I guess I’m an orphan now

Another week without much accomplished, but I can’t blame myself. After learning a week ago that Dad was dying, I booked a flight and headed down Sunday. I came back yesterday.

It was an odd sort of farewell trip. Dad had most of his affairs wrapped up and for whatever reason he didn’t want a funeral or any equivalent ceremony. That meant a much lower key time than when Mom passed. My brother and I went with Tracy (Dad’s executor) to get some papers signed, mail off some packages. And we and several of Dad’s friends went out to dinner Tuesday. Otherwise it was mostly hanging around the house, chatting with each other, playing gin rummy, that sort of thing. And I did write an online obit for the website of the funeral home that cremated him. We also watched The Shermans, the compilation of old home movies my brother got digitized, then posted online.

One project my brother came up with was to duplicate an old photo of us as kids. Here’s the original—I think this would have been 1966 or 1967. That’s my sister Tracy, my brother Craig and then me, left to right. Here’s the sequel —It took a lot of posing and double-checking before Craig was satisfied with the second one, but it paid off.

I must admit, being with my family again felt better than Dad’s death hurt. I think that’s a good thing.

I did get one article finished for The Local Reporter, on local towns Carrboro and Chapel Hill and their commitment to LGBTQ+ rights. I got two posts up at Atomic Junk Shop, one about Marvel in 1967 and one on how L. Frank Baum created Oz.Con-Tinual posted a couple of panels to YouTube with me in them, one on comic-book villains and one on Magnus, Robot Fighter.And that’s about it. Hopefully nothing will derail me from work next week.

#SFWApro.  Cover by Russ Manning, all rights to images remain with current holders.