8:54 a.m. to 1:41 p.m.

I'm in the middle of a much-needed morning sabbatical, following yesterday's comprehensive evaluation at work. No need to document details about that, other than to comment that the folks responsible for funding much of our country's concept of "the after school program" obviously don't inhabit said programs long enough to understand the real essence of fulfilling a community's needs. These grants are written by desk jockeys that presume their experiences from some twenty years ago, and what they saw on Dateline last night, is enough to inform them about what best for the average 2008 kid.

Little do they know that the 2008 kid would just as quickly take your cell phone if you left it unattended as he would fall prey to a wandering neighborhood pedophile. Balance that . . .

Fortunately, the new year isn't all high expectations and embittered confrontations. Thanks to the hardships of moving amidst the holidays, 2007 latched onto my leg like a little stubborn pitbull that I kept trying to shake free. Then, 2008 showered Southern California in a baptism of watery resolutions, washing away the previous 365, and thankfully not some high-priced Malibu cul-de-sac. (Not that they weren't prepared. I didn't know there was enough sand on those Malibu beaches to fill so many burlap sacks. Still, for all their fire and landslide deterrents, nothing will help them when one of Pamela Anderson's breasts breaks free of its host and self-replicates into an army of silicone Tribbles . . . yes, you heard it here first.)

So I hopped on a bus toward my favorite comic book stop with my .mp3 player freshly loaded with some favorite tunes when, at my transfer point, Mother Nature called. No, it wasn't the kind of call you can transfer to voice mail; it was an urgent, potentially lengthy conversation. With just a 20 minute window before my next bus arrived, I was fortunate to take the call in an adjacent Wal-Mart and find the Legendary Comic Book Heroes series three Sin City Marv action figure. I made it back to curb just as the bus was pulling up. When Mother calls, she has a good reason.

I've begun my second year of A Comic A Day, my daily attempt to read and review a comic book I've never read before. Time to type up an entry about The Drowners #1 by Nabiel Kanan, finish this organic iced chai tea latte at Tustin's Lost Bean, then stroll to the comic book store for a good half hour's worth of perusing, then take the buses back to work just in time for the kids to get out of school. A better day really couldn't be written.