"Post No. 697"

Today began my yearly vacation at work/from work. As it figured on my following week's schedule, I also have the next two days afterwards off (par usual) for the week, thus giving me nine straight days off in a row.

And so begins all of the work I wanted to do during said vacation. Here on this first day I got up on my front roof and tarred anything I thought might be causing a leak in my entrance way. I used nearly a full gallon of pitch in various places, but couldn't reach one area on the roof cap that really needed it. Perhaps I can borrow a roofing hook-ladder from someone this week to finish up that task.

Then I began work on that one bad side of my shop where the wood's about had it. I bought a 4'x8' piece of plywood and had it cut in half at Lowe's. Unfortunately, it's not enough and I'll need one more piece the same size. Then I'll put a few long boards at the top of those sheets, get a gallon of white exterior paint and finish that up.

Task #3: Mowing; what else? My neighbor mowed his yard and when I went by to check on mom, I saw that her yard needed it as well, so I went down there and got her yard first and came back home and did my own. That now makes six times I've mowed already this year, going through around 7 gallons of gas so far.

Other jobs on the venue: Redoing and straightening up/cleaning out the tool shed, working on the dirt pile again, redoing several boxes of comic books and putting them in alphabetical and company(s) order and listing same on my "collection list", and maybe listing some more items on ebay auctions this week.

Also I'd like to get to my local comic shop sometime this week; maybe tomorrow. They have extended their 25% off back issue sale from last Saturday's "Sidewalk Sale/Free Comic Book Day" (which I didn't get to attend since I had to work).

Just as well that I missed FCBD as Bowling Green, where the shop's located, had a LOT of flooding from 10" of rain which fell from last Friday thru Sunday. Many parts of Kentucky were flooded, much damage and a few related deaths. Tennessee had it even worse. I hear parts of Nashville are still under 3 foot of water.

Mother's Day is this coming Sunday so, if you're fortunate enough to still have one that's living, please remember her. I bought mom a UK (that's University of Kentucky) billfold and plan on taking her out to either lunch or dinner (and since she doesn't read this blog I feel safe in telling about it).

My wife's new part-time job seems to be doing well and she may work into a fulltime position. She's been at it for over a week now, working in a similiar type of thing (cashier at a gas/grocery place) as she did for so many years before.

Watched Art School Confidential, a nice little film based on Daniel Clowes material from his comic Eightball. Very nice flick. maybe not as good as Ghost World, but very entertaining. Sure wish I had just a fraction of that man's talent as a storyteller.

Speaking of which, I abandoned that 12 issue limited series comic book I had been working on for nearly two years now. I was re-reading some trade paperback collection here recently and realized that my work was way too derivative of what I was reading. Obviously it had subconsciously influenced my writing. Just as well. My time to make it as a famous comic book artist is well past.