My step-half-nephew (it’s complicated) lives in southern Oklahoma right on the Texas border. We talked the other day and I asked him if he and his GF had gotten any snow out of the big storm. He replied they had not, thankfully. Yesterday, he called and told me that no sooner had we finished talking on the phone than it started snowing heavily and they really caught it. Good thing he has a 4WD pickup or they’d have been stuck in their cabin and both would have missed work.
Glad you can house/dog sit and still work. Enjoy your gypsy life.
Galane
Any buildings collapse from snow? Here we’ve had the bowling alley go smoosh, the awning over the loading dock at the grain elevator across the street fell, taking part of a brick wall with it (it was really loud at 1 AM!), Champion Homes had parts of their offices smashed by snow sliding off the main part of their building. Part of a friend’s shop that was built in the early 20th century is squished. Several sheds, carports and awnings. Part of the big awning at Les Schwab Tires in Ontario, OR came down on a truck and a car. A warehouse full of appliances in Parma collapsed.
Yesterday I had about 2 feet of snow shoveled off the flat roof of a building I don’t want destroyed.
The giant footsteps of Snowpocalypse 2017 have marched to and fro across the land.
There’s a company in Minnesota that uses steam blasters to melt ice dams from roofs. They have franchises in several of the northern States. It’s been so bad out in this part of Idaho and eastern Oregon they sent extra crews to handle the load. They only charge $475 an hour with an average job time of three hours. I may be in the wrong business…
None down that i know of. But Boulder is somewhat designed for snow I think.
Judah
I love Ghibli films! I have not yet seen Grave of the fireflies either, but I did just see Castle in the Sky for the first time recently. Nasuuca: Valley of the wind is my favorite!
I also just wanted to say I LOVE Spacetrawler, and I’m so glad your continuing the series. I think you have a wonderful talent for humor and puns and I really enjoy your style of writing and drawing. I look forward to collecting the future volumes of the second series, as finding hard copies of the first three parts is quite difficult. Thank you for sharing your art with us!
Only see “Grave of the Fireflies” if you’re ready to cry and feel great despair!
And thank you. AND, sorry, I didn’t realize there were no copies of book #1, I’ll check in on that today. I thought there were plenty.
Pierre
Hey Christopher, don’t know if anyone ever told you, but your draft drawings here, they remind me of the style of Quentin Blake. That’s a compliment, of course. 🙂
Cedra hadn’t seen it! It’s part of the experience! Wasn’t by choice! (although I was curious if it was as soul-tromping as I remembered)
0z79
Ah, OK… yeah, a friend of mine recently said he was working through the entire Studio Ghibli catalog, and Fireflies came up.. I told him to watch with someone he doesn’t mind seeing them cry. Because he will.
Profusely.
TimK
I’ve seen it twice, once at cinema which was a strange experience – I think everyone there knew what was coming, and most had seen it before.
I’ve got a copy on DVD, for completeness sake, but I’ve never actually watched my copy. It comes down sometimes when I wonder about watching again, but so far always goes back on the shelf. Still glad I’ve got it for some reason. Remarkable film. Still have trouble believing it was originally shown in Japan as a double-bill with Totoro.
There are websites for house-sitting. And we charge nothing, except in specific situation (it’s a hardship, or there is a lot of work involved). For payment we get a roof over our heads. And usually get to raid the fridge. 🙂
Night-Gaunt49
Fascinating. I do so love when you share! I like how the dogs have their own particular personalities.
Was introduced to Grave of the Fireflies by #3Daughter, a stone Ghibli fangirl. Yeah, it’s hard seeing all the way through, but gorgeous and a necessary (if bitter) medicine.
The documentary view of it is that the firebombing of Tokyo by Doolittle’s raiders took more lives, with more tragedy, than the later horrific A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (read Hersey’s Hiroshima book for the interviews with survivors on the ground there, and the timeline of destruction.)
And my Dad was fighting in Okinawa about then, and relieved his Marines didn’t have to land on the mainland to finish up. But that was the story told to us all, though the Emperor was already suing for peace and glad to sign the surrender.
Now Japan, having forgot the Hibakusha (survivors and descendants) is recovering slowly from Fukushima (probably contaminated for the next millenium) and reforming its military for more wars.
When the last veterans of the last big war are dying off, the lessons they carry in their hearts are lost, and in our ignorance, we risk the next big war.
Rikard
Envy. So, so much envy.
The good kind of envy, that makes you think about your choices and options.
I really hope you’re considering creating an album or somesuch out of these diary-comics – the tone, the theme, the setting and the gentle quiet and comforting pace is such a great, well, pick-me-up-from-the-pit sort of comic.
Thanks for your wonderful art, storytelling, and sharing of your adventures! I am also envious to a certain extent of your road-trip wanderings around the country, and while my life is way too complicated with 4 kids to escape, I am curious how your schedule is arranged? Are you in some sort of network where these house/dog sitting opportunities are worked out? I have many friends sprinkled around the world, some due to my years of SF convention attendance and others due to my online business making small spaceship toys for gaming, but your connections are superb! Thanks again, and take care!
There are a bunch of house-sitting websites out there right now. And so we just plan as carefully as we can, and both have adventurous friends, which also means they are spread out, so they help us fill the gaps. And in warmer months, camping. And also there are art residencies. 🙂
Herandar
Yeah, I bought and watched ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ when it first came out on DVD. I still have it, but while other Ghibli films, like ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ and ‘Castle in the Sky’ have been viewed closer to a hundred times by the family, ‘Grave’ is sitting steady at one solitary view.
M.A.
Oh yeah, Colorado mountain weather! I was born in Denver, moved to California when my first husband was in the Navy — when I hear people griping because it’s below 45 I just laugh.
My step-half-nephew (it’s complicated) lives in southern Oklahoma right on the Texas border. We talked the other day and I asked him if he and his GF had gotten any snow out of the big storm. He replied they had not, thankfully. Yesterday, he called and told me that no sooner had we finished talking on the phone than it started snowing heavily and they really caught it. Good thing he has a 4WD pickup or they’d have been stuck in their cabin and both would have missed work.
Glad you can house/dog sit and still work. Enjoy your gypsy life.
Any buildings collapse from snow? Here we’ve had the bowling alley go smoosh, the awning over the loading dock at the grain elevator across the street fell, taking part of a brick wall with it (it was really loud at 1 AM!), Champion Homes had parts of their offices smashed by snow sliding off the main part of their building. Part of a friend’s shop that was built in the early 20th century is squished. Several sheds, carports and awnings. Part of the big awning at Les Schwab Tires in Ontario, OR came down on a truck and a car. A warehouse full of appliances in Parma collapsed.
Yesterday I had about 2 feet of snow shoveled off the flat roof of a building I don’t want destroyed.
The giant footsteps of Snowpocalypse 2017 have marched to and fro across the land.
There’s a company in Minnesota that uses steam blasters to melt ice dams from roofs. They have franchises in several of the northern States. It’s been so bad out in this part of Idaho and eastern Oregon they sent extra crews to handle the load. They only charge $475 an hour with an average job time of three hours. I may be in the wrong business…
None down that i know of. But Boulder is somewhat designed for snow I think.
I love Ghibli films! I have not yet seen Grave of the fireflies either, but I did just see Castle in the Sky for the first time recently. Nasuuca: Valley of the wind is my favorite!
I also just wanted to say I LOVE Spacetrawler, and I’m so glad your continuing the series. I think you have a wonderful talent for humor and puns and I really enjoy your style of writing and drawing. I look forward to collecting the future volumes of the second series, as finding hard copies of the first three parts is quite difficult. Thank you for sharing your art with us!
Only see “Grave of the Fireflies” if you’re ready to cry and feel great despair!
And thank you. AND, sorry, I didn’t realize there were no copies of book #1, I’ll check in on that today. I thought there were plenty.
Hey Christopher, don’t know if anyone ever told you, but your draft drawings here, they remind me of the style of Quentin Blake. That’s a compliment, of course. 🙂
thank you!
Grave of the Fireflies a *second* time?
Dude. You touch a stove. You get burned. You take your hand away and DON’T TOUCH IT AGAIN!!
Cedra hadn’t seen it! It’s part of the experience! Wasn’t by choice! (although I was curious if it was as soul-tromping as I remembered)
Ah, OK… yeah, a friend of mine recently said he was working through the entire Studio Ghibli catalog, and Fireflies came up.. I told him to watch with someone he doesn’t mind seeing them cry. Because he will.
Profusely.
I’ve seen it twice, once at cinema which was a strange experience – I think everyone there knew what was coming, and most had seen it before.
I’ve got a copy on DVD, for completeness sake, but I’ve never actually watched my copy. It comes down sometimes when I wonder about watching again, but so far always goes back on the shelf. Still glad I’ve got it for some reason. Remarkable film. Still have trouble believing it was originally shown in Japan as a double-bill with Totoro.
How do you know all of these people who are never home?
And what do you charge for house sitting a dog and a cat?
There are websites for house-sitting. And we charge nothing, except in specific situation (it’s a hardship, or there is a lot of work involved). For payment we get a roof over our heads. And usually get to raid the fridge. 🙂
Fascinating. I do so love when you share! I like how the dogs have their own particular personalities.
Was introduced to Grave of the Fireflies by #3Daughter, a stone Ghibli fangirl. Yeah, it’s hard seeing all the way through, but gorgeous and a necessary (if bitter) medicine.
The documentary view of it is that the firebombing of Tokyo by Doolittle’s raiders took more lives, with more tragedy, than the later horrific A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (read Hersey’s Hiroshima book for the interviews with survivors on the ground there, and the timeline of destruction.)
And my Dad was fighting in Okinawa about then, and relieved his Marines didn’t have to land on the mainland to finish up. But that was the story told to us all, though the Emperor was already suing for peace and glad to sign the surrender.
Now Japan, having forgot the Hibakusha (survivors and descendants) is recovering slowly from Fukushima (probably contaminated for the next millenium) and reforming its military for more wars.
When the last veterans of the last big war are dying off, the lessons they carry in their hearts are lost, and in our ignorance, we risk the next big war.
Envy. So, so much envy.
The good kind of envy, that makes you think about your choices and options.
I really hope you’re considering creating an album or somesuch out of these diary-comics – the tone, the theme, the setting and the gentle quiet and comforting pace is such a great, well, pick-me-up-from-the-pit sort of comic.
Yours,
Rikard, from Sweden
Thanks for your wonderful art, storytelling, and sharing of your adventures! I am also envious to a certain extent of your road-trip wanderings around the country, and while my life is way too complicated with 4 kids to escape, I am curious how your schedule is arranged? Are you in some sort of network where these house/dog sitting opportunities are worked out? I have many friends sprinkled around the world, some due to my years of SF convention attendance and others due to my online business making small spaceship toys for gaming, but your connections are superb! Thanks again, and take care!
There are a bunch of house-sitting websites out there right now. And so we just plan as carefully as we can, and both have adventurous friends, which also means they are spread out, so they help us fill the gaps. And in warmer months, camping. And also there are art residencies. 🙂
Yeah, I bought and watched ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ when it first came out on DVD. I still have it, but while other Ghibli films, like ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ and ‘Castle in the Sky’ have been viewed closer to a hundred times by the family, ‘Grave’ is sitting steady at one solitary view.
Oh yeah, Colorado mountain weather! I was born in Denver, moved to California when my first husband was in the Navy — when I hear people griping because it’s below 45 I just laugh.