"Post No. 740"

Saw the new "Thor" flick. Fun stuff! Looking forward to seeing the "Green Lantern" movie, plus the new "X-men" flick, plus others.
"Summer", of sorts, has finally hit (at least for a few days, although it's turned much cooler now) here in S-Central, KY. after an overly wet, late Winter. Grass is growing like crazy. Already mowed both my own and mom's yards a half dozen times, but what with the ever increasing gasoline prices, I'm cutting that back to every ten days or so.
Traded some hardcovers & paperbacks on UFO's to a guy for The Essential THOR Vol. 2 (Still want to get Vol.'s 3 & 4 to have all of the Kirby stuff), the first 4 volumes of The Daily Spirit AND The Spirit Color Album. Since I already have nearly a full run of the Warren/Kitchen Sink Spirit magazines, the first 8 volumes of The DC Spirit hardcover archives, the 2 1960's Harvey issues and the two 1960's Super Comics issues, plus some of the Kitchen Sink regular comic and probably the first 20+ issues by DC Comics, that'll probably be about as much of The Spirit I actually want to collect.
Also found a few more J.T. Chick "tracts" I needed. Counting the variations I have plus foreign editions I think I must have around 155 of those now.
This year's started out steady in retail where I work, but seems to have slowed down a bit. (This past weekend was good, tho'.)
Finally, after over a year, I got my comic book collection back in order. I had sold one big lot of 3,000 comics to one dealer a year ago last Jan., then pulled another 5,000 for another lot to sell. This had left my personal collection in complete disarray, so I straightened out 34 "long" boxes and got everything back in alphabetical order and by company, then did an estimate of how many issues were in my collections these days. I figure it's around 7,000 (which means if you add everything together I'd had something like 15,000 comics before; my collection had gotten waaayyy out-of-hand).
And...
They say all good things must come to an end. Thus, this has as well.
Seven years ago on this date I wrote my first blog post. Since then I've written 739others, including this one. I was sort of amazed that people still read my rantings after that many years, but I've discovered that a few confess to still doing so.
And I've written about just anything that was going on in my personal life, or ideas, comments, reviews, collecting habits, so on and so on.
After a few years I actually began to number the posts rather than title them. And, after a few years my posts became less frequent. This was due to me just not having anything I thought interesting to say, or just being too busy to get around to writing something.
Seven years ago when I first started "Elmo's Junction", my life was somewhat different. My wife had a full time job. My parent's were both alive and well. Since then, my wife got laid off and hasn't found a fulltime job now for the past 2 years or better (in fact, she's currently unemployed), and my father passed away. Then my mother developed several health problems. I found my world being full of trips to hospitals, nursing homes, doctor visits, etc., etc., plus working more hours to pay the bills, plus attempting to take care of two households. I'm tired.
But just because I won't be "here", it doesn't mean you can't keep up with my silliness over on Facebook where my user name is "Dave Puck". And both my other blog sites will be accessable: "A Puck's tale" (personal publishing history) as well or the ever growing in lists, "Beatles and Bizarros" blog sites.
So...see ya, folks! Elmo has boarded the train...
And it's left "the Junction".
Thank you one and all.
Stay well.

"Post No. 739"

Today is May the 1st, so "Happy May Day" Everyone! For more information regarding May Day celebrations, click onto the link HERE.

Well, with all the hub-bub regarding the "Thor" movie being released this coming Friday (and I still think they "missed the boat and SHOULD have released it on May 5th. instead as THAT's "Thor'sDay"), I got in the mood to re-read a big slew of classic Marvel silver-age stories regarding the Asguardian hero-god. So, since I don't have all of those great tales in their original editions these days, I dug out many reprint volumes I have lying around and from re-reading off and on tales from Marvel Masterworks, The 1st. Thor Essential, Thor Annuals 1-4, Marvel Special Edition 1-4 and the better part of the 19 issues of Marvel Spectacular, I was able to re-read pretty much the whole storyline from Journey Into Mystery 83 thru Thor 140.

I've gotten in the mood to re-read a lot of silver age stuff here of late. I'd just re-read about 20 Ditko issues of Spider-man, and I'll probably start in on Fantastic Fours next.

Anyway, digressing aside, these reprints took me thru Thor's origin/1st. app., intros of the other Asguardian gods, 1st. app.'s of "The Excecutioner and Enchantress, Absorbing Man, The Trail of The Gods, the Norn Stones, intro of The Destroyer", etc., etc. and so on. Great Kirby stuff, and not too shabby a job by Joe Sinnott as well on some of the pre-1964 issues of JIM. Stories that made me a Marvel Maniac "back in the days". 'Shame I can't seem to enjoy the comics this company produces today as I did back then, but times change, people change, tastes change.

Rain here again in S-Central, KY., and they say if it rains on the 1st. it'll rain 15 days out of the month. Wouldn't surprize me a bit since we've already had a surplus of rain since Jan. 1st.; some 23 inches total.

And, I'm glad the royal wedding is finally over with, altho' we'll be hearing it constantly for the next year and then have to suffer thru every pregnancy Kate has "forever". The one thing I learned the most by watching that wedding is that British women wear REALLY UGLY HATS to such an occasion. (Let's hope Kate and William have a much better relationship and marriage than with Di and Charles.)

Start my vacation Tuesday and will be off from work for 5 days. Would have been a whole week but I told them I'd work next weekend just for the extra bucks, then I'll have the following Monday after Mother's Day off before I go back to the regular grind. Not doing anything "special" during that time off. Weather-permitting I'll work on my riding lawn mower to try to get that where it'll work again as I really don't won't to have to use a push mower on both my own and my mother's yards again thru what will probably end up being an exceptionally hot Summer. Tuesday, in fact, I have to take mom to a doctor's apointment, which will pretty much kill that first day. Just as well as more rain's predicted for that day.

Not a whole lot has happened to me since I last blogged. My tax refund still hasn't arrived, but after talking with an agent of the IRS the other day he assures me it should be here "worse case scenerio" within the next month. That money's pretty much all slated for use before it even gets here.

In fact, after two years of my wife being laid off from here last fulltime job and having to work partimers, she was let go,(for no good reasons, I might add) from her job just last week (again) about the time I thought we might get back on our feet again. It's always something.