Wizzer's World

I know I haven’t written all that much lately. It’s not entirely my fault you know. There just hasn’t been all that much to write about. The last few weekends have been pretty tame (not to mention the weather has sucked) so we haven’t really gone out to do anything. This coming weekend looks to be quite a lot better. There are two big events happening, and of course they are on the same day, Saturday. Then there is always Monday which is Halloween! Not sure if you remember last Halloween. I tried to give out candy and spent the whole night sitting there in my Scout costume with no takers at the door. Well….. hopefully that will change this year. You saw how my front patio is completely decorated and has been for a few weeks now. I know the neighborhood kids have stopped by to see it. With any luck that means that they will come by this time.

Saturday will be Andrews’s first 501st event!!! In the morning we are all meeting up to walk in the Annandale Fall Festival Parade. Parades are always fun, seeing the reaction from the crowd as you walk by, kids running out to take pictures, even older folks coming over to recount their first watching of Star Wars. Andrew will finally get to meet some of the Garrison and see what it is we do. After the parade we will come back to the house and change costumes for the Annual Patton Halloween Party! Last year we had a blast and it’s always great to see everyone do costumes that aren’t Star Wars. See, here is the funny thing about the garrison, I think we spend most of the time that we just hang out with each other searching for and showing off non-star wars costumes! Halloween is a great time for this! It’s like, the Star wars costumes brought us all together because we like the costuming and the sci-fi, but we find out that we all like new and interesting costumes as well! There will, of course, be pictures coming next week.

I have re-discovered my love for comic books! When I was young (around the age of 13-15) I got into comic books. I can still remember the first one I picked up and considered my step down the comic road. (I know I read some others earlier in life, but I never really got into them until this one.) It was a collected paperback of a series that ran in Batman called Batman: A Death in the Family. I was up in Oregon visiting my grandparents with my best friend Ryan. We had stopped off in a local comic book shop to check it out and both Ryan and I picked up the same book. This was the tale of Jason Todd the “new” Robin for Batman. It recounted the tale of how Batman found him and led into how the Joker killed him. (It’s a good read, you should find it.)

It was also on this trip that Ryan and I went cliff climbing along the beach and he fell and slid down about 40 feet of rocky cliff down to the beach. He cracked his head open and nearly died. I remember watching him slid down, and my adrenalin took over. I Jumped off the cliff down to him (Landing in a blackberry bush, thorns = ow) feeling no pain in myself. I briefly checked him and he was still alive, I then tore through the forest that separated the beach from my grandparent’s house. My dad and I ran back to Ryan while my grandparents called 911. He had to be airlifted off the beach because they couldn’t get the ambulance down to him. After the paramedics got there and he was taken care of I just collapsed. I barely remember sitting down on the beach and pulling thorns out of my arms and legs.

Wow, and to think I remember all of this because I tied it to a comic book. Almost every day for the rest of the two weeks that I was in Oregon I went back to the store to pick up more comics. I loved Batman. Just the fact that a regular guy with no special powers could go out and make a difference in a world that doesn’t always work the way it ought to. Of course it helps to be a billionaire to buy all the cool gadgets. I was also a big Spiderman fan. Spiderman was just a kid that got thrown into a life he never expected. He always had a good cheerful attitude about it as well. Somewhere between my late high school years and when I joined the military I kind of trailed off of comics. I still have most of my collection as well as additions from a friend’s collection. Every now and then I would pop into a store and check out some of the latest books, but nothing ever serious.

Well, as I have stated, I have now rediscovered my love of the pulp. John called me up the other day saying that there was a new storyline going through Spiderman that would change everything! He said it was a must read so I was off. There is a great comic book store that’s not terribly far from my house, and the people there are awesomely friendly. When I walked in and asked about the story they were really helpful and even caught me up on what was going on in Spidey’s life. While there I also picked up a whole string of Green Lantern comics. GL has defiantly become the new obsession. Once again, just a regular guy that had his life altered by a power ring. It’s defiantly the new hotness. Look for more Green Lantern posts soon.

Andrew has also picked up the comic bug. He has started reading Green Lantern with me and even asked if he could pick up a Green Arrow. I had never read Green Arrow so it was a new experience for me as well. The plan now is to go through and sort/clean up the whole comic collection and really see what it is we have. I haven’t looked at the whole collection in a few years so it will be fun to sort through it with him. It will also give me the chance to re-read some of my old classics! Just remember, Wednesday is new comic day!