That Numb Feeling

6. The full number of weeks Sarah has left going to Longfellow Elementary! Today soon after I dropped her and Jeffrey off she's gone to Ramstad Middle School for a tour of where she'll be spending the next three years. I've been there a few times myself, but not during a school day. And her cousin our godchild Josceline is already there in sixth grade so she shouldn't be totally unfamiliar with it. Thinking of my own starting middle school in fall of 1983, and her in fall of 2017 (and Jeffrey the following year) ... dang.


9. The number of months old our great-niece Avery is today! And if I'm to believe the latest edition of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader that I'm reading, according to mathematicians it's also the billionth digit of pi. I'm going to take the book's word on that one.


95. Day of the year 2017 it is! (And me sounding like Yoda.)


1969. The cover date of the now-oldest original comic book I own, October of that year, courtesy of this weekend's flea market. (I do own a 1967 Marvel Tales, but that contains reprints of four earlier stories.) This original story -- The Mighty Thor issue 179, "The Awesome Answer!" -- contains the first account of the origin of Galactus. In Marvel Comics, if Galactus is coming to your planet, it's toast. He EATS planets; specifically, he requires the living energy of planets which I suppose we'd call their biospheres if he were created today. And this earliest account of his origin goes into Galactus ... before becoming Galactus just being the sole survivor of a dying world and not the sole survivor of the previous universe. For someone who started out as a Stan Lee story premise wherein "The [Fantastic Four, Marvel's earliest super-team first created eight years before] meet God", Galactus has come a long way. Call him the Virginia Slims of cosmic entities, if you will.


16802. The number of days between now (April 5, 2017) and this same date in 2063. Don't worry, I forgot today in 2063 was (will be) First Contact Day in the Star Trek franchise as well. And that day is going to be a Thursday.


But not today, David