We Begin This Game With Ten Lives ...


… and warfare is part of our children's games instead of their nightmares.

I start with something Sarah said to me last night and end the sentence with a line from the first issue of
Crystar, a Marvel Comic fantasy adventure from the early 80s, cover dated May 1983. We were winding down the kids and getting them ready for bed as they watch the recorded episode of The Biggest Loser (everybody but me's a fan, though I will admit I'm not above lingering to find out the results) and she wanted to play a game. But the point of her staying up a little longer than usual – well, there were a few factors, such as it taking longer to bake the chicken than we anticipated and getting their reading caught up – was so she and Jeffrey could watch Loser, and make no mistake, with kids on the show as well (but obviously not competing at the Ranch) it's a bigger draw. A bit over-evangelical perhaps, but a big draw.

Probably a weapon strayed from one of their innumerable wars. You have my leave to dismantle it.
This is how the Deviant (his “race” referred to that way due to unstable genetics) known as Kro referred to Iron Man when he was locked in his armor and flown to a captive Eternal (long-lived and energy-bearing due to genetics) city in Iron Man Annual #6, cover dated summer 1983. “Their” refers to unaltered human beings, e.g. you and me, but endowed by the alien Celestials – at least in Marvel Comics – with the potential to develop superhuman powers. Yes it's complicated, but when I was a kid I read this again and again and again. Probably inspired my own series of novels and offshoots, colored a little more by my own life experiences so far. Can't wait to see – I'm reviewing the digital proof of my novel Refugees From The Emerald City (ISBN 9781482058604) as I write this and it should be “live” on CreateSpace now – other online retailers in five to seven days.


So THIS morning when it was my turn to take Sarah and Jeffrey to school, Sarah was the early riser – after me, no one gets up before me – and asked me if she could watch some TV before breakfast. I said I had no problem with that if she kept the volume low, and she gave me a big hug with a “thank you, Daddy”! And I finished my devotional for the morning, got breakfast for the kids after waking Jeffrey up and Martha had started to get ready for work. I made sure the kids read for the day too, and they've developed the habit of marking the books they don't finish and placing them “in God's hands”, referring to a faux bronze sculpture of open hands with the banner beneath reading “By His hands we are fed” that we got from my mom. Those were Jeffrey's words this morning, and just when I think nothing is sticking with him … well, you'd be surprised.

And today is the hundredth day of school for both of our kids! I brought Jeffrey and Sarah to their rooms, which I wasn't able to done Monday as I got there after the first bell rang and Sarah was sad about that. Jeffrey, he'll just take off; so I looked around at some of the kids' projects on their walls and when Sarah was in her class (the first grade teachers are dressing as hundred-year-old women – I snapped a photo of Mrs. Perrin, Sarah's teacher this way, gotta love cell phones, while in the kindergarten classes the kids were asked to bring 100 of something – we forgot, son, I'm sorry) she came back out after first bell, looked up at me, and asked, “What are you still doing here?” Well BLAH to you too … I appreciated the irony when as I walked to the front of the call another parent was telling her daughter to get into class. And I was off.

But I get back on again, David

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