It's Late, and I'm Feeling Lucky!

It's been a very creative day. I accomplished quite a bit, getting another page colored from the Johnny Ruckus/Monster Patrol team-up story that was published all those years ago in Big Bang Comics.

Meanwhile, that Secret Project #1 I keep teasing about gets better and better. I'm working on it like a fiend.. like back in the days when I was doing Creepsville. I don't know if anyone will like it, of course, but it's going to be my most personal piece. Having said that, it's not about me.

As the days go by and my 50th birthday looming (Sheesh! How the heck did that happen?!!), my thoughts go in myriad directions. Still, one thing keeps coming back to me.

A couple of years ago, a brick flew off a construction truck and shot through my car windshield while I was driving and only just missed my head by less than a foot. I was driving with a huge hole where the glass once was, the interior of my car totally covered with tiny shards of glass (yet, as luck would have it, none went into my eyes or mouth). I could taste the dirt on the brick as if flew through.

I drove by a police officer, and he waved me to follow him. At the police station, I was shaking (I have Parkinson's and shake anyway). The officers were trying to get me to relax, giving me water, asking what they could do for me. The officer who had me follow went through my car and found the brick, sitting in the backmost area of the car (I was driving a Toyota station wagon at the time). All he could say was, "Man, you must have had an angel watching over you." I could have easily freaked out, but I kept a thought in my head that rather than being almost killed I was very much alive.

The thing I'm getting to here is that that moment of intensity served to pick me up off the metaphorical ground of self-pity I had been going through due to illness and other things. It kicked me in the ass. It was like God saying, "What in hell are you doing? I gave you these skills. Get to work, because the next time you might get that brick between your eyes."

That's when I finally let the bad things that had happened to me in my life fall by the wayside. I can't ignore health issues but I'm not dead yet, either. Once I got back on track, good things happened to me over and over again. Now, I'm working on something I love, and my wife, Colette, is being very understanding putting up with having the Tasmanian Devil drawing comics all over the house. Yesterday was our 1st anniversary. Love you, Colette.

So, I guess that in an odd way, the new secret project is about life, mine and those before me. It's about following your dreams, no matter how odd they may seem. If you don't try you may find yourself years later wondering why you didn't go for it. I'm lucky that way... I have gone for it a number of times. Though it hasn't made me rich, it has served to give me a great life.

Now, get up off your ass and get to living!