Following the publication of yesterday's post, I descended into corruption. Say no more. ...
My younger brother was not home by 9:00 p.m. from wherever it was that he had ended up drinking, so by 9:20 p.m. my bedroom's light was out and I was into bed.
About two minutes later, I heard him outside the front door stomping the snow off his boots. He would be watching T.V. and drinking alone for the evening, although my eldest stepson was home for my brother to speak with if he had a mind to.
Sleep was no fast nor true companion, but I was comfortable enough in bed.
I think that I recall checking the time early into the midnight hour, figuring it likely that my brother was still up. Then well before 1:30 a.m. I was awake again and considered rising to get to work on the post I hope to finish at one of my six hosted websites within the next few days, but it seemed to me that I could still vaguely hear the T.V.
Apparently I lapsed into some further sleep, for my next time check was around 2:40 p.m. even though I was still hearing what I believed were the vague sounds of T.V.
And then it struck me that it could well be the neighbour woman ─ her entertainment centre seems to be against the wall of her home that is nearest to the very wall of my own home at which my head is immediately adjacent. And there is probably a dozen feet at best between our two walls.
So I rose and of course found the house to be in darkness downstairs.
After putting in as much work on that post as I cared to do, I never returned to bed until around 6:30 a.m. And although I did manage some further sleep, I was up once again after little more than two hours.
My brother was still not up.
I worked some more on the website post, and anon he did emerge from his bedroom to go downstairs and soon have some coffee while he read the Saturday morning edition of the Vancouver Sun that I subscribe to.
I eventually sought a nap around 11:40 a.m., and despite not being particularly successful at sleeping, I never rose again until perhaps 1:30 p.m. By this time, my brother was shut up in his own bedroom seeking some bed rest ere he would eventually be heading off to catch a bus so that he could start drinking all over again.
I actually took five candid photos of him on his way through the very short alleyway that runs alongside our house ─ the alley leads from the cul-de-sac that we live in, to the main nearby avenue.
I was standing behind the high wooden fence in our backyard with my camera lifted above the fence when I took the photos. My brother initially deviated from his route to look at something towards the corner of the alleyway where it makes a sharp left turn, and then he proceeded on his way down the alley. It was 3:03 p.m. at this point:
Perhaps he will spend tonight at the home of his girlfriend Bev and not return here this evening, but I will take no chances ─ if he is not here by 9:00 p.m., I will again get to bed early.
Late yesterday morning I took four photos while I was looking out of our living room window. Today, I discovered that Google Photos created a "panorama" from those photos:
As well, early that afternoon I took three photos as I stood in the open sliding glass doorway that leads onto our backyard sundeck, and Google Photos also created a "panorama" from those:
That wooden fence at the left is what I was standing behind as I took the five photos of my brother this afternoon ─ you could see that very fence and a little of the taller toolshed in the third of those photos.
The small things that bring some welcome change into my life!
There was something else, too.
Back in the first half of the 1970s I was such a big fan of Marvel's comics that I quite often wrote letters, and occasionally one would be selected for publication in a comic.
Well, imagine my considerable surprise this morning when I by mere happenstance checked into my very neglected LinkedIn account and found the following message that was sent to me exactly a week ago ─ apparently at 7:28 p.m.
I recollect a week or so ago that I had gotten a notification from LinkedIn that another member wanted to "connect" with me, so I accepted the invitation ─ it's akin to being "friended" in Facebook.
The connection was made, and I promptly forgot about it.
Well, here's the message I found:
Garnet,
You're probably wondering why I connected with you on LinkedIn...
When I was a kid, I'd bought Captain America 156 and loved it (read it, re-read it). Last week, I finally bought Captain America 155 and read it at long last.
Tonight, I decided to read the letters page, I was struck by how prescient your letter was! You predicted many things that eventually came about in the Marvel universe.
So I had to see if I could find you online and let you know that 48 years later your letter really impressed someone. If I were Stan Lee, I'd give you a No-Prize. :-)
Best regards,
John N*****
So I responded back this morning at 10:49 a.m.:
I just noticed your message, John ─ just about a week after you sent it.
Back in the first half of the 1970s, I was an enormous Marvel fan and penned quite a few letters. And to increase my publication odds, sometimes I used a pseudonym ─ Traust something-or-other comes to mind.
A "No-Prize", eh? I forgot all about those things!
My Marvel comics were prized by me, and I had a fairly large collection. But eventually ─ maybe the mid-1980s ─ I found myself in hopeless financial distress and sold them all off. I also gave up some nicely-illustrated Collectors Editions that had been published during the 1970s of Robert E. Howard works.
I've regretted it all of my life, but I had no choice. And of course, it wasn't enough ─ just a brief stopgap in my economic plight.
I can't even start to tell you how much it amazes me that I'm still around today.
Anyway, I sure appreciate that you took the bother of finding me and reaching out like this!
─Garnet
I think this is pretty darned cool, to say the least!
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