to take a bath, or walking down to mom's house to use her shower. Presently we don't have to worry about heat in the house, but Winter's not that far away, so we've got to get this finished ASAP.

I haven't watched any new movies lately, but I have read many comic books that have come in from various deals.

A single book called "Bugs Bunny Comics-Go-Round" (published by Golden Press in 1979) was fairly interesting as it contained over 200 pages of Looney Tune character reprints from 1950 to 1961; probably the better period after the 40's for any of such as by the time Dell stopped handling the characters and Gold Key took over, stories got pretty bland.

There was a set of No.'s 1-4 of the DC-Vertigo title, "Terminal City", which I thought would be more interesting than it was, but quite frankly I couldn't really keep any interest in it after reading through just the first two issues.

There was a dozen of so issues of the current DC Wonder Woman title, but I've yet to get to read these. I'm sure they'll be enjoyable as I've liked what they've done with it thus far.

There was a big bunch of various 1980's Archie titles, many with Bob Bolling and/or Dan DeCarlo art, and several issues of the Marvel "Dennis the Menace" (by Wiseman), all of which were the typical stuff, but worth a laugh or two.

Several issues of the 1980's DC title, "Arion Lord of Atlantis", of which I'm working on a set and always liked that book.

The first 3 issues of DC's "Amazons Attack" limited series, that weren't too bad.

The first 2 issues of Marvel's 2009 She-Hulk limited series with the "Dark Reign" storyline involving Lyra, who is the daughter of The Hulk and Thundra that were decent and I wouldn't mind reading the rest of that 4 issue series.

Four of the six issues of Dark Horse Comics' Apocalpse Nerd by Peter Bagge, which involves Bagge's usual bizarre take on characters in more than just a humorous way, the story taking place supposingly after a someone nukes Seattle. Definately want to find the other two issues of that one.

The first issue of the new DC Power Girl, which as usual they continue to confuse everyone with her origin. (It was okay.)

Some issues of DC's Outsiders and Marvel's West Coast Avengers from some years back that were a fair read.

I suppose the most interesting of all of these comics was a full set of Eternal Publication's Archangels the Saga (#'s 1-9) published just a few year back by Patric Scott (writer/editor), Andy Orjuela (artist/inker) and John Leger (co-writer/colorist). This is a religious-based publishing company and the book is produced by Christian creators, but don't expect something like a "J.T.Chick tract" if you read one. It's a tale involving angels battling demons for the possession of the prime human characters souls. It's a 9 issue series with the storyline complete in such, full color, and resembles a comic published more by a company such as Image. I'd been wanting to read this for some time but was put off by the high cover price of $4.50 per issue, but found a full set "on line" for less than $10. on an auction. Since some issues of this went through as many as four printings one might find a set of later printings even cheaper. The cover to issue No. 1 shown above; recommended series.

I did get to watch two episodes of the SyFy series, "Hanger 13", which wasn't too bad for recyled ideas. This series is loosely based on the final scene of the first Indiana Jones flick where a huge warehouse is shown filled to infinity with strange and mystic artifacts. Other ideas thrown in are those from the series "Friday the 13th." and "X-Files". The ones I watched were entertaining enuff and I'll probably try to catch some more of them as they play.