Monday with Marvel

I rose after 7 and felt well and ready to face another week. Coffee, a pot of liberal joy, was waiting for me. I had assembled the coffee the night before from Fair Trade coffee. I toasted a NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) and covered it with cream cheese. I had a banana with this.

I wrote the blog and sent a card to Mom Wild. I am trying to send a card or postcard to her at Brookdale, where she now resides in a facility. I doom scroll (read some news), updated my transactions in Quicken, and Deborah and I talked for a while. It is good to start and end our days with a text or a call. Deborah is in Michigan.

Dear readers, if you want to send a card to Mom Wild:

Brookdale Meridian Assisted Living
c/o: Barbara Wild, room A-9
5346 Marsh Rd.,
Haslett, MI 48840

Monday is my laundry day, and I washed the used towels and my clothing in one load. I set The Machine on Permanent Press (Dad always recommended that one), and it works best for me. The trick is to pull your pants and shirts out still warm and put them on hangers. The cloth material settles into shape when it cools. The new underwater packets appeared today. They are smaller, and I was happy to discover that the underwear fits better. I am finally replacing poorly fitting larger clothing. I ordered from Jockey’s website. Later, when I could not fall asleep, I ordered new dress shirts and a pair of pants, all in smaller sizes, from L.L. Bean.

After the blog was published, I returned to pieces from the board game Unsettled in the shape of four crew members and a robot named Luna. I had painted them with acrylics and then sealed the pieces with a gloss spray. I let that dry overnight.  I then got out my oil paints and a small brush. I mixed a solvent with the pure black and brushed it onto the figures to fill the cracks and lines to create a 3D effect by appealing like shadows. I had used Speed Paints that do the same thing, but not with black. Now the figures’ details really popped, and the robot, painted primarily white, looked more worn, but the lines were more pronounced, again looking more realistic. Previously, I would use ink, Dark Shade, directly on the acrylics, but often this would fade and settle by gravity, and not where I wanted it. Worse, it could not be wiped off like the oil over the shielding coat. The only recourse was to repaint the area. I must have painted some figures three times!

I let the oil paint dry and then later wiped most of the dark off of the Luna figure, getting the white back to bright. However, I left some dark stains to make the robot look more used. I filled a few cracks with black after whipping too hard. I dried off any still-wet oil paint on the crew member bases (it ran off the figure and puddled following gravity). This is the same system of painting used on naval models to get the rust and stains on the model, and filling in lines and cracks to make the model more realistic looking.

After the figures were dry, I finished them with the lightest flat coat spray. I use Mr. Clean products (expensive!). This must be thin, as it blocks some light, causing the colors to fade and the metallics to lose their shine. Even with care, I sometimes dry-brush some metal colors after this to restore their brightness—just a little, and the shine is back. These looked good as is; excellent.

With the figures done, I headed to Tapatio in Aloha for Cinco De Mayo. They were busy, with one waiter rushing here and there in a Mexican Soccer shirt. The food, as always, was excellent, and I had a large beer (from Mexico) to help celebrate this holiday, which was mainly created to sell drinks.

Before this, I had written a memo for an insurance company and sent them the information they needed to pay the last insurance payment for Susie’s passing. I assembled that with a death certificate and a return envelope. Soon, Leta should get the last payout that I know about. I still have about $25 in a mutual fund still in Susan’s name that wants a court document for me to inherit. I will try again to get them to change it to my ownership.

It was a lovely day, and I read for a bit before heading out to the Cinemark, where Joan S was meeting me. We decided to try the new Thunderbolts Marvel movie. We met about 5 and caught a movie still in previews. I had left my wallet at home, but my phone worked to pay. We got seats in the back of the theater just as the last previews finished.

While the movie was a bit predictable it was funny and managed to be entertaining. While it was not as good as other Marvel movies, this one worked and we enjoyed it. No spoilers other than it was OK and to stay to the end of the credits (the usual Marvel thing).

Joan headed home, but gave me an AAA magazine with articles on Iceland and a Columbia Employee Pass. I then stopped at the Zen Sushi place and had a snack for dinner. My lunch was large so I wanted a lighter dinner.

I returned home, read, and soon was resting. I eventually slept.

Thanks for reading!