Crazy, event-filled weekend of doom

Thursday evening, I heard about the new comic written by Neil Gaiman, called 1602. It sounded nifty, and I love Gaiman's work, but I was told that it came out on Wednesday, and I feared that it might be the sort of thing that evaporated off the shelves. I had several errands to complete on Friday - visit post office to mail L5R card to Brazil as part of trade, visit library to return The Wolves in the Walls (which was awesome), visit CVS to retrieve developed pictures from Wednesday's trip to the Stone Zoo, and finally visit gas station to acquire gasoline. I also stopped off at 3 Trolls Games and Puzzles while carrying out these errands, because they have a comics rack. Alas, I did not see the comic that I sought.

After completing my errands, I called TE, my usual comic source, and inquired about 1602. They informed me that it had sold out in 2 hours on the day of its release. Fooey. The next comic shop that I tried was also sold out. At the third one, the person at the other end of the phone actually had to go and check, which I thought for certain meant that he was filling me with false hope. He returned to inform me that they had 1 copy left. I asked him to hold it, and he agreed. Now the problem became that I was supposed to be getting ready to visit kaiwoklaw at the time. I called her up and explained that I was going to be late because I had to drive to New Hampshire to acquire an elusive new comic book. Because kaiwoklaw is awesome, she did not mock me or become upset by this information.

An hour later, I returned home with my prize. I was both pleased and surprised that aquiring a copy of this comic did not involve a duel to the death. Huzzah! No time to read it, of course. In fact, due to my frenzied rushing around, I had not yet even completed perusing the pictures from the zoo, having only glanced through them while waiting for the gas station attendant to fill my car's tank with fuel. I then assembled all of my paraphenalia and departed for Worcester.

After meeting kaiwoklaw at her place of work, we then zoomed off to get food, since we were both very hungry. After food, we stopped by TE anyway, since I needed to pick up the latest BPRD comic, which I knew was out since I saw it at the comic store in Nashua while picking up my copy of 1602. Finally, after we were ushered out of TE so they could close, we retrieved my car and headed for home. Finally, I could relax for a while.

Saturday, of course, was another matter. I had to rush home at a much earlier hour than usual so I could go with my parents to the annual Jaffrey fireworks festival. It's a good thing I came home early to give myself plenty of time to get ready. I got home to discover an interesting complication in the form of my visiting brother, who had apparently sustained a yellow jacket sting near his eye, and who had wounded his jaw in his zeal to kill the offending insect. He was sitting in my chair in the kitchen with a bag of frozen vegetables held to the side of his face. Once we determined that the swelling was going to stay down long enough for him to drive home, we sent him on his way and got back to preparations for the expedition to Jaffrey.

It's about a 90 minute drive to Jaffrey, followed by a frenzied walk/jog for half a mile to the actual festival grounds. Parking any closer would cost money, of course. Then, as usual, we walked past hundreds of people who are already seated for the fireworks, looking for an unclaimed spot closer to where the fireworks are shot off. We found our unclaimed segement of treacherous hillside, spread our blanket, and I wandered off into the night to make us of a portable restroom. Then came the challenge of finding 2 particular people on the side of a crowded hill in the dark. Somehow, I achieved this feat, and we waited for the explosions to begin.

The show was impressive, as it always is. There was some concern early on, because the smoke cloud from the first batch didn't move at all, and the next batch was somewhat difficult to see because of it. Eventually, however, the wind picked up a bit, and the rest of the fireworks were all clearly visible. There were several smiles and spirals, which I always like, and tons of the crackling, flashbulb-like spheres, which were very cool. They had lots of my favorite, too - the fireworks that explode into motes of light which then suddenly move off in different directions under their own power. The songs they played in synch with the fireworks this year were disappointing, but the fireworks themselves were very nice.

After the fireworks comes the slightly-less-frenzied rush back to the car, and the long drive home. This is always exciting, because it comes with the looming possibility of sudden death as my father falls asleep at the wheel and kills us all. You see, he drives us to the fireworks festival an hour after driving home from spending the day at an antique gasoline engine show in Pennsylvania. By the time the day is over, he's spent an absurd amount of time driving, and is a zombie. I can't fathom why he won't let someone else drive. He's just not a good passenger in a car, I guess.

Anyway, we survived the ride home. Sunday brings the comedy performance by kaiwoklaw in Boston. More rushing around. I'm really looking forward to getting home Sunday night, and my frenzied weekend of doom finally being complete. Then, perhaps, I can truly relax for a while.