The End of the Octobercountry

Greetings,

We have a lot going on in the next couple of weeks, and they are indeed exciting times.  

In just a couple days time myself, John, Jere, Julie, and Jonny will be heading south to Providence for the Rhode Island Comic Con.  Plans that were started in February are finally going to coming together for a grand time indeed.  We will be staying for two nights leaving Friday, Halloween, for the drive south.  The actual con is Saturday and Sunday, the hotel we are staying at is attached to the convention center so we don’t even have to drive to it or deal with parking or anything of that nature.

Friday night is the Halloween Party, Saturday Night is an After party, Saturday and Sunday is filled with walking around the show floor, meeting people, getting photos with and autographs from celebrities of all mediums.  There will be merchandise galore and some wicked cool cosplay.  It’s going to be pretty awesome.  Also Jay is going to meet and spend the day with us on Saturday.

I’m not going to have as much money as I would have liked so my spending on photos and autographs is going to be very selective.  There is going to be a bunch of wrestlers there, but the one I’m looking forward to the most would be Brian O’Halloran who played Dante on the hit film Clerks. 

There are a bunch of panels on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday I’d really like to hit “So you Want to be a voice actor”, “Star Trek Continues”, and Costume Contest. Sunday it’s “TV’s Comic Book Crimefighters” Q&A With George Takei, and “The Secrets of Warehouse 13”.  I don’t know if I’ll make them all but I’m going to try.  I’m surprised there is no wrestling themed panel as there are so many great wrestlers there. 

Also there are gaming tournaments and a bunch of vehicles there from different movies and tv shows like the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard, the Bat Cycle from the 1960’s Batman and more.  Also the RKO Army is going to be doing two live stage productions, Saturday is the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Sunday is REPO! The Genetic Opera.  All the panels and the musicals and free with your admission, you just have to be willing to wait in line as seating is first come, first serve.

If the Halloween party is not my thing on Friday night then I’m sure the Saturday Night after Party will be lame as well.  Luckily there is a wrestling show 20 minutes away that I just may zip over too. 

When I get back thought it's no rest for the weary.  I have one work day and then we sign the lease on the home we are renting and we have to move it.  It'll be a busy long day for sure but Wednesday November 5th we will be our first night in the new place on Oak St in Gardiner.

The Wednesday after that will be a truly exciting day as we hope to find out the sex of baby labbe.

That's all for this week

Later Readers!

This and That

Greetings readers, 

My Grammie  Connie died.  She was my mother’s step-mother.  My whole life she and Grandpa Hobart lived out west at the Grand Canyon and Pahrump, Nevada.  I was never as close to them as my other grandparents based solely on proximity.  I would write Grammie Connie letters a few times a year, the last I received was earlier this year.  And up until the last 10 years they would visit most summers.  The last time I saw them was when I went out to Las Vegas in May of 2007.  We had a nice visit, went to lunch, and they got to meet Canaan.  They’ve never met Addison and I doubt Grandpa Hobart ever will, he seems determined to stay in Pahrump even though he had no family there at all.  

Everything seems to be falling together for us finding a new place to live.  The bank that is foreclosing on the home basically told us we could live there through the winter as it wasn’t being sold until February.  I don’t want to buy and oil for it though, so I’m trying to limp through with what we have.  A place we live on Oak St in Gardiner looks like it’ll be ours come first week of November.  It’s a little bit more a month, but heat is included so awesome!!

Baby Labbe is coming along smashingly, at the time of this posting it is the size of an avocado.  We had an appointment Monday and heard the strong healthy heartbeat along with some kicking and moving around.  It was fantastic!  We have an appointment next month to hopefully find out the sex.

Aunt Carolyn was ordained as the pastor of the Water of Life Lutheran Church in Newcastle this past Sunday.  It was quite an interesting event to witness first hand.  It was nice to see the whole family there, including Aunt Linda up from Maryland to share in the moment. 

Kate and I hit Fat Boy for the last day of their 2014 season, such a fantastic place!  Looking forward to next March.

If you have a chance you should check out my hot dog blog, I have posted it on facebook like I do this one but I should start trying to get the word out more. http://mainehotdog.blogspot.com/

Later Readers

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

I come forth with sad news, after more than 5 months I received a letter of rejection from Tor.com for my story that I submitted.   Although I am saddened by this I will sally forth and locate another place to submit it in hopes of future publication.  After doing some research I located a couple places and just need to decide which one is the right one for me.

I’m working on another story currently about a man and his pen, he really likes this pen!

My stand up material is actually progressing nicely.  I’ve started gathering material in a different and much more effective way. 

Exercising and weight loss has been coming along extremely well.  I’m down over 20 pounds and have almost entirely given up soda.  The giving up soda is a pretty significant since I used to consume so much of it on a daily basis.   I owe a lot of it to my Bubba cup that my best pal John got me.  I’m a big fan of Ice Cold water and this cup keeps it ice cold for hours!

So we have to move.  The people that we are renting the house from basically let it go into foreclosure and then lied to us when they said they were trying to work with the lender on doing a loan modification.  Our lease expires at the end of October so we will need to be out by then.  It’s quite frustrating. 

 

 Canaan is playing tackle football this year for Gardiner, it’s on the 3^rd/4^th grade team.  He loves it and is doing awesome!

            Kate and I went to the Tom Petty concert August 31^st in Portland, it’s his first show in Maine in over 30 years.  Tom Petty is Kate’s favorite musician and this is her third concert of his that she has been to.  Previously in Mansfield, Ma & Kentucky.  Originally we had tickets for the 30^th at Fenway, then they announced the Portland show.  So we ended up selling the tickets to Fenway and buying the Portland ones, and it worked out magnificently.  

            Steve Winwood opened the show with an hour long set, he sang 3 songs that I recognized, “Back in the High Life Again”, “Higher Love”, and what I would call my favorite song of his that he wrote, “Can’t Find My Way Home”.  We sat through his set and it felt like it dragged.  The crowd was very lively though the whole time.  

 

             After a 30 minute intermission Tom came out and we then stood for the next two hours.  Those two hours flew by.  Kate was so into the show singing and dancing with every song.  Every song!  Of course he sang his classic hits and he sang a few songs from his new album as well.  It was really good show!  If he ever comes around again you can bet we will be there. 

Later readers

Bump

               

               As most of you know my Grandfather, Raymond Young, Bump passed away recently.  He was quite ill and his passing was an unexpected expectance.  I’m very happy that I was able to be there for Gram-gram the day it happened.

                If you want to get technical about it, Bump was my step-grandfather, but he and Gram-Gram had been married for nearly 40 years, longer than I have been alive, so he is my Grandfather.  We were all very lucky to have him as our Grandfather.

                My memories of Bump are all fond ones.  I never saw his raise his voice, except at the dogs, and he was always quick with a joke and a smile.  He loved golf, cribbage, beer, and most of all Gram-gram, or maybe beer first.  He was very handy with wood and I have several of his creations in my possession that I have always and will always cherish. 

                In eighth grade I did a report on Bump and his involvement in WWII and I learned things about him that I never knew, and things about the war I had never read in history books.

                Every time I see one of the temporary orange Bump signs I have always thought of him.  

                In one of those, it’s a small world stories, it turns out that Kate’s Grand Dad and Bump were good friends.  Apparently several years back at the golf course Bump and Grand Dad first met when Bump was leaving the club house, he has his WWII hat on and Grand Dad asked Bump if he bought that hat or earned it.  Bumped responded “I earned this son of a bitch.”  It was a start of great friendship.  Grand Dad was also in WWII and both he and Bump traveled to the same places and fought in the same battles, they just didn’t know each other and don’t remember if they actually ran into each other or not back then.   When Grand Dad found out that Bump was my Grandfather I was in!

                What I will remember most though, is all the times we played cribbage together over the years.  I will always be thankful for all the times that he let me beat him, thanks Bump.  I hope someday when I am an old codger I can sit and play cribbage with my grandchildren, I’m sure I’ll let them win too.