Today, after meaning to for about 3 weeks, I finally got around to going to my first movie of the year. Over the last couple of years, there have been movies featuring Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America and it all led up to this year's The Avengers where they all get together, along with lesser heroes Hawkeye and The Black Widow. I thought it was definitely one of the 10 best super-hero movies ever made. I like that they limited the appearance of Hulk until about the final third of the film. Less was definitely more in this case. And the Hulk was downright funny in this film.

Hopefully, it won't take me another 5 months for me to go to my next film but I've no thoughts yet on what mummery film might be.

I've had my current car for nearly 14 years and I think it's time to possibly consider getting a new car. Of course, I can't exactly afford an Aston-Martin so I looked up to see what are the cheapest 2012 American cars and the results are below. These prices are pretty much option-free. Most of these are manual transmission...I think there's a few models here that don't even offer automatic transmission. Many of these cars at their prices don't offer power windows, air conditioning or even a stereo. You can get these added, but then that naturally raises the price. Here's the list...

1. Nissan Versa 1.6S. $11,750 (price does include A/C & CD stereo)
2. Hyundai Accent GL'S $13,205
3. Smart Fortwo Pure $13,240. The name must come from the fact it only fits 2 people...but the price does include automatic transmission.
4. Ford Fiesta S. $13,995
5. Kia Rio Lx. $14,150
6. Suzuki SX4 Base. $14,464
7. Chevrolet Sonic LS. $14,495
8. Kia Soul Base. $14,650
9. Toyota Yaris L. $14,875
10. Mazda2. $15,165

I want to read up more on these cars before I go out looking at actual cars. My brother says to make sure I don't buy a Ford. Does he even know me? I've had 7 cars in my lifetime and counting my current Mercury, 5 of those have come from the Ford Motor Company.

I graduated from high school in 1971. It took me awhile to get my first job but there was one time I nearly got a job. I applied for a job assisting a dog groomer. It's too bad it didn't work out for I do like animals and it couldn't taken me in a completely different direction. At any rate, I had to agree not to open my own grooming business within a certain amount of time within a certain distance of where this man had his own business. I agreed...I certainly didn't have any idea how to start my own business anyway. At any rate, I showed up early Sunday on the previously agreed-on date and time. I got a big of a shock when the guy told me his wife had decided that SHE wanted that job for herself! My folks had dropped me off so he drove me back home. My parents had gone to church so I had to wait outside for them to return so I could get inside since I didn't have a housekey yet at that point.

A little later that year, I did finally get my first job...at a local steel mill. But I'd rather have been working with dogs and cats.

Early this year, I decided I wanted to get back to reading more since my eyesight is back to being pretty stable. I started off with a biography of Noel Neill, one of the two actresses who played Lois Lane in the 1950's. After that, I started reading a biography of Billy the Kid...I think I read about a third of that book and then put it down...for about two months. I finally picked it up again last Friday and finished it about 2 days ago. This book was "Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride" and was written by Michael Wallis. Last night I read a book titled The Golden Age of Comic Books 1937-1947 (not sure I got the years right) which is actually just an excuse to give full page color reproductions to 40 comic book covers. The actual writing for the book only covered about 21 pages...that's how I managed to read the entire book in less than an hour!

Now I think I'm finally going to start reading a book I got about a decade ago...The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. This is a real book...I think it's about 650 pages. I wonder...has Michael Chabon come out with another book since this one? Probably...I should check on that. This book is interesting to me because it deals with the world of comic books starting back in 1939...back when the big super-hero comics were just getting started. Superman, for instance, hit the comics world in 1938 and the real wave began in 1939 when characters like The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and Batman made their first appearances. I actually don't read a lot of novels anymore...I'm more into non-fiction...so I'll enjoy reading a work of fiction for a change.

On Monday, I went for my usual dialysis treatment. It went by without incident and I had no leg cramps. When it looks like they're going to take a good amount of fluid out of my body, I ask to keep my legs down. All patients are in recliners during treatments and they tend to have their legs elevated during treatment. If I can keep my legs down, however, it greatly reduces the chances of my having leg cramps. My only problem Monday occurred as I was getting ready to go home. It was then that I looked into the coat closet and discovered someone had stolen my cap, a Civil War cap-type cap. Someone's got to be really low to steal something from someone who's undergoing a medical treatment. I stopped in today to check to see if someone brought it back or if it had otherwise turned up. Not surprisingly, it hadn't. I've picked up a few other things to wear since Monday...a Batman baseball cap and a straw western hat. An online friend sent me a link to an online store selling Stetson western hats. I'd like a nice western hat...but not one so expensive that only J.R. Ewing can afford.

Tomorrow I'm going up to Pittsburgh to have my fistula checked out at a vascular center up in Pittsburgh. We're doing that about every 3 months or so, I think. I hadn't realized we were coming up on that date. Luckily, I'm always provided a ride so I don't have to worry about finding the darn place.

The baseball season is coming up and my brother had said we might attend the season opener of the Pittsburgh Pirates but he's since changed his mind. We're still going to go to a game, but not the season opener. That's okay with me. I like going to games but the first game of the year will likely have the largest crowd of the season. I'm not sure I want to go during that much of a crowd...and traffic would be pretty nasty trying to get out of town following such a game.

In 2005, I decided to see how many weeks in a row I could attend a movie at a theater. I wound up going 9 weeks before a week came where there weren't any movies showing I really wanted to see. Among the movies I saw that summer were Fantastic Four, Intolerable Cruelty and Must Love Dogs. I am thinking of trying that again this year. I may start it with my first movie see of the year...unless nothing good comes out the following week. There's nothing out right now I want to see but I am thinking of seeing Mirror, Mirror which is a new humorous take on the Snow White story. Julia Roberts plays the evil queen. This comes out on March 30. If nothing good follows it, I could try again within another month. Once the summer season officially starts, all the big movies will soon follow. I know then there'll be plenty of good films to follow. Maybe I could write about what I see here.

Tadpole was gone for about a day and a half. I saw a few black cats throughout the day that resembled Tadpole but I thought didn't quite look like him. About 9:33 this evening, on a whim, I opened the front door and shone a powerful flashlight outside. I saw 3 cats milling about outside. One of them was Tadpolez. I opened the door and slithered inside. I'm hoping his great outdoor adventure has sated his wanderlust for the forseeable future.

When I was a teenager, if I had a quarter, I could walk to the drug store and get two comic books. They were 12 cents each back then...so with a penny for tax, a quarter was exactly what I needed. Nothing like going to the store and coming back with the latest adventures of Superman and The Flash! Forget trying to do that now. Comic books now cost $2.99 each...yikes.

Speaking of comic book superheroes, I kind of made a New Year's resolution to see every comic book superhero movie that hits theaters this year. I thought there would be four, but one of them (Man of Steel, the latest Superman movie) isn't coming out this year after all. It hits June of 2013. That still leaves me with 3 to see: The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man. That's 2 more than I saw last year. In 2011, the only superhero movie I went to was Captain America: The First Avenger.

One of my cats is missing. I didn't see Tadpole all morning and I've been gone from the house since about 1:30 this afternoon. He's either hiding...possibly under a bed or couch or maybe downstairs in the basement...or he's somehow managed to get outside again. He's managed to get outside before so that's a definite possibility. I'll suspect that's the case if I get home and he's still nowhere to be found. Well, at least I know Cindy will still be there.

Last week, I bought a sketch diary and some pens. I used to like to draw, though I was never good at it. I have been thinking of trying again. I haven't drawn for a few years because my hands weren't very steady following my open heart surgery in 2007 but it may be time to try again. This time, I will try to draw things other than comic book characters...cats, perhaps?

I wrote last time I'll probably never bowl again...not that I bowled much to begin with. I asked a nurse at my dialysis about this and she said I actually could bowl if I wanted. I can easily lift at least 25 pounds without worrying about hurting my fistula and I think most bowling balls are about half that.

For the first time in at least a decade, I've decided not to hold an Oscar contest this year. I'm just going to watch and enjoy the telecast without worrying about keeping track of contest entries while I watch. Speaking of movies, I've not been to one this year so far. None have come out yet I feel I just have to go to. Of course, February isn't exactly when the studios bring out their best movies.

A couple years ago, my brother asked me if I wanted to go bowling with his family. It sounded like fun, so I said sure...but we never did go. Now I realize I probably will never be able to bowl again. This is because I had an arm operation to create a fistula in my arm and I've been told not to lift anything too heavy or I could injure myself. Now, I don't know if a bowling ball viscerally too heavy for me or not...I guess I could ask someone. But then again, no one's asked me to bowl again within the last couple of years.

There's a female country singer named Sunny Sweeney and I'm amused by an advisory tag they've put on her album Concrete. This is the only country album over ever seen them affix an advisory notice to but the funniest thing about it is how it's worded. It reads that it contains "lyrics about drinking, cheating, crying and beer". Isnt that true about every country album ever made? Okay, maybe some of the male singers left out the crying...

This year I've decided to try to get back to reading books again. I used to read a lot but had some vision problems this past five years that required a couple operations. Now that my vision is better, I'm ready to get back to reading. I may try reading a book a week...that may not work out but it's not too unrealistic. I'm sure there are people out there who can read a book a day. I never read quite that much. I am currently on my second book of the year.

Truth, Justice, & The American Way was my first book...it had a long subtitle and I forget right now who the author was. It is a biography of actress Noel Neill who was the first actress to play Lois Lane. She played her in Superman (1948) and Atom Man Vs. Superman (1950), two serials about the classic super-hero. In those, Superman was played by Kirk Alyn. A year or so after the second serial, they started making The Adventures of Superman, the TV series that starred George Reeves as the man of steel. They recast everybody and Phyllis Coates was signed to play Lois Lane. At the end of the first season, though, Phyllis Coates got a chance to do a pilot for her own show and left The Adventures of Superman so the studio then hired Noel to play Lois again which she did from the second season to the end of the series' run. I like the book...it had lots of photos of her through the years...but I did feel it was too short. Not counting the appendixes (which were lists of Miss Neill's acting credits), the book only ran 127 pages. I'm sure there were lots of interesting stories left untold. Perhaps some day, Jack Larson (who played Jimmy Olsen on the TV series) will write a book about the series and we can read more about that show, which was always a favorite of mine.

My second book, which I'm now reading, is Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride by Michael Wallis. I've always enjoyed reading true books of The Wild West but this is the first book I've read on Billy, not counting The Authentic Wild West: The Gunslingers of which Billy took up just one chapter. Interestingly enough, I caught a PBS program about Billy last night and the writer Michael Wallis appeared on that show so I got to hear and see the author I'm currently reading. This book is a little longer than the Noel Neill book. Not counting the notes in the book, it's 250 pages. I guess I'm working up to longer books.

I'm not sure what will be my next book. I could read another western book...perhaps one on The Pony Express or another biography...perhaps one on Wyatt Earp or Jesse James. I also like books (including biographies) on TV and movie stars and general movie books. I don't read a lot of fiction but I will read one once in awhile. I haven't really thought too much about my next book. I guess I'll do that once I finish my Billy the Kid book.