The reason why I was touching up my Alan Scott Green Lantern battery was because I added three new batteries to my lantern collection this month and the final two just arrived today. Now all I need is the lavender battery and the black battery and I’ll have a complete set.
I dusted each of them off and placed fresh batteries in all of them, and now a simple touch of the magnetic rings has them all glowing like the real thing.
To own even one of these was a dream come true. To now own eight batteries total (including the Alan Scott battery I’m touching up and another, darker green battery from a different company) is beyond my wildest dreams.
This was the very first replica Green Lantern power battery I ever got. It came with a matching power ring and ring stand.
It’s based on the power battery of the very first, original Green Lantern, Alan Scott.
He was created by Martin Nodell and Bill Finger, first appearing in the comic book All-American Comics #16, published on July 10, 1940.
The Lantern was a surprise Christmas gift from Jeffrey many many moons ago, and it floored me. I was emotional for days.
This battery has been from home to home over the last few decades and has always been displayed proudly and lovingly. It is my “one item I would save in a fire.”
Over the years, the paint chipped, a piece broke off (which I glued back on), and the light stopped working…but I never stopped cherishing it.
It has since been joined by a brand new shiny red lantern, a bright yellow lantern, and most recently, a gorgeous white lantern.
For reasons that will be revealed later, I decided my little lantern needed a face lift.
I brought it upstairs, cleaned it carefully with Q-Tips, then mixed up some paint to try to match the color, and painted over all the white chips and spots. Up close, you can see where I painted spots, but from a few feet back, it looks almost brand new.
After It dried, I was looking it over, when I noticed the battery compartment for the first time, believe it or not. Yup, I just always assumed the light and battery were completely internal and, once they died, there was no way to fix it. So I just accepted it was broken forever.
So, I put fresh batteries in and…..
…nothing.
I was about to take the batteries out when I noticed 3 little screws in the base. I grabbed my itty bitty Phillip’s screwdriver and slowly took the screws out. Then I carefully pulled the base out, and suddenly I was holding a little lamp with a lightbulb in my hand. I reached up to unscrew the lightbulb but, when so touched it, it flickered on. So I screwed the bulb back in and – BAM! – the Lantern started glowing again!
I can’t believe, all these years, all I had to do was tighten the bulb. Ya gotta laugh!
Anyhoo, it’s looking better than ever, glowing bright, and it’s been placed back downstairs in its place of honor, with the other batteries.
And, if you think I put the ring on and touched it to the lantern while the light was on, reciting the original oath…(see the panel on the right, above)…
… when you decide to have a nightcap at the end of the night, and you go through the effort of making it and sitting down to enjoy an episode of a favorite TV show while sipping it, and because you’re clumsy or absent minded, you knock the cocktail over and break one of your favorite cocktail glasses, and then break down over it, maybe it’s not about the cocktail glass or the cocktail.
I drove to CT yesterday for an overnight to hang with the BFJ. The weather was beautiful (sunny but not humid,) so we did a 3 mile walk around the Hartford reservoir, checked in on the cat of mutual friends, did some grocery shopping, then hung out chatting about life and the future. Eventually, we made a Caprese salad, grilled burgers and corn on the cob, and watched “Connie and Carla” and Chicago.” We also enjoyed a few cocktails.
This morning, we were up at 5am, and I was on the road home by 6am. Within minutes of being home with Harvey and the Hubs, I was asleep on the couch.
I woke up again late morning, and we headed to my Mom’s to repair a cabinet latch, then headed to the local Food Co-op to pick up some Goat’s Milk (Jeffrey’s favorite) and delicious gluten free sandwiches and treats.
After getting home and having lunch, I conked out on the couch again, Harvey at my side. That is when Jeffrey chose to immortalize this moment in a series of pixels.
It’s crazy how a simple overnight away trip wipes me out.
Is this the same guy who would work all day, go out dancing from 10pm – 1am almost every night, then be back to work for 8am the next morning?
Is this the same guy who who could clean house all day, host a party until 1am in the morning, stay up until 3am cleaning up, then spend the next day out and about running errands?
Is this the same guy who could attend a 24 hour fundraiser, watching 12 back to back showings of “Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” and still go out to brunch with friends afterwords?
Is this the same guy who could decorate an entire house for Christmas in one weekend, then work 5 days straight without so much as a nap?
Apparently those days are long behind me, and I am now the guy who has to save up all of my energy to be able to run an errand, vacuum, and make a sandwich in the same 12 hour period…as long as I take a Power nap in between tasks.
Sorry, folk, I thought I had done a post about this earlier.
We’ve been having water seep into our basement every time it rains for about two years . After looking around and asking around, it was determined a yep French Drain was the best way to divert water away from the base of the house, which should stop all of the seepage. So we hired a friend of our lawn care guy to do it and he did a great job. But of course they had to dig up the lawn in order to bury the plastic pipe. So now we just have to wait to see if it works. I think it’s supposed to rain this weekend.
I’m off to breakfast and then to see the Fantastic Four movie.
 Have a great day, all, and don’t forget to fight fascism!
I have almost completed my collection of Justice League Unlimited figures and they look awesome displayed on the wall all together:
I’ve got about 10 more figures to track down. It’s exciting to be “on the hunt” again in pursuit of building a collection. This will probably be the last set I build, as my collecting space is full and I won’t have the same level of discretionary funds in retirement. However, a few of my other action figure collections are still putting out new figures occasionally, so there will still be some slight growth in my collections along the way.
Since I seem to be in Superhero overdrive lately, we bought tickets to see the new Fantastic Four movie at 9am Saturday morning (we prefer the earlier showing – less crowded) and the new Superman movie at 11:45am Sunday (in the least popular – and therefore least crowded – theater in the area.)
Also, there is a comic book and collectible show at a nearby Library on Saturday we will stop by after we get out of the movie. I am very much looking forward to a Super weekend!
Oh, and in case you didn’t notice:
That’s right! Less than 300 days to Retirement, Baby! Can’t Wait!
Idle Eyes and a Dormy 