Sorry that I disappeared for two weeks. It’s been a hell of a stretch. Work has been excruciatingly stressful, for many reasons, not the least of which is that one of my coworkers died suddenly and unexpectedly and, despite attending the wake and funeral, I (as well as the rest of my office) remain stunned and unable to really accept that he is gone. This happened in the middle of interviewing for two new positions we’ve been begging for, for over a year. And all of this was going on while we were still trying to stay on top of a backlogged workload, understaffed. As I said…stressful.

Although I’m mostly recovered, I’m still very low on energy, and by time I get home from work, most days, I’m too exhausted to do much of anything, beyond petting dogs, making dinner, and getting in a Netflix show or two before going to bed.

However, I managed to find enough energy to obtain the following:

The DVD of “Teen Titans: The Judas Contract.” I did enjoy it, but not as much as the original comic book version.

The final image, on the back of a General Mills cereal box, to complete my 5-part panorama Justice League image.

I also have the full set of the mini comics found inside the boxes (Actually, after getting multiple copies of issues 2-4, I cheated and bought issue 1 on eBay, tonight, so that’s on its way.)

I hit a new comic book store in Mystic, CT this past weekend and found some sweet issues I needed for some comic book series I am building complete runs of:

The Brave and The Bold (39 issues to go)

The Defenders (5 Issues to go)

Green Lantern (of course) (LOTS of issues to go – I have issues 90-224, but I’m slowly building as far back as I can afford of the earlier issues, 1-89. Most of the earliest issues will be way out of my price range.)

Justice League of America (5 issues to go)

And the final Volume of The Justice League of America Archives I needed (I have the collected issues of 1-90 in these hardcover Archives, and I have most of the run of Issues 91 – 261 in single comic format.)

Jeffrey recently bought me this sign. (This has never been truer than it has been, recently):

And finally, we received and planted two new cherry trees in our back yard this morning (the two in the back on the incline with the fresh dirt plots.) The two trees in the front lower yard are apple trees we planted five years ago when we first moved in.

Speaking of five years ago, I forgot to mark a very special occasion.   As of March 1, 2017, we have been in our current home for 5 years. This is a remarkable achievement for us, as the longest we’ve ever lived anywhere together, prior to this house, was 2 years.

Also, tomorrow is May 1st, marking the start of my birthday month. I will be turning 46 years old on May 17th and, more importantly, as of that date, I will officially be only 9 years from retirement.

WOOHOO!