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Breaking news: Ralph Johnson and Bob the Dog have come out of retirement. Fantasy Books and Games front – The sign needs a brighter light! I wrote most of this back in September, and forgot to post until December after I had made up a whole page on Fantasy Books and Games. So [...]  Bob lands back in the Land of 10,000 Lakes We’ve been in California a little more than a month, with only the possessions that would fit in my car, but it’s time to finish the job. There is still a 10 by 30 foot storage unit filled to the door and ceiling with comics, furniture, a life’s worth of accumulated crap, all waiting for me OR the auctioneer if I stop paying the rent, and one more Minnesota Comic Book Convention to sell at. So I’ve been looking into whether I should take Bob with me on the plane to ride back across the country again in the giant rental truck? I’ll be gone almost 2 weeks, so my new roomies are only slightly more familiar with him than random strangers. I think he wants to come! He can help! He’s a super dog, after all. I would never put him in cargo, so I had to find an airline that would allow him in the cabin with me. He had to get certified by the vet that he’s disease free and healthy, so we visited our new local vet, the Grove Way Vet just a few blocks from home, near the 7-Eleven and Trader Joe’s. They also gave me a gentle sedative for the flight, and suggested I could give him only half a pill, since he is not typically a hyperactive, nervous, barky dog. I agree. Nice people, and a good place. In a fit of independence and frugality, I decided we could take the BART train all the way to SFO. READ MORE about Bob Flies Back to Minnesota to finish the move  Bob the human at Fantasy Books and Games I’ve been selling on eBay for quite a while now. Bob (the Human) has this large warehouse that has been dormant since the late 90′s. He started with 1 store in the early 80′s when I met him, and opened or bought 4 more into the early 90′s. He opened the warehouse in an Oakland suburb to house large quantities of merchandise for future distribution to his stores, and the rest of the country through mail orders. When the “collapse” of 94-95 happened, the market ended up with only one real distributor, Diamond Comic Distribution. Through a complex series of negotiations and conversations, his warehouse became the landing point for large air and truck shipments from Diamond to the entire region and Bob’s competitors became his customers as they met at his warehouse to pick up their weekly “fix” of new comics and everything else Diamond sold. They would pick up the new stuff and shop around this huge room of shelves stacked up to the ceiling with older stuff. Then, Diamond Distribution decreed that every store in America would be serviced by UPS, which ended the weekly conclave at the warehouse, and one day a few months later, the workers left, the fork lift was turned off, the doors closed, and time stopped. And the dust slowly started to settle. What used to be a bustling, thriving business began to be slowly covered up by dust and accumulated debris of a collapsing empire. Until I show up 5 years later. READ MORE about From Pompeii in the East Bay to eBay Saturday, August 30, 2003. 425 miles in 9 hours See the Photo gallery for a lot more photos of this trip.  Gee, Bobby, looky at all them trees! Morning in Winnemucca. I had been introduced to another cat at check-in and it was waiting to meet the rest of our party in the morning. We had an uneventful packing anyway, and made our way across Nevada and up the Sierras. As is my habit, I succumbed to the temptation to take a several hour detour around Lake Tahoe. After the white knuckle descent towards the Lake, and a few miles along the shore, we were in California at last – the land of more and bigger trees than even Bob can handle, and where the majestic mountain lion still roams, though in ever decreasing numbers, as civilization makes its relentless land grab. The land of our future life full of opportunity and fun! READ MORE about MN to CA Day 4: From the land of NO trees to the land of MANY and large Friday, August 29, 2003. 535 miles in 10.5 hours See the Photo gallery for a lot more photos of this trip.  "Dan's Petrified Critters" - the Horror!
Up and on the move in Rock Springs, Wyoming, at the crack of 11. It takes a while to get this crew out of a motel! Practically down the block from our motel – now, this is a rude awakening. Sam is wondering what is so interesting about a run down building, but he is just beginning to grasp the meaning, and Bob can only stare in horror. “Why are you slowing down?!? Get us out of here!” Anyone notice a stylistic trend on the part of the photographer yet? I call it the “back of Bob’s head motif”, or BOBHM, for short, and I warn you that there is more coming. READ MORE about MN to CA Day 3: White Sands of Salt Lake and a Storm in Nevada Thursday, August 28, 2003. 535 miles in 12 hours See the Photo gallery for a lot more photos of this trip.  What a waste of 400 highway billboards!
The great Wall of South Dakota, which is not that great, and to be honest, not very many walls. But here we are, and Bob seems unimpressed. We look down the long, covered sidewalk and wait for something to happen – anything. Nothing does. A few hours later , the 3 of us had a little taste of Freedom in the shadow of the 4-Fathers, and a lot of clouds at Mt. Rushmore. We paid our National Park fee and parked in the gigantic parking ramp, but were told that all pets were restricted to the grassy area at the far end. It was about 20 by 40 feet, and not very grassy. Bob did not feel, shall we say, inspired. READ MORE about MN to CA Day 2: From the Black Hills to the Rock Springs  Bob with my "oldest" friend Mike Z. This sort of summarizes a lot of posts that I actually wrote back in May, but this one is a LOT shorter! And Better. I just started “blogging” back in May during the eclipse, thinking I would just, y’know, write stuff. Right now I’m going through a major transition, moving to California, leaving friends and family behind because I think I will enjoy the physical, social, and economic environment out there more while I figure out how I will spend the rest of my life. So that’s what’s happened lately, and so that’s what I have to write about! It’s about 14 years of trying to run uphill. “The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some (my emphasis) reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.” Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942 READ MORE about Go West, Young Man! or… Californee is the place ya oughta be! |
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