Our comic book houseguest

This week we have a houseguest. He's a comic book artist (indie, like me) who quit his job, ended the lease on his apartment, and is spending the year traveling cross-country, staying for a week at a time at the homes of volunteer hosts and creating zines about his experiences.

He started in Florida, headed west for the winter, and is now experiencing an extraordinarily rainy New England summer. He was in Maine last week and Vermont the week before. Now it's our turn to show him the local ecologist geek's view of Cape Cod.

Last night we had fish at one of the fried fish shacks. Later, we walked to the nearby pond and looked at a fabulous sky full of stars. The mugginess muffled our view a little, so it wasn't the billions'n'billions of stars that can wow you on a perfect night. But even on a bad night, our sky is impressive. It's because there's no light pollution on the ocean.

Today we're going to the Edward Gorey museum, and having a drawing session so Josh can catch up on his zine-making. On Sunday, Josh and Husband'o'mine will share a dealer table at a comic book show.

Josh has been interviewed about his project by several radio shows and newspapers. He has a following of >700 on Facebook. It's quite exciting! What struck me most, though, is that he's so shy and unassuming. He told us he's led a sheltered life and was always reluctant to do things outside of his comfort zone. He never even learned to have conversations with strangers. (I, on the other hand, love chatting up strangers. The first 5 minutes I spend with anyone are the best.) You might think someone who dares to crash at the homes of 52 strangers has a bold, vivacious personality. Well, I think he's on his way to developing one. He's experiencing a year full of uncommon kindness from random people such as ourselves.

I just wish we didn't still have construction workers in the house!

Hey Pixnlil, he's headed to your hometown in about a month.