"Post No. 717"

Well it began Tuesday evening. I had just been down to visit my mom after I got home from work about 2 hrs. earlier and she said she had a little "chill". She and I neither thought anything of it, but then a couple of hours later she called saying she was freezing to death and had no strength. When I got down there she was extremely weak and burning up with a fever and off to the emergency room we went. Her temperature was 103.

They gave her Motrine and IVs and within a couple of hours her temperature was back down but also was her blood pressure. All of that finally got back to normal and it was diagnosed as a slight case of pnumonia, but fortunately we caught it very early on and stopped it. However, she has a persistant cough and will have to stay in the hospital for observation at least until Monday. She feels otherwise fine and her appetite is good.

Work has been steady even with all of the great heat we've had of late. Today the temperature's somewhat better in the low 90's but I think we're expected another heat wave next week.

My riding lawn mower went ka-put on me again but I found someone that'll mow mom's yard pretty cheap and does a fine job. All I have to do down there is weed-eat now and, of course, mow my own yard (with a push mower), but now I'll have that extra mowing time to do so. It's been so dry here of late that that's been cut back considerably.

Got in a lot of 14 or so comic books, 7 of which were Charltons and the others Gold Key/Whitmans. The lot included a Lost In Space/Space family Robinson 49, Turok Son of Stone 120, 122, 124, Flash Gordon 22, Boris Karloff tales of Mystery 76, 92, 96, Space War 31 (2 copies, one in VG+ and the other in Fine), Space Advs. v2 #9 and a couple of Ghostly Tales.

The Space Advs. reprinted a non-edited version of the original Capt. Atom origin from Space Adventures v1 #33 (1960) as well as other stories from 1950's Sa's (all by Ditko). I had that already reprinted in Strange Suspense Stories #75, but when "the president of the USA" was shown, it had been edited to look like JFK instead of Eisenhower. This version is correct. The Space War has a cover reprint of Ditko from Strange Suspense Stories V2 #2 (an atomic bomb explosion cover)plus other 50's Ditko Charlton sf stories, and the other Charltons contained either/or both Ditko and Sutton work.

The Flash Gordon has Bolle artwork and the Turoks are original stories illustrated by Sparling (not one of my favorite artists, but acceptable work). The Lost in Space is a reprint drawn by Dan Spiegle. There was an odd book in the lot: a copy of the 1970's Kubert School Heroes World Catalog which I already had, but the contributors are interesting as it contains work by Rick Veith, Steve Bisette, Dursema, Kessel and Dorman.

Going back through my "quarter yard sale boxes" I pulled a handful to keep which included a copy of Marvel's The original Ghost Rider #8, simply because it reprints the 1973 Ghost Rider #1 (1st. app. cameo of "Son of Satan"), with a new Mike Ploog cover and a new Dick Ayes "Night Rider" (original western Ghost Rider, renamed) backup story, and the AC Comics print The Power of Strong Man #1 which contains 1950's reprints all with Bon Powell artwork and Gardner Fox scripts.

I also kept any Valiant comics from the boxes I didn't already have, just because I always liked the work from that company in the early 1990s.

At the local flea market today I found store copies of the 2008 (2nd.)Hulk flick (much beter than the first) and an unrated version of "Alien VS. Preadator". My list of store copies of various superhero flicks from the 1980's on has been reduced considerably due to flea market finds from the past year or so.