Sunday, August 22, 2021

Checking In After a Long Break

    So, it's been a while.

   I'm still technically on a break from the increasingly-inaccurately-named "Chuck's Comic of the Day" blog (as I have been for the last six months), but I hope to wrap that up in the near future - but your pal Chuck has been through some major changes since signing off back in February.

   For example: I sold more than half of my (not inconsiderable) collection of comics. I packed up my belongings, sold my house, and my wife and I moved halfway across the country.

   We were originally planning to do this next year, when I retired from my full-time job out there in the real world. We were going to move to a big ol' state where my son, his wife and our two granddaughters live (the name rhymes with Smexas) - but the real world complicated matters.

   The main problem was the rapidly escalating cost of homes in Smexas. At the rate they were rising, a decent home might be out of our price range by next year. 

   So we adjusted our timetable and bought a house now (and sold our previous house in record time - thank you, crazy housing market). That meant moving all our stuff, including way too many boxes of comics. The problem: our former house had a big, dry basement - our new home does not. So something had to give.

   My youngest son is a comics fan, so he walked away with the 10 or so boxes he wanted (with my blessing, of course). A friend had recently sold his collection to a dealer, and he kindly sent that dealer in my direction. The dealer made a very generous offer, and I accepted - two trips later, he had carried off about 80 boxes of comics and magazines and posters. 

   That left me with about 30 boxes of assorted treasures. (I'm considering adjusting the blog to focus on what I saved and why.)

    The move is done, though I'm still sorting through LOTS of boxes of comics and paperbacks and toys and God knows what else.

    And I'm still working, dividing my time between my new home and my old job (which means I'm flying a lot more than usual). 

   And then there's COVID.

   All of that combined made life complicated, so something had to give (several somethings, actually), and this blog was one of them. I do hope to return one day, and I apologize for dropping off the face of the blogosphere so abruptly - but as always, family comes first.

   So bear with me a while longer, and hopefully we'll get back to something resembling normal.

    And here are a couple of "instant" Movie / TV reviews to tide you over:

   "Black Widow" -  Loved it - worth the wait (and a great setup for future installments - or past ones).

   "Loki" - Terrific mini-series, nice and mind-bendy.

   "Free Guy" - Just saw it today - lots of good laughs in there (and one that got a big howl out of me - you'll know it when you see it). The story gets a little wobbly in places, but overall a fun film.

    Chuck out! (For now!)