Spiderman Artist & the Prairie Home Companion

How am I going to tie today’s activities in with Spiderman? Did I scale a wall? No, I am not sure I can even scale the floor. Notice the artists’ names. One of them is Mark Bagley. He is a relative-in-law. I’ll get to him in a minute.

First, as I mentioned in the previous blog when I got the paper I saw Anna’s car with a flat. The back right tire was flat as, well, a flat tire.

I went in and told Anna and she was afraid I might have a hard time changing it , because of my heart trouble.

She suggested we call AAA -800 number and join then call for service. I told her I didn’t think it worked that way. That would be like signing up for auto insurance and then saying, “Oh, by the way, I had a wreck this morning, I’ll send you the bill.” It didn’t seem like you can join after the fact and expect them to correct something that happened before you joined.

It was worth a try. Anna called. She explained we discovered we discovered her car had a flat just a few minutes ago, and would they send somebody out to change it if we joined. Yes, they would they said. Surprises suprises.

With our credit card number we became instant members. That was about 7:30. By 8:00 a AAA truck was backing into our driveway.

The AAA emergency man was very nice and seemed well educated. He took off the flat tire and put air in it and he looked for a leak and couldn’t find one. He said he suspected to mischievous neighborhood kids might be the guilt party. I looked over across the street in their teenager’s bedroom that has a big Rebel Confederate Southern Cross flag and said, “Could be.”

So he asked did I want to put on the old tire or did I want him to put on the spare. I told him the spare, because I wanted to take that tire to Sears Automotive where we bought it and have them to check it out. He proceeded to put on the spare and it would not fit. The reason it didn’t fit was there is a ring around the wheel base. Which the more we studied it decided the ring was installed onto the wheel to help set the fancy wheel rims we bought… all chrome and all. That was a couple of years ago. But the ring, part of the kit prevented regular spares from being put on. So, I told him to put back on the tire he just filled with air…. Which he had a hard time with that too… there was little room on each lug bolt for the lug nuts.

We took it to Sears and decided the heck with it, we would just buy two new tires, so kindly put them in the front and put the old front ones in the back. So, the mechanic broke a lug bolt trying to get one of the front ones off. They didn’t have that part in stock and told us they would have to get it from the Nissan dealer, it might take an hour or so.

OK. We would just eat lunch in the mall, do a little shopping and then go to a nearby movie house (I followed Anna in my truck) and see a movie we had been wanting to see, Prairie Home Companion. Which we did. It was a mutli-plex theater complex with 24 theaters. At one time it was the largest in the south, but I’m sure since I heard that the record surely has been broken.

While getting our tickets I ran into my first cousin Patty and her husband Mark. Mark Bagley. I told them we were going to check out Prairie Home Companion and Mark said they were going to see the Superman movie. I said, “Of course you are.”

The reason I said that because Mark Bagley is one of the penciler artist of the comic book The Ultimate Spiderman. He must do well, he is always going places for interviews and to sign his books – even over seas. – they had a hop and skip tour through Europe not long ago, on signing tours. And it one book at was flipping through at Barnes and Noble he is listed as one of the top 100 comic book artists.

And he still speaks to us – that is amazing. And Mark isn't carried away with himself. He reminds himself that he used to be a carpenter (didn't also Jesus?). He is a humble person.

We went in to see Prairie Home Companion and I completely enjoyed it. I thought it was great and all players were great. Although Anna and I both thought that Garrison Keiller might be carried away with himself.

When got the car back at about 5:00 and we had dinner at a barbecue joint and went to Kohl’s and bought a new coffee pot.

Alls well that ends well.