Friday, October 28, 2005

Sigh...

Having utterly failed to effectively use this blog to shamelessly ballyhoo last night's presentation by yours truly at the Brattleboro Museum & Arts Center, I can only plead lack of time (though I was mightily prepared for that event in and of itself) and the diversions of life & death, and leave it at that.

Lack of time kept me attached via virtual umbilical cord to the scanner for the past two days, prepping both the Museum presentation and my upcoming CCS class, all while tending to our sweet elder kitty Sugar, who is failing slowly and on her last legs. Sugar turned up in Marj's garage a little over 15 years ago, a wet, sick and homeless kitten who (with the providence some cat's demonstrate with uncanny precision) had obviously drifted into precisely the correct garage on Planet Earth, thereby bonding with Marj for life. She's the last of Marj's three cats -- the brother-and-sister tag-team of PT and Shadow succumbed to age late last and earlier this year -- and has quite enjoyed being the queen of the hacienda for the past three seasons. Alas, her behavior changes over the past two weeks has made it clear she's in her final days, and I fear today is her last. I spent all yesterday with Sugar, attending to her and spending whatever time she wished with me between bouts of scanning on our main floor, which is all Sugar is able to navigate any longer. Marj spent last night with Sugar sleeping on our pullout futon downstairs, by the gas stove that is Sugar's only other succor. It's a very sad household this morning hereabouts, though Sugar is still with us at the time of this writing.

In any case, we've worked this through as best we can -- and I did present a pretty good illustrated Halloween season talk last night on horror comics (brief condensed history), Swamp Thing and my work with John Totleben, Alan Moore and Rick Veitch, my own comics, and my life with comics, including a number of panel-by-panel "readthroughs" of a handful of my own stories (including two from my personal sketchbooks, one of which has never -- and likely never will, in my lifetime -- see print). Kudos to Colin of Keene NH and most of all Jonathan -- thanks, Ashley, for the introduction! -- who came to our computer rescue and ensured the ability of my Toshiba laptop to speak to the Museum's Toshiba projector, saving the evening for one and all. Both were rewarded with free comics, though that was paltry thanks for what would have otherwise been a pretty dire evening.

Despite my abysmal lack of self-promotion, Konstantin, Teta and Margaret at the Museum had promoted the event to the hilt, so we had a full house.

Which brings me to the biweekly poker game I missed last night. Sigh.

Only so much time in a given day... to which I must now attend. Send Sugar some lovin', and best to you all.