cornerofmadness

I can't believe I'm back to work in less than a month. I feel like I've accomplished nothing. It's not true of course. I had a list of things I wanted to do and I've done none of it. Sigh.

Did anyone save that noir open call I posted? I can't find where I posted it (or the original source) and I thought I had put it in my files but did not. I have looked back at my normal sources and just can't find it. Thanks


Got my hair cut (ignore the color. It's NOT what was on the bottle when I bought it. Eye roll)

( I hate selfies )



Have the fannish 50 fic rec round up


Two Words Hazbin Hotel

A Conversation Between Napoleon and Dr. Who Man from Uncle/Doctor Who (2005)

A Conversation with Mr. Humphries and Steel
sapphire & Steel/Are You Being Served?

A conversation Between Buffy and Doctor Who
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Doctor Who (2005)

The Next Two Weeks Inspector George Gently

Lost And Alone. The Fantastic Journey

Unexpected Awakening Torchwood

Blood And Soil Hazbin Hotel

A Conversation between Buffy and Sapphire
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Sapphire & Steel

A Conversation with Lurch and Mr. Humphries.
Addams Family/Are You Being Served?

A conversation between Mrs. Slocombe and Steel
Are You Being Served?/Sapphire & Steel

Run Boy, Run The Professionals

Another Stolen Life Another Stolen Life

Comfort Fluff Torchwood

Ablution With His Stalwart Companion Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone Movies)

cream-filled (above board AND under the table) Helluva Boss

FANatical Hazbin Hotel

A Conversation with Wednesday Addams and Giles.
Addams Family.Buffy the Vampire Slayer (this was written for me. Woot!)

A Conversation between Wednesday Addams and Mrs. Slocomb Addams Family/Are You Being Served?

Broken Starsky & Hutch

That Spider Hazbin Hotel

The car salesman texts me this morning about if I'm coming for that White CR-V? I text back today. I should have called. He didn't see it. It's a mad house. There is no financial dude (he had an emergency) But rather than say that, can you come back tomorrow, Dana? we go thru everything and then wait.

And wait.

And wait. He finally comes over hey the financial guy is coming at 2 (I've been here 2 hours now) go out and have lunch and he'll be here. They had a food truck. Ate that. Dad waits terribly btw, absolutely PITA. He is not there at 2. Around 330 I finally go back to sign the paperwork. my Mr. Spock check was saying writing out a check for 10K is not logical. Yeah Spock neither is my monthly payments for 5 years. I feel a little ill. Speaking of ill, me getting 8700 for a 118K mileage 11 year old CR-V means they'll sell that for at least 11K. We're pricing blue collar workers out of even owning a vehicle.


Hikaru Sulu is Platinum Diamond Pearl. He's the EX model so I get some perks like heated mirrors but not the automatic tailgate lift, almost black interior (not my fave), does have a sunroof I'll keep shuttered always, I like that it has a snow mode that I can use.


( See Sulu under here )


And have the twins who hang out in our yard

( baby deer this way )


It's music monday, still with songs for stories. Ever use songs as chapter headers? I do that so often. I'm doing it tonight on my wipbigbang This is tonight's

It was so dark this morning I had to leave the bathroom light on to see to get into the living room to find the light switch.

I popped to work to put the plants in the greenhouse and then down to Gallipolis to return and book and see Copper Moth to fix that necklace. Well she exaggerated about that. The old Woolworth is an antique mall with various vendors. They've never even seen her. Eye roll. I ended up trying to fix the necklace and my malocchio one as well. I have SO much jewelry bullshit that I feel guilty about it. But not. one. silver. jump ring! I found some but they're these weird double loops that you can't get into easily. I ended up using 2 copper ones and using an old bracelet to extend the necklace I needed the longer chain on.

Had the writers group meeting tonight. that was good.

What wasn't good, I looked over that Undead Appalachia open call and it had a strange caveat: email us for submission guidelines. Why isn't that on the web page? I email and it keeps bouncing back as a non viable email so I poke around the webpage which...has nothing but two open calls. Now I got this from a trusted source but it looks like someone didn't do their due diligence (self included) so I guess that story probably isn't going anywhere just now.

On the other hand I just found a demon open call by flame tree press (very small window of chance) and I know them. They are legit. I might send them my woman of no consequence. It's about 500 words outside the sweet spot but I'll try anyhow (they're taking 4 stories so I'm not going to twist this story so it's 4K like I just did to my ghost story because they would not read outside of 4k)

What I Just Finished Reading:

That Which Feeds Us - Hawai'ian Gothic, very creepy, low gore horror, one of the best things I've read this year so far

We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune this didn't work for me

What I am Currently Reading:

The Gay Disaster Detective Agency - one of my arcs. I usually like Lev AC Rosen but this isn't working for me.

The Death Card - currently struggling to get into it

The Antique Hunters Guide to Murder - I'm enjoying it

The Kindness of Strangers - another arc and I'm not sure this is going to work for me


What I Plan to Read Next: some of my looming arcs


And finally here are my pictures from last weekend in Louisville. evil_little_Dog took the pics of me.

( all the pictures from Louisville and the con )</lj-cut<

Tuesday/Thursday are my long days and today was very long. It's only a few weeks until classes are over and my research students are spinning around. Turns out the new incubators we have on loan for micro suck it. They have SUCH a strong fan it's trying out the agar to the point of uselessness. Had to spend time googling can we turn the fan down (no) what else we can do (put distilled water in there to help humidify it) these seems like a design flaw.

One my special agars went missing. Argh. Found a different special agar that we can use thankfully.

I never get a moment to work on my exam for Thursday.

Students showed up. 'Dr. Evans there is a BAT in the study room.' (Funny part this is the same student who found the bat in the sink last time) So I get a wild life prof we suit up in mammal handling gloves but I don't do much. My climbing on chairs days are over. We get this adorable eastern brown bat safely back outside. Meanwhile these students were in this room for 2 hours with this bat just chilling asleep on the wall and they never noticed. (we need observational skills in health care, just saying).

After work, I race home, change, go out to eat because I'm going to an art thing at the library at 6. I slide in and there we have black canvases. We're making 'galaxies.' the pro art is faint swirls of purple/blue/pinks with white stars.

Well there wasn't much instruction other than go dark to light on the colors purple to blue to teal to pink and daub them on the canvas with the sponge with no instruction on how to get the swirls I kept waiting for it. Next thing I knew here's the white, splatter on your stars. Um....HOW do I make it look like a night sky? By now it's too late to swirl, it's dry. So I didn't get a galaxy but it looks like a 1980s era party pattern. I do rather like it. I think it's rather pretty but it did fail the assignment



Also I painted it all left handed.

I race home (since this was SHORT) I got the exam mostly done before the writer's virtual meet up happened. I blasted out about 800 words on a halloween short story and about 1500 words on the novel. I really need to get this moving because I don't want it to be overly long. It's weird suspense/mystery they want you to stick near 80K. Fantasy is longer which is good because the 80s novel is over 100K and now it's like add description. Where? What do I lose of the plot for this? That's hard. Writing's hard.

My day started off perfectly with a massive charlie horse in my bad leg about 20 minutes before the alarm. The sartorius and the rectus femoris from the feel of it and it lasted about 15 minutes. I get them sometimes like that in the bad leg. It has ached like a toothache all day, which is exactly what you want when you'll be standing a chunk of the day and otherwise driving around.

Stuffed down the same boring free breakfast every hotel serves and head out. It started at 930. I got there 950 and got one of the last parking spots. Let me say this geeky stuff is so hot now. In the last five years, at least in my area, either you get there when the door opens or you might as well stay home. The line was insane and they said if you don't have a ticket come over to this door...one with no line. None of us moved. Surely that couldn't be right. They called us over again and this time I ran. We, the unprepared, got in WAY faster than those with tickets. ha.

You could barely move inside the place it was THAT crowded. There were five rows of vendors and then some all around this conference center. It was impressive as hell. I attended all the talks well most of them. It was bizarre, the whole day.

So James Willis (google Weird Willis) did two talks. I've mentioned him before. He comes to my library often. The first one was delayed a half hour because of the line to get in. It was all about the Loveland Frogman and chasing down the legend and where parts of it came from. His second talk was disrupted by the fire alarm. So out we all go. Turns out the dancers' dance routine had a fog machine. The detection system did not like this. So now I'm outside in the rain. Fun. When we got back in he continued the talk about various weird things.

I learned something from that talk the New Straitsville Mine Fire It predates the Centralia fire and is still burning and moonshiners used it to hide the evidence of the stills working because of the smoke. I'm like yep there's a story in this for me. They have a moonshine festival but it's memorial day weekend and I'm never around then.

Other talks included repitalian cryptids and all the weird crap in Wisconsin. I didn't know the stories about Lake Superior. I never could afford to go there when I lived in WI.

And the last one on Filipino aswang creatures but the tech kept failing which was a shame because he was a comic book artist who had illustrated his whole talk.

There were too many vendors to keep track of. I got some over priced coffee/tea and jewelry I don't need but wanted. Overpaid (by far) on a Squonk tote but a) like an idiot I forgot mine b) it was too damn cute.

I was super excited to find out that the Cinicinnati Shakespeare company is doing pericles as a space opera next month. I want to go. I could have gotten 50% o ff but forgot to scan the code. eh probably would have to have bought them immediately and I can't do that. I have other things going on so I need to check the calendar but I need to see this.

I came home right past the hotel I was at so I pulled off to find food and didn't want to drive down to that same strip mall. I opted to Taziki right across the hotel so I could jump right back on 71. Wrong choice. It was like the greek version of Chipolte. Passable but disappointing. Instead of the shaved gyro meat it was strips of lamb chunks, woefully underseasoned and tough.

Had to stop at the truck stop I usually do coming back from the renn fest. (there is only ONE rest stop in the entire 100 mile trip and that's 10 miles outside of Jackson. super helpful. The diner that looked like it was out of a 70's montegomery wards is now an IHOP (had I known I could have eaten there) and I fuel up on coffee at the truck stop which was...free? Really? I scampered off. I got lucky, the rain was only there for the last 10 miles of the trip.

Over all a nice day.

( here are some pictures )

And there is about 6 inches of snow which is relatively less than we were expecting right? But there is a thick layer of sleet ice between the snow. Someone plowed the drive some but obviously not near the cars. It's a thick snowbank there and ontop my car is several inches inside an ice shell that I have to get off because if I don't and it blows off it will shatter a windshield of anyone behind me. It's dangerous.

The ice is holding me up as I jackhammer this stuff off the roof of my CR-V...until it didn't. Naturally it gives out on my bad leg side so down I go onto my bad knee and shoulder. My head hits and my hat takes off. It takes a second to realize that was a cushioned fall and I'm fine. My knee bent the natural way so I didn't hurt it (and at this point I can't damage the cartilage more. It's gone) My next thought is, well glad no one saw that. I crawl to my back car door because I will need a handhold to get that bad leg under me on the ice. Had to look like a walrus trying to get up on the rocks to wave to the crowd.

My pants are covered with ice. Ditto my wool pea coat. I get my hat and at least my glasses didn't break. I finish cleaning the car. The ice breaks again but under my left leg so I could catch myself. It takes an hour to do this. Roscoe the three legged mini chichuahua races out to yap at me. I talk to his mom who is furious that the cleaner only cleaned in front of HER apartment and not the other three buildings. She gives me the rest of the salt so I deal with that

My knee is sore. My shin has a goose egg because the blood thinners made a big-ass hematoma but otherwise, I have bruises on my ribs/arm/shoulder but nothing bad. BUT my county and the county the school is in are both still at level 2 snow emergency so no school tomorrow either. I.e. we ran out of salt to fix the roads so we're fucked.




That's the ice sandwich I was walking on and knocking off my car. I otherwise did nothing else I said I was doing today but did get distracted by 3sentenceficathon somebody come slap me.

For Fannish 50 I had a few things I wanted to talk about but now I'm forced to deal with fans needing a good grip on reality. Between Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, the Mighty Nein and the Amazing Digital Circus, it has to be said, YOUR head canon is just that. Yours. You don't get to threaten the creators when actual canon doesn't match it. You can disappointed sure. You can even quit the fandom. But nothing gives you the right to threaten the creators, the voice actors and other fans. I keep having to write this same blog post time and again (not that the ill behaved members are going to see it).


One of the big name Huskerdust fans quit in a huff (no threats, just they're done). I was wondering who'd be the next BNF (not me, my stories don't seem to hit well in this fandom for the most part but I have a small loyal following that I appreciate) but they're basically 'if you're following me for the fandom might as well unfriend me now. I refuse to have anything to do with this because...basically it didn't match their head canon and they'll be deleting stuff.

Have you ever done this? I mean I'm sure we've all quit a fandom for various reasons. I hated what Marti Noxon did to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I didn't see half of S6 of Buffy and most of S7 (I only watched a tiny part of it knowing it was the end and I hated what I saw) Ditto the last season of Angel and part of S3 of Angel. I've faded away in other fandoms. What I haven't done is get so mad that fandom didn't match my head canon that I deleted my profiles, erased my stories etc.

I'm not saying that it's wrong. That's something personal to you (not like the death threats and other threats of violence I'm seeing) But I'm curious if you have gotten that mad, why did you feel compelled to delete it all? (Then again I've known some people who have deleted everything just because).

I'll be honest. I hold out very little hope for this year being better than last year. I did the Meriam Webster's thing on bluesky, you screenshot their gif and whatever word you get sets the tone for your year. I got moribund. Are you fucking kidding me? Why is that even a choice? Is it literally just spitting out every word in the dictionary.

But moribund feels right for the 2020s which if I'm continuing to be honest sucked donkey dong. 2020 - covid 2021- nearly lost my leg and took a year to learn to walk again 2022-23 weren't as horrid 24 - lost my uncle 25 - lost my last uncle. So while I'm hoping moribund is NOT my word of the year, it feels right.

Right about now is when I do my good things jar (okay usually it's next week when I get back to Ohio but I know what's in it) it has three things, presented my sabbatical research (at work and at my conference), got a story into an anthology (i'll give you that info tomorrow) and I went to an all inclusive resort for the first time in Mexico. Pretty slim pickings for good things. Mostly 2025 was me trying to not lose my sanity.

So resolutions? Eh, I don't really make them. I've given my writing goals. In addition to that I'd like to see if I can come up with lunches that don't spike my blood sugar, I'd like to get more active but what I need more than anything, a cleaning schedule for my home because this cannot go on as is.

I'm still thinking about doing snowflake_challenge. I got really sideways with this challenge a couple years ago and lost my taste for it. But a lot of my list is doing it...sigh

But here, let me share some cool things about me and my writing

one of the first of probably several archive things I'll end up doing. Got this one from lucy_roman
from AO3

Total works on archive - 894

Works written in 2025 - 74

Longest fic written in 2025 The Porn Star Murders Hazbin Hotel

Fic with most bookmarks (also most hits and kudos)Hope is The Thing With Feathers The Owl House

Shortest fic - Needs Unmet Helluva Boss


And here are my writing stats. I have no complaints here: Original fic count 38,727
Fanfic count 359, 707 for a writing total of 398, 434. My only complaint is I wanted 50K of original fic. sigh.

Thanks to a few of the things on sholio's post today I have some community recs

candyheartsex a multifandom gift exchange with a low minimum and a focus on relationships, both platonic and romantic/sexual

traumaticexperiences a (psychological) trauma themed multifandom exchange that will be run on Ao3. Matching will be done on fandom, relationship/solo character, and freeform. You must be 18+ to participate and maintain anonymity until creator reveals.

And one I'm actually in is allbingo and I'm hosting, the public domain fest bingo. come join us.



And for anyone still on LJ and haven't backed up your old blog somewhere else the news is looking bleak. I haven't fully read up on it. I do crosspost there for the few friends who haven't joined me here on DW but it looks like Russia isn't playing games with it any more. You can check out more here on bluesky. and a bit more here on DW about the importing.

I woke up feeling lightheaded, slightly headachy and hella tired (this is not the good augering part) This is when Mom tells me that the couple I don't like are coming up tonight. UGH. As I told evil_little_dog that I planned to 'go out with friends' when they came up but now I'm sick (and really I am) so mom says just stay upstairs then and don't bother with them.

But they blew my parents off. WOO HOO. Twice now this holiday. My parents might go to my aunt's house (where they're staying as she's actually prejudice woman's real aunt) in the morning. I'm a late riser so I get out of going (in theory) but even if I don't it'll be a short trip because the Steeler game is tomorrow and they want all visitors out (which should tell everyone what they need to know. You rate under football) And they leave monday so I am hoping this is a sign for the coming year where things that upset me are removed from my presence.


I got my official Hazbin merch today, the holiday poster and key chains (all sold out now) and the season 1 DVDs. I am happy to have that (luckily I'm too tired for my why you don't own downloads rant)

It's time for science saturday


One Protein Is a Better Predictor of Heart Disease Than Cholesterol

Powerful Anti-Cancer Drug Discovered Inside Japanese Tree Frog.

Garlic Mouthwash Could Be The New Gold Standard. Here's Why. I need to send this to my research student who is working with mouthwash


New Drug Stalls Alzheimer's Development in Breakthrough Trial

Cats meow more at men to get their attention, study suggests

A huge surprise': 1,500-year-old church found next to Zoroastrianism place of worship in Iraq

Tiny implant 'speaks' to the brain with LED light

See the 100,000th photo of Mars taken by NASA's groundbreaking Red Planet orbiter


( Christmas pictures of the house )









You can click the eggs if you want.

It's that time of year. I'm too tired for thinking about the craft so let's do this. Let's make now a good time to set some 2026 goal as many or as few as you'd like. I know that can be pressure for some. For me I find them helpful. I've been at it too long to get too worked up if I can't make a goal. If you like some accountability you can still sign up for these



or getyourwordsout and if those are too high pressure join us for Write Every Day which is super low pressure and bounces from host journal to host journal (if interested just ask me where it's at this week)

If you're looking for an online critique group (also low pressure) that leans into the urban fantasy/SF/horror/mystery genres again just ask me. I'm looking for people to join us. All I ask is if you decide it's not for you, just let me know, no harm no foul.


As for my goals they are as follows

1. keep looking for open calls, especially for the stories languishing in files

2. finish editing the 1980s monster hunter thing and get it to a beta (same as last year)

3. deep edit the werewolf novel which I finally DID start this year (after years of saying I would and didn't) but found out it was in worse shape than I thought

4. even though I said I wouldn't do this again, I DO want to take my thought monster long short story and expand it to a novella to make it more marketable

5. keep working on the sequel to the 1980s story

6. Decide if I ever want to do another story as Jana Denardo

7. I have so many unfinished novels. maybe I should finish one.

8. Do BETTER at balancing fanfic and original fic and the time spent on both

That seems like a nice fat set of goals. How about you? Let's do this. And if you worry about are you good enough, let me point out I'm currently watching Sharkopus and it makes Sharknado look like Oscar Worthy material. If this crap can make it, there's hope for us all.

Open Calls


Fairy Tale Magazine: January 2026 Window Green Man/Woman, Dryad, Yaksha, Tree Spirit



Crepuscular Magazine Microfiction stories exploring places, characters, and questions buried in the gray areas between


Untitled Anthology About Teeth Eerie, or creepy, or Gothic stories about Teeth

Inner Worlds, January 2026 Window. Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus.

Horrific Scribblings New Year’s Apocalypse Challenge New Year’s Apocalyptic stories (particularly the apocalyptic fears that defined the transition into the current millennium)!

The Ranger’s Almanac Winter 2025 Window. Short stories that must relate to a forest or park in any genre

30 Magazines Accepting Flash Fiction


From Around the Web


The Difference Between Tricking Your Reader and Surprising Your Reader

Easy Podcast Promotion for Writers

Comps Can Clinch Your Query

How to Track Book Sales and Identify Your Most Profitable Channels

How To Legally Quote Song Lyrics in Your Book

How To Get Book Reviews

How to Format a Book for Publishing

Optimizing Your Amazon Meta Description

Marketing Planning For First-Time Authors

From Betty

Writing a Short Story vs a Novel

Six Common Villain Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them

Seven Common Causes of Reader Confusion

Five Common Motivation Issues and How to Address Them

here.

Busy Writers: When Does “So Much” Become “Too Much?”

Transforming Negative Traits into Powerful Character Arcs

That Blinking Cursor

Panning For Gold

See Why Three Types of Character Motivation Matter

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Maladaptive Fantasy

What happens when family and friends don't support your writing?

YouTube for Writers, Part 4: Editing Tips to Improve Your Videos

Why Writers Grow Outside Their Comfort Zone: The Power of Discomfort in the Writing Life

How to Begin Your Novel at the Beginning


And of course have a blessed Solstice!

I tried to go to the foothills festival today (since there was no No Kings near me that wasn't at least an hour away and I'm not convinced I wouldn't have been fired if I had been seen). It was supposed to be at the art deco theater I had tickets for to see 'Night Mother. It wasn't open when I got there. I did see it in the news so where it was I have no idea.

Speaking of those tickets I went to the library to give them back.

Me: sorry I have an obligation friday. If you still have the list from the door prizes you can give these to someone else

Librarian - grabbing more tickets, can you go sunday?

me: nope I'm out all weekend

librarian - we'll think of something.

Me: use them yourself. It's a gift from me Byeeeeee!

So here was the history write up I've been planning to share for two days

Turns out not every ticket holder for the Uptown Upstairs history walk (there was over SIXTY of us, yay for that. They made over a grand on ticket sales) knew that Sixth Sense (the brewery I like in town) was a sponsor AND giving 25% off with the tour bracelet.

That included the bartenders (who asked management without a fuss) but damn, management TELL your bartenders there’s a damn event. Those poor women had no idea they were about to be overrun. I got a pumpkin spice martini (don’t judge) and I’m writing this down for me later vanilla vodka, bailey’s irish cream, cinnamon simple syrup and pumpkin spice liquor (that sounds pricey and unnecessary. I bet I could whip up the same pumpkin puree I use in coffee, yes it would be thicker but you wouldn’t need much). And I ordered their cheesy pickles (I haven’t been there in more than a year because someone new had taken over Arch and Eddie’s and it wasn’t as good. These were all new apps. I wonder if Arch and Eddie’s has these as they may be 2 different owners now) It was cream cheese, mozzarella and pickle spears in an egg roll wrapper. Very good but I got my 10$ app’s money’s worth out of it. there were FOUR of them. (I put those in the cooler in the car)

I can tell a) Lilian Jones Museum was not prepared for this many people b) again no one knows how to communicate. It was a good idea to break us into 4 groups (each group going to each of the four stops) BUT instead of letting the Leos (some young girl group who were our guides to the buildings) to rotate in a certain pattern, it was a fucking free for all and it caused problems.

I purposely joined the one going to the Masonic Temple first because it was the furthest down the hill and I thought ‘you have to hill climb to the rest and your car is at the top of the hill so start climbing while you’re fresh and at the end you’ll be on the same street as your car (as two stops were). I have always wanted in this temple but it IS an active lodge so no women allowed (we don’t have an Eastern Stars any more or I’d consider it. It’s all the way out in Vinton and I’m still considering it)

The temple was built in 1891 and it’s a cool building (I might think about trying the beauty salon in the downstairs as I need one. Mine closed) It was also four flights of stairs to climb. (it had a scary chair lift that no one offered to anyone because I wasn’t the only one with a cane) SO glad I picked this first. Also glad we stopped on the second floor first. It’s their social level with pool tables, kitchen and dining hall.

Upstairs just outside the temple itself is a masonic sword. This sword had been stolen by the Confederate soldiers by Morgan’s Raiders. However, Morgan was a Mason and he made them put the sword back (they kept the jewels and other bric a brac). The temple was interesting with three throne like chairs, some iconography with worlds on poles and naturally they told us nothing about any of that but went into every year of the history (no dudes, short keep it short).

( The Masonic Temple )


We walked to the next nearest building, the former Stiffler building (is it me or does everyone think of American Pie when they hear that surname?) And already it’s off the rails. Another group beat us to it so our guide (the adult leader of the Leo’s) decided we were walking up town and coming back to this. But that’s all the way up the hill and down two blocks. No way I was backtracking. I just joined the other group. Stop me if you can!

Anyhow, Stiffler’s was a department store opening in 1923 but before that it was the IORM building, the Improved Order of the Red Man (oh dear god), another one of those men’s orders that were so popular 150 years ago. It had a sister organization the Improved Order of Pocahontas. One person was shocked that the group didn’t let white people into it until the 1960s (a woman way too old for this to have been a revelation, seriously).

They hadn’t turned on power to the upstairs in years (this is where that new antique shop is. I think I was wrong about it closing, along with the quilt shop and the back in time toy store). I should have brought a mask. Taking pictures it looked like a damn snowglobe. There wasn’t much left (the idea that an exit door was bricked over was haunting). They did warn us it was creepy ….and it kinda was. There was a rack of old clothes. A forgotten piano. A Pocohantas/Redman portrait that was succumbing to the elements), an ancient kitchen and a room that had a large hole in the wall. I looked in there and took pictures. The columns were painted. It looks like silk wallpaper peeling off the forgotten walled up room.

( Stiffler's Department Store )


Now I’m more or less on my own so I hike up to the next building which was the one I wanted to see most. It was a used car dealership when I moved here (Dodge) and now it does a local taxi service but in the late 1800s it was the Grand Opera House. I KNEW it had to be something other than a car dealership in the pasts but I hadn’t known what. This one broke my damn heart. What remains tells you how beautiful this was but they gave us masks due to all the bird droppings inside (is this even safe for the workers down below?!?) We could only go so far because the floor isn’t safe (I repeat my question) .


I took all the pictures. ALL of them. Soon they will be all that’s left. One side had old shelves from the car dealership. The rest was the remnants of a fresco ceiling, hand drawn Greek goddesses and gods, cherubs, oh it had to have been beautiful once.


Funny thing is it never had permanent seating, just chairs that could be moved because a couple times a week they’d pick them all up so kids could rollerskate. It had live shows and in the 1920s-30s it had movies. Under the Gaslight was the last show there in 1937. A decade later it was Coll car dealership (which is what it was when I moved here) Which haha, THIS it the 1890s play that gave us the woman on the train track trope read more here.


I talked to the guide and commiserated. There’s not going to be any saving this building. It would take millions. It’s in private hands which takes it out of the realm of most grants. It’s going to go the way of the Memorial Building (they’re tearing it down right now). It’s a shame. This should have been saved. And seriously WHY if you had a damn business downstairs did you not at least keep the roof healthy?!?

( 1883 Grand Old Opera House )


I had one more building to hit, the old radio station. I’ve been downstairs when it was the radio station (they moved up the street to a less beat up place). I had no idea what this had been originally. I was there alone. The rest of my last group didn’t show up. We waited, the two young ladies so worried about me getting up the stairs. Babies, I’m fine. We waited more, no one showed and I said can I just go up alone?


Nope, they escorted me in case I fell (okay it’s sweet but it was obvious I could walk up effortlessly because either they built the stairs well and wide or they had be replaced sometimes in the century). So I get up there and the guide lit up seeing me (I think people skipped this building because from the outside it’s not as exciting) but as it turns out this was built as a Ford dealership in 1915.


Not only that, it has a ramp to the SECOND floor where the dealership was. Why? I don’t know. I mean there wasn’t much to see but I got some pics of the ramp (wait, girls you wanted me to walk down the ramp?!? Are you nuts?) And with that I was done. It was fun, worth the ticket price.

( Ford Dealership )