Mill Mountain Trailin' (or Not)

Trails? We don't need no stinking trails!

Last night, friend Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) came up from Asheboro so we could get an early start on a geocaching trip to Roanoke this morning. He brought bourbon. So...there was bourbon for most of the evening. We did take a bourbon break to have dinner at the nearby Third Bay Cafe, which has THE best burgers in town, if not pretty much anywhere. Then there was bourbon.

 

We got up and hit the road pretty early. Once in Roanoke, we put in 4.5 miles of rugged geocaching, mostly up and down the sides of Mill Mountain. The photo above is the "before" picture. By the end of it, I didn't have the strength left to hold up my phone and snap an "after" picture (partly because I'd used my already failing arm and hand muscles to feed myself a delicious brisket sandwich at Mission BBQ). 

Hey, the shortest distance between two points, and all that. Trails. Ha!

(Maybe we should have taken the trails.)

Late addendum: I just realized that, after today's outing, I am one cache shy of my 16,000th find. Wowz.

L: A bona fide Bigfoot track! R: A friendly box turtle spotted along our trek

A nice view of Roanoke in the distance

L: A new bike trail under construction—looks challenging; R: Cripes, we're only halfway there!

A nice stream flowing through Fishburn Park

MechaGodzilla 2 Takes a Stroll, Night Fight, and the Very Happy Angilas Family

I picked up an additional set of city miniatures the other day, as well as some miniature trees (all 1:300 scale). So, I decided to put together a couple of more dioramas and photograph them. Some of these have turned out particularly dramatic in black & white, including the one below, which I call "Night Fight." It's the SH MonsterArts 2002 Godzilla (Godzilla Meets MechaGodzilla) and the SH MonsterArts 1972 Gigan figure. I'm particularly keen on how the lit-up buildings turned out.

Also below is the color version of the Angilas family shot; I posted the black & white version the other day.

As with all of these compositions, there are numerous elements, including the miniatures—premade buildings, building kits I put together, and handmade elements such as signs, traffic signals, power poles, etc., and Photoshopped backgrounds. I've needed some diversion lately to keep from going off the rails, and this stuff has been just the ticket. Enjoy.

Feeling A Bit Fugue Devilish

I was feeling a bit Fugue Devilish, and since it's been a while, I figured I'd holler a little about Fugue Devil: Resurgence, which came out from Black Raven Books back in 2022. It's a beautiful, 377-page volume featuring cover art by Daniele Serra, still readily available in ebook, trade paperback, and hardback. It contains a dozen of my scariest tales, including my novelette, "Fugue Devil," and its sequel, "Eye of the Devil." This right here is stuff you need to know:

"If you know about the Fugue Devil, it knows about you.
If you see the Fugue Devil, it will come for you."

It'll get you, all right. If you don't believe me, ask Droolie!

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Order Fugue Devil: Resurgence at Amazon.com

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There's a Kaiju in the City!

SH MonsterArts 2004 Godzilla

There's a kaiju in the city! He's so big, and he's so pretty!"

A couple of new acquisitions: SH MonsterArts figures of the Godzilla: Final Wars Godzi, and the 1972 Angilas (the more technically correct name, which I much prefer; I don't give a flip that the silly suits at Toho decided to spell it "Anguirus"; I'd even go with Angurus, as it was originally referred to in the Americanized Godzilla Raids Again, a.k.a. Gigantis - The Fire Monster). Between writing projects and lots of house/yard maintenance, I've been working on some dioramas to up the fun factor with these guys.

More to come later.

SH MonsterArts 1972 Angilas taking a stroll

Had a nice visit with the Angilas family (Kayodo 1968 resin kit, Bandai 1955 figure, SH MonsterArts 1972 figure). Lots of smiles to go around.

Flawed

I have no illusions about the "greatness" of this country. We've done great things, and we've done terrible things. There's never been a "perfect" time in our history, and there never will be; we are, after all, simply human. But I tell you, I want MY country back, and by MY country, I mean one that never heard of, much less approved of, Donald J. Fucking Trump. While it's true that he's more a symptom than the root cause of where we stand in the world, he — and behind him, his fascist puppeteers — are absolutely responsible for opening the floodgates and making it not just okay but laudable to be an utter piece of shit and willing to advertise that fact to the world at large.

In no way, shape, or form am I a perfect person. I realize that I'm flawed, sometimes beyond my own ability to believe. But through thick and thin, every single day, I carry with me the fact that I was raised to be a decent human being, and whatever my failings, I could never, not in a billion years, embrace the sheer awfulness of Donald J. Fucking Trump and every last soul in his administration. To my mind, supporting this regime and being a decent person are mutually incompatible.

And if that's a personal flaw of mine, then by god, I'm okay with it.

Moratorium on Blurbs

Until I determine that I can manage the load again, I'm putting a moratorium on offering blurbs. I've had so many requests for them in recent days that I can't keep up. So, until further notice, I'm afraid I'll have to just say no. Thanks for your understanding, and I really do appreciate writers and editors thinking of me. Till then....

Ouch!, Riverbend Ramble, and a Bunch of Aged Geocachers

Yep, there's a geocache at that wreck you see above. I think I can safely say it's one of the most unusual settings for a cache I've seen in quite a while. It was placed by friend and fellow geocacher, Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom), whose birthday happens to be today. To celebrate, he and his wife Punkins19 (a.k.a. Linda) hosted a caching event at the Freeway Dining Room in Reidsville. It was a fun event, with damn good food and quite a few cachers in attendance.

Afterward, I teamed up with friends David & Diana (a.k.a. David & Diana), Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Night-Hawk (a.k.a. Tom) and Rhodorooter (a.k.a. Dave), for a little ride up the road to Danville, where a few relatively new caches awaited our attention. Our primary target was Riverbend Ramble (GCB9J29), a six-stage multi on the Danville Riverwalk Trail, which both Night-Hawk and I had made some progress on a short while back, but we had failed to solve the clues to reach the final stage. This time, with invaluable assistance from David & Diana, we were able to decode the necessary keys and find the cache. It turned out to be great fun, all the more so because the temperature finally turned somewhat more tolerable (87℉ rather than triple digits, and there was an occasional almost-cool breeze).

 

We successfully hunted a couple of others nearby, and then I dragged my near-exhausted self back home. This evening, I'll be in my regular seat on the Sunday evening  Lovecraft eZine Podcast, which will feature John Langan talking about his new fiction collection. He will be appropriately heckled.

 

Laters.