Free Comic Book Day 2026

 Hey my Geeky Friends,

It's time for that Geekiest month of the year May. It has May the Fourth be with you, Towel and Geek Pride Day, there's always a convention, and it's my local geek store's anniversary. But first up was Saturday the 2nd with that great nerdy holiday of Free Comic Book Day! The day the comic book companies shower us with free stuff. I was so excited to be able to properly participate this year, last year I only was able to do the store anniversary celebration at Geek Mountain since Fangirl was down with her reproductive organs trying to unalive her. I had no ride to Asheville. So we made a triumphant return this year. So I shall tell the tale in pictures and words, including a poem.

 

Free Comic Book Day 2026 

Running on two grapes and cola

First stop is on the home turf at Geek Mountain

It's proprietor has forgotten his own store anniversary 

With a guitar pick and a pack of mystery dice

We journey on to the sound of geek

At Morgan's Comics a friendly face greets

Rambunctious people and small rule changes gives rise to anxiety

They line up at Comic Envy with butt crack showing

A mom with Jedi offers snacks to her fellow line people 

As we wait for our comic stories another one seems to be brewing

When a pizza patron mutters "It's a bonding experience and we get food out of it."

Once inside the store is a safe space 

For All are welcome

We take our lunch at our first Outback

With an enthusiastic waiter who loves his job

There I almost choke on Fettuccine Alfredo

In our visit to a thrifting realm

I start our visit by going back to the wrong car

In the bins I find the holy grail and Sci-Fi history

"The Hobbit" that has alluded me is collected

Half a coconut sits on a carpet of second hand treasures

If I had the second half I could make horse sounds

Their putting dice in skulls back home at Game Forge

Where the gaming tables are alive

We see a Dungeon Master carrying a huge dragon figure

Will there be a TPK tonight?

Heading toward the holler we take the bypass 

Where a biker joins our journey home

With headbanging music

Not my best poem, but I'm sure with more time and energy.

A More In Depth Look

So our first stop was at Geek Mountain our local nerdy shop to see what he was doing for his store's anniversary. I hadn't heard him mention anything in videos. It was low key compared to last year's shop anniversary weekend cause he forgot. His wife reminded him. So he was gonna do a little something on May the Fourth be with you for the anniversary. I just picked up a guitar pick while Fangirl got some stickers and dice. As Fangirl started the car Click-Clack Goblin (A Dice Tribute) by Twisted Game Songs was finishing its play. Fitting song given what Fangirl bought.

 

Our next stop was Morgan's Comics in West Asheville. There were comics aplenty, but unbeknownst to me they'd changed from doing 10 comics per person to 5 last year I think and I didn't know it. I mean thankfully I found out, but dang it got my anxiety further in a state. I know it's not a big deal, but tell my brain that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The people kinda already got me going. Now normally I'm good in nerdy masses, thank Chuck I didn't inherit Pop's Social Anxiety, but when we get in groups where people are darting around you cutting you off, yeah that's where I have issues. I mean every holiday season Walmart triggers me. Fangirl who doesn't like people right up in her space had to bug out quickly after getting her comics. I did have a nice chat with Birdie who works there before having to duck out myself. 

 

We headed to Merrimon Avenue to see the action at Comic Envy. There was a line and they only let so many in.

 

 

 

 

Fangirl and I took the opportunity to take a pic while Lobo guarded the gates in. 

   

  

I'm glad they implemented this limiting of people going in it was nice not to get squished in the store. 

Afterwards Fangirl and I took our first trip to Outback Steakhouse. The deep fried mushrooms were awesome. They have this Ranch that has a little kick to it, chief's kiss. My Queensland Chicken and Shrimp Alfredo dish was good as well:

 

 

 

We hit up the Goodwill Outlet, my first time in a year and 5 months. I found some books and magazines like a bunch of copies of Issac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. I also found the edition of The Hobbitt I'd been scoping on Pango books! Found some trinkets including the holy grail! I also saw some funny things like this humorously titled book:

I was hoping for it to be $5 or under and to my delight it was $4.45. I was a Thrifty Geek that day. All those book and things for that price. This is why I love the outlet above the retail Goodwill. 

 

We headed back to our home county for one last stop: Game Forge.

 

 

We were greeting by handfuls of little skulls some with dice in them. The game tables had a lot of action going on. As we were departing we saw a Dungeon Master carrying in a large dragon figure. I felt a TPK was on the horizon.

Heading home a motorcyclist passes us blaring music and I started head banging to it. Then went home and finished my lunch leftovers with my Mom, who was eating whatever she made.she made. We just talked about the day. A great way to end a good day.

The Haul

First there was the comics! Supernatural is my favorite. Can we laugh it was released on Sam Winchester's 43 birthday? I have to hold off on Dungeon Crawler Carl's because I'm currently reading the book and don't want spoiled. 

 

In the Goodwill haul I cleaned up book wise. My Mom was like "More books..."

My grail is perfect for the skull I bought at Game Forge!

Whew! FCBD was a tiring, but fun. I was glad everyone was well to go, a little anxiety but not enough to keep me down. I have to rest up now I have my first convention coming up the Spring WNC Comic Con. Hope you all have a good week! May the odds ever be in your favor.

*Thrifty Geek* 

Some 2000's Nerdy Hijinks

 Hello My Friends, 

Uh, it's been a crazy few weeks with strange  mental health crap, an emotional hang out with Fangirl, runny nose from the pollening, and Family/Cow drama in the holler, not my family thankfully. So hopefully if my mood, and Bob can hold it together we can get this post out.

A few weeks ago I guess now. I was pondering on back in the day playing TTRPG board games with my friends. I'm lucky I have friends who are nerdy like me or have nerdy aligned interests. So I thought I'd take you back to some of the shenanigans my peeps and I got into in our late teens early twenties. As I was coming up with this it reminded of Lady of the Manners in her Gothic Charm School post talking about past times of Goths, so I guess this the nerd version.

So the stories I'm about to spin revolve around two games: 

Dragon Strike: I think this was the first of these games the Captain introduced us to. It released in 1993 and came with an instructional video. It has a dragon counter to mark how many turns you've done in your objective and if you fail to complete it before you reach a certain number of turns a dragon would get added to the board for you to take on. No pressure right? 

HeroQuest: This game was released by Milton-Bradly in 1989, the year I started Kindergarten! Like the one above this box came with everything dice, minis, terrain boards, instructions, everything you need to start playing a little session.

We Made Our Own Sound Effects:

One of the things we did while playing these games is when a monster or character died and we removed the mini we'd do heavenly choir sounds as they were ascended to their maker. It was simple but it added a little humor to the game. Then there was the time we actually played victory music after a win. I don't think we'd successfully won against the GM Captain either since we'd started playing these games or playing that day, but we finally won. Now fun fact at this time the Captain hated the Crazy Frog. So we thought what better way to celebrate than playing We Are The Champions the Crazy Frog version. Adding a little salt to that burn of defeat.

 Jareth Made Me Do It or Crazy Character Creations:

So at some point during this time period the Captain showed us the Jim Henson classic The Labyrinth, and were introduced to David Bowie's spray painted on pants. *cue my aunt screaming* Well, while setting up a game I had the mini for my fighter cause I always ended up being the fighter, and upon looking at him I saw his pants was a David Bowie situation. I showed this to my peeps who had a laugh, and it just got worse, we christened him: Grog Skinny Pants and His Awesome Pants of Tightness, which is how he introduced himself in the style of an 80's/90's body builder. Yes I played him with pride. He sadly perished in one of the games, but it's been said he lives on in other universes, especially when I'm playing a male protagonist in a video game and I need a name. 

So at this time I had a cat named Merlin, the great founding ancestor of the Vampire Kitty. Captain was over at my house playing a game with my sister and me on the bed and Merlin was sitting on the bed, so we made him a character, a wizard, what else would we have him play? Sadly our squishy wizard perished, as did Merlin in real life sadly. 

The Most Epic Spell Move Ever:

This has to be the most awesome move I have seen in a game I've played. Our objective was to escort a covered wagon safely to the destination. The people after it fell upon us and I think the wagon was taking damage. It was here when my sister gets this idea, she asked the GM Captain if she could use her invisibility spell to make the wagon invisible. Captain thought a moment and she was like "I don't know". A quick rule check showed there was nothing saying she couldn't so it was allowed. Now the wagon seemingly vanished and as long as it didn't get hit it would stay hidden, and since the attackers were more concerned about opponents they could see the wagon passed through to it's destination successfully.

Well my friends I hope you enjoyed that trip down memory lane. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks with the upcoming Free Comic Book Day and the Spring WNC Comic Con! Of course I'll post about it. Hope you all have a good weekend and play some games.

*Thrifty Geek* 

Winter, Books, and Nerd Fun

 Happy New Year Friends,

We are well into a new year,  I'm trying to get my barrings back. Been working on this blame post for like three months now. So to do that let's begin the first post of the year by talking about the end old year. Yes it's another general life update post. ><

Holiday Fun 

Christmas was good this year. A few days before Christmas we went holiday light looking. I got to see Fangirl and we exchanged gifts. Her gifts to me included a Mystery Box from Geek Mountain that had a cute new friend inside:

 I named my cute demon dog Cujo. Christmas was good despite this marking the first Christmas without my feisty Mamaw, which meant we didn't even venture out of the holler. We actually spent the beginning of the day up at my Granny's cause My Aunt and Uncle were up there and she wanted all three of her kids in the same space for Christmas. So I enjoyed seeing a lot of my relatives. We later went back to our house had our Christmas where I now have media for days:

I got all of main Ghostbusters universe now, Mighty Morphin Era of Power Rangers, hopefully I don't cry seeing Tommy. Got six Lord of the Rings universe movies hopefully I'll have a better watch experience with The Fellowship of the Ring than first time, the surrounding events might have led to me losing my voice lessons. It was a good holiday. 

Some down sides to the end of the year. I learned I can't have grapefruit. My sister called before she came wanting to know if we like oranges and grapefruit. Mom said she couldn't have grapefruit and informed me I couldn't due to one of my meds which she also takes. It unnerved me cause I've been taking it for years without knowing this. Good thing I don't eat grapefruit on a regular basis.

Then my internet went out... again. The New Year came with it's sparkliness, which soon gave way to my least favorite time of the year... January. The day after New Years I was on the hunt for a place with WiFi because the deadline was looking for a short story contest I had wanted to enter. Yeah right when I was turning in it the Monday before New Years is when the internet went out. I managed to get it in, sadly did not place. The Monday after New Years, a day before my scheduled appointment, the technician calls us early saying he's coming. It was the same one who came in November. It turned to be something else that had broke due to age so he just replaced everything. He said I should be good for a while.

 

Winter Woes and Nerdy Niceties

The first month is the worst for me cause it's when we get with the most likely brutal winter weather where I live, and yup she was bad this year, though managed to avoid the ice that came through all around us, sadly the tail end of the system hit us with snow a few days later. Mom and I got sick during this time, yeah so much fun. Luckily while my mental and physical health took the usual blow I had some shows to binge to help deal which included a Dystopian rabbit hole I went down thanks to Avril Lavinge. That's a post for another day, but all I binged: Hazbin Hotel, Fallout, Countdown it got me through into February, where the cold and snow kept lingering. I did have job success in acquiring a new long term client.

I put together my Lego Animal Crossing Celeste Set. I decided to continue watching Casual Nerd Reactions reaction to the first four series of Doctor Who. This was such a peaceful day. Just building a Lego set listen/watching a dude who just enjoys crap. He even finds joy in episodes that some fans normally pee on! That is such a rare thing I feel in fandom most times. Often times I enter a fandom group to mainly gripe and moan sessions. I just want to enjoy things. I managed to finish my set fairly quickly as I finished the Rose Tyler companion era of Who, where I realize I'm a year older that Jackie Tyler was in that one episode now...

 

I was going to post a stop action I did of this build in conjunction with this post, but BOB is being a turd. I'm lucky he's behaved enough for me to write what I have.  

Spring Warmth

 With the coming Spring the March days have brought warmth and a little boost to my mood.  

I was finding little joys again like documenting bench graffiti at the laundromat. I discovered a new bookstore right near there who's sales I believe go toward the local library. My first trip I found some great free cart offerings and purchased a couple books inside. It was great I definitely want to return.

Currently been having a weird time, it's PMDD time and most the first week has been mild mental health wise compared to others, but still dealing with mental health spikes. Sunday I woke up crying feeling and caged in, then my mood lightened. Monday irritability spikes over little things, and just tired despite multiple naps including one uber deep nap. Which is annoying cause I had wanted to write and finish this post. Been watching movies on Tubi and at random watched Van Helsing, D.E.B.S, and White Chicks. I haven't seen these movies in a bit, and discovered something hilarious all came out in 2004. Wasn't planned just happened. See trying to find those little joys. 

Ok finally done! 

I've puttered around on this fraking post moths three months. I'm sick of it. Hopefully I can move on to other posts I planned now. Have a a great week guys! 

*Thrifty Geek* 

 

 

Sinuses, Pumpkins, Colds and Internet Woes or How I Apparently Upset an Ancient Spirit...

Hello Friends,

It has been a crazy few weeks y'all. I don't know what evil spirit I peeved off but dang! So follow me as I go through the craziness of the last few weeks. 

Sinus Woes of Halloween 

So the week following the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo I started having a big shift in my mental heath I wasn't feeling well and we had like a shift in weather it rained a few days which brought my mood down. Well close to Halloween I was noticing a lot mucus building up in me cause of post nasal drip, I was coughing a lot and it was causing chest congestion so I spent a few days panicking trying figure out if sinuses or a cold because I had a convention with the Captain coming up the 1st and she can't get sick. Well we did manage to figure out it was my sinuses, cause the Captain who has sinus problems too was going through the same thing. 

So Halloween came and in the midst of choking on my mucus I managed to carve a freckled face sweetie and My mom utilized pumpkin seeds in her Jack-o-Lantern.

Then we sat down to our Halloween meal that featured this Ham Monster:

                                                   

 We feasted as we watched the old Halloween shows late into the night. Very late...

 

Cons and Colds

Was up early for the Fall WNC Comic Con, which will get it's own post at some point. Captain and I felt great after being assaulted by our sinus issues. Had a good time until we went home and something we were talking about right before I was dropped off triggered my anxiety. So mood tanked again. 

Well the 2nd woke up to take my meds and saw my birth control. It came apparent quickly why I'd felt like crap the last week I was in PMDD H*ll Time. Normally my Mom gives me a heads up, cause she's in charge of filling our meds up in our boxes each week, but bless her she'd been sick, and forgot to tell me. As if that wasn't bad enough I started getting sick as the day went on... Apparently I caught Con crud! I messaged Captain to tell her what happened turns she caught it too! But unfortunately for her she has Cystic Fibrosis which got aggravated by the cold, and I think she is still on meds to heal from it. 

So yeah having a cold and mental health crap sucks, and we're entering that portion of PMDD season right before I start when I become a irritable bear, when my tooth on the right side of my face that's connected to the sinuses starts trying to swell up. I guess sinus issues plus the cold that was working the sinuses and the tooth decided to say "FU". It swelled up a little but not too bad, compare to other times.

Snow Days and the 80's

The 10th we awoke to snow and it brought frigid temps with it.

So this led to my Mom cooking delightful things to warm our body and souls. Like here homemade soup...

 

Cornbread...

And Brownies!

      

The next day it was still really cold, which makes me depressed and as Alwyn Oak would say hibernate. So I had a kind of 80's day. I watched The Last Unicorn, this is the first time I've watched it since I got my new TV, I don't know if it's the higher def or what but I noticed so many details I never noticed before, and saw the pirate cat's appearance at the end of the movie. Someone online mentioned the appearance, I wanna say it was someone on Epbot's Discord. Then I watched The Lost Boys then Tubi decided to line up to play The Lost Boys: The Tribe a movie I just learned existed this year. Wasn't too bad, not as good as the original, but Angus Sutherland was such a good vampire. Seriously how does a vampire hunter create such good vampires. Then we had the northern lights happen in our skies that night, a rare treat.

Internet Hassles and Fires 

The 13th I woke up to my internet being down, and I knew this wasn't just an internet outage. If it had been the top light indicating power to the internet modem would still work, but I had no lights. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. It worked for a bit then out again. I called the company dealt with all that to get a hold of someone. Upon checking they said that the modem had malfunctioned and they scheduled for the technician to come on Monday the 17th. I asked him if it could be cause the modem was just old, it's the one that I got when they installed everything 10 years ago. The guy starts kinda low key freaking out saying don't tell them that! I found it odd given a piece on the satellite for the set up had went out a few years ago and  they replaced it for no charge. That's why we pay extra. Well then the guy abruptly hangs up.

So for the weekend I'm unplugging and plugging this thing to get the internet to work, which was annoying. So it gets to be Sunday the 16th. My Mom is gone with my Grandmother for evening services at the church. So here I am by myself with the cats, it's dark, already a little low key nerve wracking for me, when my sister messages me in a panic asking if we were okay. I'm like why and apparently over the mountain from us a wildfire had started. This explained the sirens I heard earlier. I stepped out on the porch and didn't see flames or smell smoke, but it was slightly unnerving cause that is a fear of mine. Luckily they had it contained in like a couple days.

Monday the 17th comes when the technician suppose to come. I was a little concerned cause they had roads blocked both ways where the fire was and I didn't know if they could get through. Well no one showed up, no call letting us know what happened.  So Tuesday I call to see what happened. They said I hadn't been on the books and the guy had been disconnected and they said we tried to call back.Funny thing we got no call. So luckily they could get a technician to me Thursday the 20th. I picked the morning slot, cause my Mom and I needed to go grocery shopping. Sadly it'd be the day after my online therapy appointment. So Wednesday had to talk to my therapist on the phone.

So I wake up at the butt crack of dawn cause the morning slot would have the technician coming  between 8 or 11. Well waited each hour of the morning slot, no show, I gave him an hour grace period in case there had been issues at a previous job, still no show. 1:45 pm the guy calls saying he's on his way he'll be there in 45 minutes. By the time he gets there to start it's almost 3 and half hour late to the latest of the appointed slot. I'm livid, especially when he doesn't offer an explanation, but I don't say anything. Here's why: I noticed he arrived here at the time for the afternoon slot hours, so I start wondering did they company screw up, they did it before, and as the job went on I had a feeling this might be the case. We were so confused why he was working on the satellite and not the modem. He informed us he'd changed the part I'd just just had replaced a few years ago. Finally figured out it was the modem, and my suspicions correct just old. When we told him that's what the guy on the phone had said, he's like they didn't tell him. I actually brought up about the guy on the phone telling me not to tell him about it was that and he looked at me weird. He couldn't understand why. Then he said he had bad news I have to replace the modem with a new one cause mine was a dinosaur and they didn't make them anymore. My Mom's like do we have to pay for it? He goes no... I'm like I'm failing to see the bad. Hook me up! So he does I have to call the internet company to asked for the equipment upgrade and after a headache we get it. Tech looks at the order they sent him the wrong one. So he's like F it I'll call them on the technician's special line. So after all that got my  modem fixed. Yeah they tech was getting annoyed with the company.

Next day I remember I haven't checked my personal email in weeks. I keep eye on the work more. So I checked it, saw the email from that Monday where I'd made the technician appointment and it said the morning slot. The one they sent on that Thursday to let me know he was coming was changed to afternoon. So it was a mistake on their end. Glad I kept my temper.

Thanksgiving

So Thanksgiving came along and we had a nice spread.

 

At dinner I got to learn a funny story my Dad told my Mom about a prank my Papaw pulled on my Mamaw when my Dad was a little kid. It was a nice Thanksgiving and my sibling called we got to wish her a Happy Birthday which was also that day. 

 

The Last Couple Weeks

 

So the last couple weeks been meh. The 28th the teeth on the left side my face started giving me trouble, luckily that didn't blow up into anything. Monday the 1st we went out to do some essentials shopping. Get to Walmart, and even though it wasn't Black Friday it was crazy. This is the funny thing I can handle a convention crowd but holiday shopping at Walmart, gives me anxiety. I was already stressed trying to get a couple things for people on my list now dodging other shoppers, yeah it about sent me in a panic attack.

So also PMDD time again which has really been rough, even more than last month I think. Sunday the 7th we got a surprise. My Grandmother and Mom had gotten back from church and Mom was telling me about the service when two vehicles pulled up in the yard. I was like what the crap, cause my anxiety was out of sight I was not up for unplanned visitors. My Mom went out to see who it was. Then I hear singing and I'm like carolers?! I stepped out on the porch and sure enough there were carolers. I've lived here 41 years and never had carolers, wanted to do it, but the holler is not built to do it, or so I thought. That's why I went out this was like a rare event.

They were people from church, they prayed with us, and gave us a treat box. 

So yeah that's been the last month. It's taken me weeks to write this because stuff keeps happening and being unwell. I hope you all have a great week! Stay warm if you are in the colder climates, and I'll see ya next time.

*Thrifty Geek* 

I Live Near a Desecrated Cemetery

 Hello my Spooky Loving Friends,

We are in the week of Halloween and we know what that means... It's the perfect time for a Slightly Spooky Story. Currently as I'm beginning the writing of this post the weather is so atmospheric because it's a dreary rainy late October day perfect setting for writing this story...

In the Appalachian Mountains you'll find burial spaces abound. From church graveyards to small family plots, heck I discover a cemetery on a hill overlooking my first elementary school playground. How in the five year I played on that playground my spooky loving butt didn't notice I'll never know. Even the single plot can be found hidden here in the backwoods.

Now within about a mile of my house are four burial areas. There's the church graveyard, where my corpse will be planted when I depart, then on the road to get to my holler there's a road you turn off where somewhere on that property is a forgotten family cemetery that my Dad discovered while hunting. Finally you come to my holler where nestled in the surrounding  shelter of the mountains is two little family plots on my neighbor's property. The first is the newest, my neighbor the Patriarch of the family who purchased the property loved his land so much he decided he wanted to rest in it, so he made a section of his property into a family cemetery. His son has also expressed interest of being buried there. The Patriarch passed a few years ago, peoples it was like something out of old timey Appalachia. His wake was at his house, they set his body up in the living room, and then had a graveside funeral. Now as I mention there's two family plots on the property. Down the hill overlooking my bus stop was another little family cemetery that had family members of our friends who still live nearby. This plot is the focus of our story, of how greed led to desecration and possibly a haunting...

 

I Live Near A Desecrated Cemetery

As a child I loved a good ghost story, of course cause I was an imaginative child that usually came back to bite me in the butt. Now growing up my Dad told me about how our family friends had three family members buried in that spot at the lower part of my neighbor's property, which at this time was hardly used to my recollection. My mother has told me those three are just the ones they know of, so there possibly more could have been interned there. She also said there used to be a rose bush there to mark one of the graves. I always thought this was a cool thing in my holler. 

It wasn't till I was an adult I learned the darker part of this tale. The family whose relatives were interned there had owned a good chunk of land in my community, but had sold of bits and pieces including the property where  the graves were. I guess they figured whoever bought the place would respect the final resting place of the dead. How wrong they were. Before the current owners of the property the land fell into the hands of a realtor. Now this realtor was rumored to have shady practices when it came to selling properties. It was said they had a racket going on with their sibling in the Register of Deeds, if there was any records connected to a property that maybe would make it difficult to sale, the sibling was said to make those records go away, and after the sale they'd show back up mysteriously. My grandmother had spoken to many people who'd have weird file disappearances with this realtor. My family had an incident involving one of his properties and a right away. My Mom had obtain a copy of the survey from the registry of deeds showing our right of way, but when an issue arose about it and they had to go to court, they told my mom they couldn't accept her copy, so she had to get a newer one from the register of deeds, and they couldn't find anything in their records even though it clearly had been on record before. My Mother believes the realtor was trying to force my parents to not use the road my family had been using since my great great grandfather's day to get to our properties. Yeah now I don't know if any record vanishing happened in the case of this property, but it still gives you an idea that this person possibly didn't have a lot of ethics to speak of.

It was in the early 80's not long before I was born, this person, who apparently knew good and well there was a cemetery on the property decided they were going to bulldoze the place.  Now we do know the family had kept a record of where their loved ones were buried, but as for official records no one's sure if any existed at all. Whether there were records or not the realtor proceeded with the bulldozing. It was during the bulldozing my Dad, Uncle, or both of them went up to the guy running the bulldozer and asked him if he knew he was bulldozing a cemetery? The man's face turned white. He said "No and if I had of I wouldn't have done it." So in one act of greed three or possibly more resting places were horribly desecrated. 

Eventually people came seeking to buy the property, one woman wanted to buy that lower half of the property and my parents told her about the cemetery.  Needless to say she backed out. Eventually, our current neighbors bought it, I don't know if they ever knew the creepy history of their property, but yeah they were now the proud owners. I do remember walking up from the bus stop with the Patriarch's grandchildren, and telling them about it, but I don't know if it made it to Granddad's ears.

Well, after hearing the darker version of this as I got older, I'm like "How do we not have a Poltergeist situation?!" These words would come back to haunt, as would my childhood wish to live near a haunted house.

So in my adult years our neighbors had a camper that sat on that section of the property that various I guess family members stayed in over the years. Eventually the camper was removed and the space returned to normal. I didn't think much until around 2021. My grandmother had been talking to the Matriarch of the family when she told my grandmother the reason they got rid of the RV was they couldn't keep people in it. When my Grandmother asked why the Matriarch replied, cause they kept hearing voices... When I found out I'm like called it!

To be honest I was so curious about the voices, and the ghost hunter in me wanted to hang out in the field and get EVPs. I mean it's kinda creepy and cool, except those nights you're up at 3 AM and you think about your what your friend said about why more activity happens at that time, and then the episode of Supernatural you watched that day pops in your head the one with the ghost of the psychic looking menacingly through the window, and you start picturing some old Appalachian's ghost peering through the back door window. Till you remind yourself if they've been haunted the place since their graves been bulldozed and they haven't bothered you once I think your fine. Yeah my imagination still comes to bite me in the butt.

Well that was the state of things for a minute, until one day we're going down the road and saw a house was sitting on that part of the property. Seems one of the Matriarch's grand kids, decided to move a house there, funny given we're sure they were one of the RV people...

So if you're keeping score at home I have a desecrated cemetery that now has a house on it... I affectionately call this house the "Potential Poltergeist House". I mean do you blame me?! This is got the makings of one. Every time I go down the road and see them in the yard it's like do we warn them? I mean if nothing's happening you wouldn't want to ruin that peace, but at the same time I feel like they should have a heads up given some activity has already happened. 

So yes this is the situation in my holler. Disturbed graves, disembodied voices, and now maybe a haunted house...

 

For More Spooky Tales:

So I hope you enjoyed my slightly spooky tale. If you want more scary tales from the area that will probably chill you more than this one I recommend Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina by Randy Russell and Janett Barnett. This one has a lot of good stories in it, the one about the Brown Mountain lights was a favorite. I've actually met Randy Russell and he was a pretty cool dude. I also recommend Appalachian Ghosts by Nancy Roberts, if you can find a copy. This was a favorite book among us kids at my old elementary school. Good spooky stories in there.

Well I hope you have a good Halloween and Samhain. Have some sweet treats a few scares and I'll see you next time. God bless!

*Thrifty Geek* 

The Tale of Smoky Mountain Geek Expo 2025

 Hello Friends,

Enter A World of Geeky Delights

So this past Saturday I attended my local convention the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo. It was making its triumphant come back after Tropical Storm Helene got it canceled last year. I was so happy to be back.

History:

This convention started in 2022. It was put together in part by Lee White who owns Geek Mountain in Canton, NC, go check it out it be small but it's awesome, and Lee is such an amazing and welcoming guy. I found out about it by seeing flyers for it at the 2022 Spring WNC Comic Con. I was ecstatic to have a local con, not local in a regional sense, literally local.

Characters:

 

Me: I was Dean Winchester from Supernatural. I will do a little write up about my journey to this cosplay... At some point maybe. But yeah I was armed with salt packets and my dagger, fake of course.

My Friends: Captain was Sylvie from Loki and Fangirl, who opted out of cosplay ,cause not only was this her first convention this year, she'd just had surgery a few weeks before, so she wasn't up for cosplay, so she donned her Scoobynatural shirt and a crocheted wrap she'd made for Halloween. 

 The Road to the Con:

So my friends showed up that morning. As I walk out Captain, our driver, rolls her window down and says"Hey sexy thing, going my way" or something to that effect. I don't if it was cause I was Dean or just to goof with me. I was probably blushing a bit. I go to get in the back seat and Captain warned me she hadn't got it vacuumed from where her dog Brianna had been riding in the back. I looked and there was a lot of dog hair.. I didn't want Dean walking up to the con covered in it so I went back in the house, grabbed two large towels and fashioned me a seat cover. Then we started down my piece of crap road. I'm not kidding when I say my family has cursed this road for a century since my great great Paternal Papaw use to use it to get to his home further up on the mountain. Well as we're being jostled  I was about to say the line Captain's Brother told her and a friend that we love to say at times like this "Hold on to your uterus's girls", I was fixing to say it when it hit me... neither of my friends have uterus's anymore. I told them that and we had a good laugh.

Jack, Captain's Car Skeleton, is the death of the party.

I actually ended up laughing at one point cause I saw Captain's radio display and it was the song Don't Fear the Reaper, which had been used in Supernatural. Well the day was gorgeous, and just a lot of signs it was going to be a good day:

When we get there we were shocked at the line. Now I don't know if this is normal cause we got there an hour later or cause, and this is my hope, that it's getting more popular. 

So after a few minute wait, we got inside in a timely manner, and got stamped. We were officially at the Expo. Sadly the air conditioning was on the fritz this year so we were toasty I was just grateful I was in my 11th Doctor costume.

 

The Con:

 After signing the posters they get guests to sign. My friends got stopped by the 501st Legion who asked Captain what planet was she from. She informed him she wasn't good at improve and said Asgard. 

 

 

The Expo had some new merch and this year they had pins! I was so excited. See I always get pins at cons and occasionally ren faires I attend. I blame my biker Uncle. I saw his riding vest that had all these pins on the back from all the biker rallies he'd been to, and I wanted to start something like that for my events. So I started getting pins at all my cons. Now I've gotten pins before at this con, but what made it special,is that this pin is specifically for this con. I've rarely had where cons actually sell pins for their events, and those that did I couldn't afford them, but yays this one I could. I told the woman at the booth all this and she said she'd tell the guy over it they were a good idea. 

  

 

Merchandise: 

I drooled over so many things this year. This year a table had so many Wonder Woman things. Some vintage. It wasn't the only one either. I got some great pieces for the collection, which we'll cover in the haul section.

 

 

There was a lot of Godzilla this year. It made me so happy. There was a woman helping her son run a booth whose shirt proclaimed she was a Godzilla Mom. I told her of our VHS Godzilla collection as a kid.

 

The booth's owner said he was the best intern

Moisturize Me!

 

There were some surprises at the booths this year like these Lady Cassandra from Doctor Who...pot holders?  I wanna say these were by Twisted Sisters... If it  isn't and you know who it is let me know. I saw the most beautiful glass work by Stoplight Stained Glass. I'm telling you if I'd won the lottery or that inheritance from a kind unknown rich relative had come in, I would have purchased his Leonardo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stained glass piece. 

 

 

Of course the year's trend  Labubu made a minor appearance. I saw little Lego Labubus amongst the sea of Lego figures. There was even 3d printed Labubu faces at one of the booths

 

Loved seeing my Morgan's Comics peeps. Hope to start visiting them regularly before long. If your in the West Asheville area look them up their awesome folks with great merch.

 

Costumes: 

 

  

 

 

I saw a Beetlejuice cartoon item at  a booth. Person beside me was like they'd have to get this cause of their tattoos. As I was taking this of them I was thinking this Hazbin Hotel Alastair costume looked familiar. I quickly realized why. They informed me they'd been the one I'd done the Dean vs Alastair photo with at the Spring WNC Comic Con in May. Turns out we live in the same town! I also saw a TV Demon from the show there... I hope they played nice...

 

 

Of course there had to be someone dressed as characters from K-Pop Demon Hunters. I mean even if you haven't seen it, you've heard the songs, their music is so popular it's made it to Jaques the Whipper's banned song request list.

 

The purple haired one, I'm not able to watch the show no clue who she is, and I talked about the mashup fan art people have been doing of K-Pop Demon Hunters and Supernatural. *Ah man! I should have done a fun mash up with them as Dean! ><*

The Dude of The Big Lebowski graced us with his laid back presence. Dudeists rejoice! Not kidding it's a thing.

 

Our con extended to a second building this year that housed gaming tables, VR gaming, and the Cosplay Contest. I encountered beautifully made costumes, I'm not sure who he was but it looked great.

End of the Con:

As we were taking our leave we ran into my holler adjacent neighbor, who I mentioned in my Helene post.
It was his first time there, he'd come with a collector friend. We talked about a neighbor of ours who'd been ill, and the potential poltergeist house on said neighbor's Mom's land. You'll hear about this in next week's post. 

Beautiful views from the grounds the con was held on.

Famished we went to the nearby Waynesville institute Ammon's Drive Inn and Dairy Bar, I've been coming hear since I was a kid, I think it opened the year I was born. 

I got a Double Cheese Burger with Mustard and Ketchup cause of course Dean's gotta have a burger, and Tater Tots

   

The Haul:

So let's get into the con haul... Up first is Pins, key chains, and shirt department.

 

 

The pewter Wonder Woman pin and shield were each only a dollar at this one booth. I wished I knew the name of the store. It was a great thrifty geek find. They explained these were over stocks they were trying to move. I had a lovely conversation about Supernatural with the booth owners. One guy and I talked wanting to go to the Charlotte Convention, how at the canceled con last were we gonna have a actor from the show as a guest, and told them about The Horror Band Wagon's hilarious reaction to the "Skin" episode of Supernatural. Seriously watch it, their reaction to the transformation scene will have you in stitches... The woman is in season 2 of her first watch through.  The shirt was my big spender item, Five whole Dollars. It was made by Gifternaut. 

The robot pin is from the official Geek Expo merch table, the D20 that rolled a one was from a D and D table that had these pins that his kids made. I was drawn to it cause it perfectly reflected my mental state the last few weeks: "How can I Live, Laugh, Love in these conditions?!" Captain said it spoke to her too.

 

Next up is my sticker haul. Stickers are great inexpensive items to get from cons if your don't have a lot to spend. I got a bunch of Supernatural stickers, no shock there, from the booth I usually grab some I believe they are called Steam and Steel Apparel. I also was apparently drawn to unicorn and skeleton stickers that day.

 

 

Lastly my candy haul! Upside to having cons near Halloween is you can get some.. to quote an orange cartoon cat "...candy, candy, candy..." 

  

 

  

 

As always the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo is such a welcoming place for us geeks/nerds in Haywood County. If you are in or around Waynesville, North Carolina next year on October 17th I ask you to come in and stay for a spell.

Live Long and Prosper,

*Thrifty Geek*