Counting Blessings – Friends and Family

There’s no order to this. No ranking. No details. I wrote down names as they came to me and added in new names as I typed. Went away, remembered someone, came back and dropped their name in the middle of things. No doubt I’ve spelled some names wrong (or you’ve changed them and I didn’t know/have forgotten). Y’all here have been bright spots in my life – some for brief moments, others for decades. Cheers! And thank you.

Sarah Byam

Staci Shirley

Ninnah Curtis

Helen Ingersoll

Glenn Ingersoll

Kent Mannis

CreativeTechs (Craig, Melody, Eric and Kyle)

Cindy Parker

Cindy Pyborn

Andree Kessel

John Kessel

Rae Dinsmore

Karyn O’Hearn

Dan Chappell

Yvonne (of that Voice)

Memi Robles

Patrick O’Hearn

John Gerboth

John Pagel

Lora Ray

Cabernet Lazarus

Amy Swallow

Jonathan Grossman

Cherie Miller-Hanni

Rob Hanni

Eric Hanni

Yvonne Johnson

Lora Bertaina

Leann Hayes

Don Sisler

Maria Bavuso

Ellen (formerly) Kucera

Scott Tolson

Jan Ingersoll

Bernice Ingersoll

Dion and Rachel Batres

Tony Batres

Robert Ingersoll

Dad (Bruce Ingersoll Sr.)

Jake and Jenn Oxrieder

Joe Oxrieder

Bruce Ingersoll Jr.

Jason Oxrieder

Mary Jo Oxrieder

Emily Manning

Marnie Manning

Ruth Cohen

Lou Jansen

Conrad and Laura Denke

Jedd Parker

Maya Dunstan and Terra

Frank

Randy

Jason Grant

Phil Taggart

Heather Deviveiros

Maria Grau and Fritz

Chris Callahan

Kris Syversen

Andy Syversen

Crissy Smith

Schuyler and David Waynforth

Jane Hamilton

Marcus Chappell

Pam Chappell

Sevilla and Sam Travis

Alaine Nijenhuis

Jackie McClure

Heidi Langeberg

Gregg Victor

Sarajenny Chiro

Jeremy Sharp

Cordell and Ann Stillman

Charles Baumgardner

Deborah Clubb

Louise Bailey

Cynthia Mellin

Kat Glennie

Edd Vick

Amy Thompson

Elder Tune

Elder Smith

Elder Boone

Shep Hendrix and Gayle

Pia Guerra

Roberta Gregory

Donna Barr

Kip Manley

Jenn Manley Lee

The Black Seal Gang (David, Davide, Nick, Adam, JT, Phil, Giles (at least))

Jeff and Teresa Swenson

Venke Syveren

Mark Syversen

Amy Gibson

Gregg Victor

Deneen Cunningham

Matt Sanders

Kathy Spillane

Ryan Kursh

Peter Worley

Nic Rademacher

Glenn Simpson

Tim Leavitt

Nicki Horton

Ivan Chait

Hawk Chait

Bernice Jinkerson

Rose Curtis

Sierra Perkins

Anne and Jack Grant

Christopher Scavetto

Ed Sprancis

Ashok

Marty

Brigitta Hunter

Lisa Furton

Christina Rodriguez

Beth Hanni

Knute Calendar

Lisa Temple

Ethan Temple

Rodney Aho

Kuleen McGrath

Derek Fetters

Emily Ross

Tim Lowery

Stephanie Costa

Yogi and Joy Beatty

Jennifer Hallam

Alan Berendson

Dirk Voss

Justin Norman

Jordan and Louisa Bojar

Dave Campbell

Jessica DeWolf

Geoff Skinner

Jeff Schaeffer

Erika Faxon

Doug Faxon

Chris and Karen Carpenter

Dylan Bennett

Marcus Bennett

John and Deanna Johns

Tom and Barbara Mannell

Jessica Grady

Sandy Redlich

Jeannine Garczynski

Jeannine Kouns

Daniel Rivers

Vicki Gotcher

Aurora Valentine

Phil Taggart

Lara Bertaina

Beth and Bill Cary

Tony Burger

Mary Carrigan

Rau Carriker

Jo Ann Crank

Chris at Perelandra

Lee and Jean Avera

Deborah Corrington

Shelly Lazark

Lena Boa

Lori Schilling

Jeff Simpson

Gweneth Shears

Bronwyn Shears

Melinda Cole

Jonathan Williams

Lori Alexander

Michael and Heather O’Connell

Brian O’Connell

Ted Naifeh

Tasha Amme

George Herring

Matt Skoog

Christine Masaoka, John Ross

Hope Levy

Joel Goldes

Morton Bergue

Daphne Nachtigall

Steve and Diann Streng

Tony Vigil

Serra Pagel

Leif Jones

Yvette Berthaud

Arby Bernt

Marge Everidge

Debra Burson

Shawn Broderick

Karen Schultz

Sheila Hart

Jackie Spaulding

Autumn Summers

Kevin Kennedy

Karen Washington

James O’Donnell

If your name isn’t here (and I’m sure a few of you aren’t) it’s more likely because my memory has holes in it this (and every other) morning than because I lack affection for you. My apologies.

Merry merry!

Christmas in Three Days

Shopping is as done as it’s going to be. I still need to wrap Aged Mother’s presents but that will be fairly easy. We’re way behind in writing in (much less addressing and mailing) our cards. It’s still been one of the better holiday seasons.

Nizzibet and I plan to spend Christmas day laying around, eating take out food from Tan Duc and watching action movies. And opening prezzies of course.

Huge Comic Book Collection! Rare Number Ones! Worth Thousands!

I’ve been looking through ebay’s listings for “comic collections”. I’ve got a huge one of my own that, barring a miracle, I’ll need to sell. As far as I can tell, there are currently no comparable collections available. Sure, there are a number of large collections being shilled but they aren’t as big or as broad as mine. That’s not bragging. It’s not a matter of pride. It’s a matter of numbers. I spent more on comics than I ever did on any my other vices. Certainly more than I ever spent on drugs and alcohol.

With Aged Mother here and us needing to empty out the house in California I need to find homes for my stuff. Some of it, my books and photographs, Lovesettlement should be able to send up here fairly easily. My artwork will be more problematic. Some of it I want. Some of it I have no use for. Mostly I wouldn’t know one way or another without seeing it first. There’s toys and tchotckies and junk that I guess I could lay claim to that I’m fine if I never see it again. My glow in the dark Creature from the Black Lagoon and Godzilla would be nice to see again but, really, I don’t have a place for them. That stuff can go into a dumpster with A.M.’s beat up furniture and triplepatched clothes.

So the biggest chunk of Stuff is the comics. Thousands of them.

What are they worth?

Please. Not a damn thing. Or thousands of dollars. It’s all a matter of who is looking at them. To me, they’re priceless. To many of my friends they might be sort of neat but not really worth the time it takes to move them. That’s something that a lot of Collectors don’t get. Just because some book says that your Badly Drawn Musclefreak #0 is worth $350 doesn’t mean that anyone will pay half that much for it.

I’ve made an all-or-nothing offer of them to one of my friends who was heavily into comics back in the day. I suspect that he’ll pass on them. He wants to look at them first. That’s cool. It just doesn’t work for him to take what he wants and leave us still having thousands of comics to move.

I doubt that I’ll have a chance to look through the collection again myself before it goes. If I could afford to go to California to do that I could afford to get it back here.

So, it goes.

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“Is your Dad still alive?”

“He died three years ago Mom.”

“Oh.” She thinks about that. “I didn’t think he was still alive. But I didn’t think it was three years.”

After reading the Kipster’s latest post and the attendant link to Modern Drunkard Magazine I think I’ll amend Item #1250 to staying drunk all week. Staying drunk all day lacks ambition. Anyone can be drunk all day. To stay drunk all week requires stamina and forethought.

Yes, that’s my email address on the right. Way down there. Above Meaningless Statistics. Just to make it easier to talk to me. Hopefully it still requires a tweak in order to use it. I’ve put spaces on either side of the @. I’m happy to get letters. Just a few words of caution –

1. I’m a lousy correspondent. I used to be very good at returning letters back when they required stamps and envelopes. No longer. I try to respond to every letter I get but it sometimes takes a while – a long while.

2. If I don’t know you include my name or some obvious reference to my galleries or posts in the subject line of your email. I get lots of spam and delete most emails from unfamiliar addresses unread. “Hey” or “How’s it going” or “Remember Me?” or “URGENT REQUEST” will all be ignored.

Happy Holidays!

Item #1249 – Publish a Coffee Table Book of Photos of My Friends

Pure vanity project here. Do a series of photos of my friends and family and publish a nice hard cover book of the results as a Christmas present for them. I’d be fine having someone else be the photographer. Some of those friends are much better photographers than I am.

Item #1250 – Stay Drunk All Day

I tried this for one of my birthdays years ago. It took me two hours to finish my first beer of the morning. The appeal of this idea these days is more in having the time to actually spend a day doing something that dumb and unproductive than in the actual drunkness.

Item #1251 – Cycle Around the USA

Basically that. Cycle around the United States. Start on one coast, cycle the small roads over to the other coast and head back taking a different set of small roads. I get the feeling that this couldn’t be done in one trip, at least not comfortably – what with seasons changing and all.

Item #1252 – Win the Lottery

Can’t really plan for this one can you? I buy the occasional ticket but I figure my odds of winning are lower than average. I already know someone who won.Statistically that shouldn’t change my chances but still …

Item #1253 – Run a Marathon

More to say I’ve done it than because I have any great attraction to running long distances. I’d probably want to run it somewhere exotic so I’d have somewhere new and different to look at.

Items #1254 – 1278 – Have Sex With …

No celebrities here. Friends and acquaintances. Some I’ve slept with before, most not. No names named. That would be tacky. (As if mentioning it on a list isn’t.)

Item #1279 – Build a Scale Model of New York

(or Tokyo or Paris or London). The city is just background. Once it’s built I’d fill it with model kaiju smashing it down.

Item #1280 – Make the Big Score

In other words, pull off a theft so big that I never have to pull another one again. Really the only kind worth planning.

Nizzibet and I watched a special on the Discovery channel a while back that told the story of a guy who pulled off one of the largest armored car thefts in history. $17 million dollars. He stole so much money that when it came to transfer it to another vehicle they could take it all and abandoned $3 million of it. And then his idiot accomplices made themselves obvious by buying houses and cars and living large throwing around lots of cash. Of course they all got busted. Such stupidity. It was embarrassing to watch.

Item #1281 – Publish The Call

Write it first. Duh. Or write it and draw it, since, as with all stories, I imagine doing it as a comic. The Call is a novel length expansion of The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft. It follows a trio of survivors of LeGrasse’s bayou raid in 1908 through the Great War and the Jazz Age to the rising of R’Lyeh in 1925. Romance, adventure, history, conspiracy, politics and madness. Always with the madness.

I don’t even want to think about how many pages it might run.

Item #1282 – Raise a Polydactyl Maine Coon

All of my cats have been strays – some abandoned, some escapees and others completely feral. All of my cats will be probably be strays. Why pay for some purebreed when there are plenty of cats out there that need homes? If I were to get any breed of cat, however, I’d want a Maine Coon. Apparently polydactylism is common among the breed so I’d look for that in my cat. A giant cat with thumbs. Purrrrrrrrrr.