CALL it six months, more or less. From where I sit at my writing window, the sun’s been making its way down Hemlock Avenue. In ten days it’ll rise in the crook of a locust tree across the old train tracks on Riverside. It’ll hang there for a while to mark time on the turnaround; a sitting still for a while. A solstice.
Imagine if people did that, sat still for a while. And stopped talking for five minutes.
Doesn’t seem likely in this Silicon Valley big bag of nothing, does it?
I was in Vermont a few weeks ago. Drove up on a Wednesday in the kids’ travel van. Worked in the woods for a few days. Dropped a lot of dead trees that look a whole lot safer rotting on the ground instead of 80 feet up.
Thawing out the dogs that night…
Reading by headlamp before turning in… Been reading Saul Bellow of late.
When Saturday rolls around, Jonny, Eduardo and Dan show up for the heavy lifting. This is on account of some wizard in the bureaucracy who shot lightning bolts from his fingertips at us. Ordered us to move the lean-to.
We cut the little building into pieces we could lug through the trees. Just enough pieces; not so many that the materials wouldn’t be worth nailing back together in the spring.
Here’s the roof coming off…
Walls coming down…
Eduardo snapped a chalk line and cut the deck down the middle. Jonny cut the rim joists…
We built the thing two years ago, back when every stick had to be carried up from the gravel road 330 feet away. You may remember Adam leaving bloody paw prints all over it.
We sited it 175 feet from the back property line, a line that abuts a 7,800-acre wildlife preserve. Now comes the state saying “no permanent structure” allowed within 200 feet of the line.
Who knew a lean-to intended for storing firewood—no foundation, no electricity, no water—is a permanent structure?
The terrain is such that you can’t hook on to the whole thing in one piece, drag it 25 feet and call it good. We had to move it 120 feet along the skirt of the hill before we could turn and come the 25 feet in the required direction.
Dan’s off-road vehicle saved the day. Here’s a clip of the guys winching the second half of the deck through the woods to where we stacked the materials for the winter.
Life goes swimmingly otherwise. The lymphoma feels stuck where it was in June 2019 when I set out for the Arctic. I don’t expect to have to do anything about it unless it starts feeling more like September of that year. If it’s planning to morph into something more formidable, so far it’s definitely going about it on the sly.
We had a nice evening out Saturday. Our neighbors rented a local VFW hall for their daughter’s first birthday, little Anabelle. Everybody was there, dance floor was full. If you want to have fun, go to a party thrown by people from the Dominican Republic. I wish I knew more Spanish. I’m lost after hola.
At one point I stepped outside into the parking lot to take a call about a writing job from Ulaanbaatar. It was 8 a.m. there, 7 p.m. in this little corner of New England. The world’s never been smaller.
On Phantom matters, we struggle on. The subset of you who give a hoot already know we’ve had three different artists on the denouement of the Wrack and Ruin series. Who’s going to jump out of the clown car next? tune in tomorrow…
My friend Mike Manley’s been in & out of the hospital. There’s more to come from what I hear. Not good…
Jeff Weigel, my partner on the Sunday strip, stepped in to save the day for us on the daily narrative. He’s been tying the ribbon on a story Mike and I launched May 24, 2021.
Jeff’s art published this morning…
On the new story set to begin soon, you’ll see Bret Blevins on the strip full time.
Mike with the diabetes, cardiac issues, me with the cancer, Bret with a broken wing that’s still mending (we’re lucky it wasn’t his drawing arm).
With the exception of Jeff, we’ve all had the big boots put to us. And yet, here’s what we look like in our heads when we walk down the street…
Not sure what we want to call our gang yet. Deluded Old Bastards? Not bad. Except for the DOB acronym, too big a stretch on the meta irony. The Hill Cresters? Too doo-woppy. I’ll work on it.
Mondays remain a delight around here. I’ll miss them when the little girl goes to kindergarten in the coming year. She and I watch Buster Keaton movies when she’s here for the day. She laughs so hard she can hardly catch her breath.
Indestructible Buster rolling around in a boxcar full of barrels, that gets her every time.
See it 9 minutes into Go West, from 1925.
My idiosyncratic influence over little D1D2 has her into the Manhattan Transfer as well. Do you believe in jazz? She answers in the affirmative. Her favorite number is Soul Food to Go. That might be about the claymation as much as the sound in the ear.
It’s a fun tune led by the late Tim Hauser (a fellow Villanova grad). And, oh my, the circa 1987 Cheryl Bentyne… wow…
Out for now.
Tony DePaul, December 12, 2023, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
Hello Tony,
I have an query regarding the panel arrangements in the Phantom dailies. Do you give a strict guidence to how each and every panel should be, including the single-panel strips that we have seen in the recent times? Or sometimes it’s the artist(Manley/Jeff in recent weeks) who decides the final arrangements?
I remember in one of your older posts, you have mentioned how Manley requested you to spread the script so he can show the art in more details. It was a dream sequence of Kit at Himalaya, where he was fighting with some beasts(in his dream). If I’m not wrong, the whole week went without a text but the art was great(it was Mike’s earlier years).
Sagnik
Hello, Sagnik. Thanks for writing.
The stories are fully scripted panel by panel, but yes, the artists are always free to combine two scripted panels into one or break up one scripted panel into two. It all depends on how they see their compositional strategy shaping up for the day.
Hey Tony, sorry about you having to move the lean-to, bureaucrats love their rules, don’t they?
As for the little one going to kindergarten, I know you will miss her dearly (she became your mini-me, lol!).
Also glad to hear the evil illness is being quiet for now, keep up the good work!. I don’t know about you, but I am already looking forward to the Spring and warmer weather (been busy getting heat into my garage with the use of salvaged cast iron radiators and tying into my outdoor woodboiler).
I’m riding the motorcycles through the winter, as usual, but yeah, spring will be good in that regard. We’ve got to get on the MABDR or the NEBDR in ’24, Will.
Your garage heat system sounds interesting. Is the boiler always cooking? No chance of a hard freeze in the radiator water when you’re not using the space?
Yeah Tony, the boiler is always fired, and the circulator pump will keep things moving 24/7. Taco makes a pump with adjustable speeds.
Glad to hear you’re riding, we definitely need to give one of the BDRs a shot, when nicer weather gets here. If you decide on the MABDR, it’s easier than the one in your neck of the woods, and I know some of the campsites. I’m good for either one though.
“Soul Food To Go” is the English language version of the song “Sina” written by the wonderful Brazilian singer and composer Djavan. I like both versions, and you might too. Give him a listen.
!! I had no idea. Thank you. Will check it out.
I love this!
Djavan’s wiki says Al Jarreau covered his music, too. No details, but if that’s so I’ve probably heard Jarreau’s cover and never knew it wasn’t his original work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5siQ-ml5lqY&ab_channel=DjavanVEVO
I have to say, it was sad to see the pix of the building being taken down, piece by piece. And after it’s been there for 2 years. But it’s great that you and the crew can re-assemble it, so nothing is lost.
But that news is eclipsed by your health being “stuck in its 2019 mode.” Thanks so much for this update, I’m so happy to hear it.
Sounds like you have some happy days ahead with your little D1D2.
Wishing you and Pam and your family a wonderful holiday and a happy and healthy new year.
Thank you, Ellie. She’s growing up so fast! The both of them. D1D1 will be nine in a few weeks, her little sister will be five in March.
Time seems to be accelerating at a rate I had never imagined possible. Today I went in for an eye exam, said to the doc: hey, I remember the last time I was here you were dealing with an eye injury. Somebody had kicked a soccer ball, your face got in the way.
He said… the last time you were here was six years ago?
No, I come in once a year.
That soccer-ball injury I had was six years ago. My daughter’s five, she wasn’t even born yet.
Ah… okay, doc, don’t mind me…
Tony, I love your story about time accelerating. Tomorrow, (Dec. 15) I turn 82 and I’m sitting here tonight wondering how I got there. Seems like only yesterday I was a youngster.
Happy Birthday, Ellie!
Hi Tony! Glad to hear that your health is holding steady! I’ve been thinking about you and hope that you, Pam and the rest of the fam have an amazing holiday filled with cheer!
Thanks, Ellen. Happy Holidays to you & yours. Come see us! I’ll rely on you to coordinate with she who coordinates 🙂
As soon as I get rid of this stupid vertigo — which is hampering my ability to drive, I will do so. E
I’m sorry to hear that, Ellen. Benign positional vertigo? Is that the diagnosis? I’ve had bouts of it. Months of chronic, borderline seasickness.
Lots of fun on the motorcycle! Turn your head the wrong way and the world starts spinning.
I don’t have the spins — fortunately, but I am very unbalanced and my head feels like its stuffed with cotton wool. It’s like I’m walking on a ship in choppy seas. Manageable, but I don’t want to drive with it. How did you get rid of it? Of did it just go away after a while? E
A treatment called the Epley Maneuver helped. What really did away with it for good, though, is a test that’s supposed to have no therapeutic value whatsoever but somehow it did in my case. It was the cure. They put tubes in your ears that blow hot or cold air. That gets the fluid in your inner ears moving one way or the other. All the while they’re taking video of the involuntary movement of your eyes, how your brain is searching for a reference point to figure out which way is up.
The spinning sensation is unbelievable! It feels as if you’re strapped to an airplane propeller. They get you spinning this way then that way…
When the test was over, I felt completely fine and have ever since. This was probably 10 or 15 years ago.
They told me: if you feel fine now it’s nothing we did. This is just a diagnostic test. Life is full of mysteries, that was a good one to encounter!
I hope you get relief soon, Ellen.
I can’t even get an appointment with an ENT down here until April (!)
Wha? Are we honorary West Virginians now?
Thanks so much for writing and keeping us informed on everyone’s progress. As you can see from other’s comments, we (like your mom) get concerned when we remember your health issues and “you never write or even call!”
I for one will have a tinge of sadness at the end of this long Wrack and Ruin tale. Now I see it as your anticipatory valedictory writing–in case not only the comic gets pulled but that if you or others become too ill to continue. Your leaving us with a satisfying finale was generous–especially as it allows another writer to pick up and continue with the Walker-Devi twins who won’t carry the trope of White Hero.
Anyway, we care about both you and your work. Please relate our appreciation to Mr. Manley.
Thank you, I’ll do that.
It is important to position the strip for the next writer and not hand that person something so anachronistic it’s on its last legs. That’s been on my mind for quite a number of years. The daily story Bret Blevins is working on now is a part of that. We’re going to deconstruct a Falk story from 70 years ago and strike it from the lore.
Bummer you had to move your sleeping/reading quarters. Hope you picked a new spot where the deadfall has been removed.
Sorry, once I see it, I cannot un-see it. But Strode’s kit is wrong. Either carry the bow in your left hand or cant the arrow quiver to the left. One cannot pull out an arrow with their bow hand. Hollywood actors…
Keep that lymphoma locked up in the back closet, time to plan a summer of 2024 ride.
Good eye… Woody’s carrying the bow in his gun hand.
I’ve never spotted it but there’s said to be a scene where one of Raza’s men is armed with an M1 Garand, which, of course, didn’t exist at the time. My old man carried one a generation later on the long walk to Berlin.
Glad the lean-to was able to be moved. The crew is creative and willing to do what it takes to salvage and move the non-permanent permanent structure…or your home away from home. Wonder what they’d consider “non-permanent”? No matter, you guys came up with a plan. Enjoyed the ATV maneuvering along with the guys with the sticks to aid the moving. I enjoy all your stories of the In The Woods Tales.
Thanks for following the scribble, Cynthia. That was definitely a handy little building; a good camp in foul weather when it’s nice to be up off the wet ground and out of the wind.
With the metal roof it got pretty loud in there in a rainstorm. The motorcycle earplugs came in handy on many a night like that 🙂
Great to hear from you, Tony. Like Mr. Rourke, I was wondering about you. Happy holidays and new year to your brood and you.
Thanks, Brad. I’ll bet it’s toasty where you are. We’ve got the woodstove going pretty much every day now. By 5 p.m. the world looks like the wee hours, dark & cold. The turnaround’s on the way!
Tony, I am sorry to see this arc come to a close I had no complaint regarding the many hands dealing with the art… and well, Savarna in a Bandar female warrior’s outfit made my day. She deserved an upgrade from the prison smock she wore for low these many weeks. Oddly, for me the change of artist was most noticeable with the horses. Never noticed the switches with the people although everyone looked less gaunt when the women were in the waterfall pool. Love the Phantom gray two piece on Diana as well, 😉 A very subtle declaration of status and position.
I shall continue to pray for the enlarged Triple Threat but now must think in terms of the Phantastic Four/five or leave the number open exponentially. That’s okay, He who answers prayer will get the message.
Shame about the lean-to I grew rather fond of it the more you spoke of it. I hope its re-creation will manifest an even better version thereof.
Thanks, Roger. Savarna in the Bandar outfit definitely got a lot of double takes. Jeff was pleased at that.
Tony, pass on my best wishes and prayers to Mike. Struggling with health issues is hard as you know. We appreciate his craftsmanship. Blessings to both of you.
Thank you, Tim. Mike’s been through a lot. And trying to work while convalescing hasn’t done him any good.
Good to hear from you; I was thinking about you the other day, and was getting worried. Sorry to hear that everyone connected with The Phantom needs Guran’s services. My very best wishes to you all for now and the New Year.
So … tell me, who do you identify with most in that photo: Lancaster, Marvin, Ryan, or Strode? Whenever I see a photo of Ryan, I can’t help thinking about the fact that he worked his way through Dartmouth in the Depression as a janitor. At this point, I wish a decent education was affordable enough that people could get it that way.
Just as I wish there were more geniuses like Keaton, who experimented with film from the very beginning, and fewer remakes of sequels of reboots.
Stay as well as you can!
Lee Marvin! And I’ll bet you know why, Stephen. He’s the Phantom of the bunch, carries an M1911 🙂
… and he gets to commandeer the Lewis Gun… and he was a great Kid Shelleen…
That he was! Thanks!