Sometimes you have to punt

I write a weekly column for the print edition of PanamaCity.com that appears in The News Herald every Friday.  Sometimes I write a column weakly. This is one of those times. I had two potential stories and no ability to make more of them, so I included both. When I do something like this, I call it "punting." Here's the result:

Mindlessly kickstarting springtime

PANAMA CITY — My mind has been all over the place this week. I suspect I misplaced it while hiding Easter eggs, and it’s just been wandering around unsupervised ever since. If you see it, please send it home.
Meanwhile, since I’m having trouble focusing, here are a couple of things to kickstart springtime:

• Kickstarter Hero

Local artist and graphic designer Jayson Kretzer has a Kickstarter project under way to bring his “Wannabe Heroes” web comic out of the virtual world and into your hands as an actual printed product. With just about two weeks remaining to fund the project, he’s less than $900 short of his goal. Check it out; you could receive some sweet rewards for pledging.

“Wannabe Heroes is a modern superhero action comedy which follows the adventures of six people entrenched in the geek community,” Jayson said. “Each character represents a different faction, if you will. There’s a gamer, a cosplayer, a wannabe comic creator, a collector, an elitist and, of course, a ninja bear — and as seen in the ‘Wannabe Heroes’ web comic, each have developed their own interesting powers.”

Jayson describes the Wannabe Heroes story (suitable for all ages) as “New Mutants” meets “Calvin and Hobbes.” (I think it also has elements of “Big Bang Theory.”)

 Jayson has been the driving force behind the Bay County Public Library’s annual “Creative Con,” which spotlights comic artists and writers, as well as educational and literary guests. This year’s event (Aug. 24) will feature writer Chuck Dixon, who has written hundreds of titles featuring Batman, Punisher, The Simpsons, Conan, Green Arrow and more.

>>Link to Jayson’s Kickstarter page and the Creative Con homepage<<

• Intrepid Explorers

My wife and I spent part of last weekend following my brother-in-law and his family around the neighborhood, tromping through the woods and along the bay shore as he tried out his new metal detector. He would swing it slowly, then zero in on the spots that made it beep, and finally scratch the ground with a trowel in search of treasures.

He uncovered several aluminum can pieces, bits of rusted steel or iron, and a weathered penny.

We might not have struck it rich, but we did get to feel like explorers for the day. Besides the buried trinkets, we discovered evidence of previous habitation in our neighborhood, such as old tree houses — some rotted boards in a twisted oak limb, some rusted nails on a tree trunk — and piles of rusted poles where a fence once cut through the trees.

On the shore of St. Andrew Bay, my nieces collected shells and watched shorebirds. An osprey skimmed the water, caught a large fish and struggled back into the sky right over our heads.
The only other thing we found was a tick on one of the girls’ shoes, which ran us out of the woods for the rest of the day.

But that’s the danger of exploring: You never know what you’ll find, or what will find you.
 
Peace.