Empty throne. Note the also newly placed female green Mmmmmm to its right, controversial in the news recently for so-called “reverse sassification.”
Who lives here?
Remarkably, I saw a garter snake sunning itself between these 2 spoons in the dirt today at nearby what-I-call Lineboro (photo from about 2 weeks ago).
I know this fellow!
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0033, 0510, Blue Mountain, City Park, Mmmmmm's, Toy Avatars
A new Red — or is it the same as the old Red — offers Grassy Noll a tempting present (*the* present?) to lure him back across the tracks and into the village proper. If only he could get his dad gum car turned around (wrestle, tussle).
Cpt. Americus at a junction is saying, “Peace for all. Today is a special day. Make up. Rejoin the flock that is your tribe, Grassy Fitzgerald Noll.” When Americus uses the middle names, you know he’s totally serial about something. Special day it is. He’s all about beginnings, middles, ends. Because the latter is coming and he well knows it. “Celebrate while we can!” he could also say this day in a month beyond May. “Soon there will be no crossing the line, crossing the tracks. We will be where we’re suppose to be in time and that is that.”
More drama on my Mt. Tom. Apparently this camp site was burned badly enough to be evacuated. A rug appears to have caught on fire. Whether accident or on purpose is a larger question. Are there nefarious agents working on this high hill on the edge of the town I live in, maybe the actual owners of the land? Because this site is well across the line from legal into illegal. “No trespassing!” the perpetrator might have shouted as the flames did their dastardly deed.
Another camp site further down the same ridge with rather elaborate stone work. Suspiciously so, perhaps. Rock can’t be burned, you’ll note.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0033, 0506, Blue Mountain, City Park, Mmmmmm's, Toy Avatars
Three new toys in [insert name] as of today, 6 legged blue-green horsie in center. Didn’t realize they lined up until I stood back and took a gander at the whole.
And boy did *these* kind of holes get me in trouble. Still unknown type of hissing creature! But I escaped to tell the tale. Luckily I didn’t come directly face to face with ’em.
Best guess right now: an owl or a possum, possibly a badger. Too large of a hiss for a snake. Not growly enough for a mountain lion or any other type of wild cat.
I’ll be quarantining off these tiny fissure caves until further notice. Maybe dead of winter I can revisit. My Mt. Tom is certainly holding surprises (!). Will go back today and take a couple of more toys with me for the fledgling rock village. Report soon…
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0033, 0504, Blue Mountain, City Park, Mmmmmm's, Toy Avatars
“Let’s split this crazytown,” said Red to his cousin Grassy as they crossed the tracks and drove away from the scene…
… at the same time they just arrived.
“Whatup guys?” the amalgamation of figures in the center said in greeting, not knowing the difference.
—–
“No I’m not putting up with that,” she doubled down, remembering the spectacle from the future.
“(The situation will) clear up; get better,” countered Baker. “First try.” After a pause: “We could simply *ask* Grassy about it.”
Wheeler was thinking the same thing. Red was about to change over to green.
—–
“Aloha!” he said, garish Hawaiian shorts thankfully hidden by the table. He immediately starts staring at the book, the hand.
“Welcome back Grassy,” relented Wheeler. She looks over at Baker. She knew she would be called Flip at these meetings from now on as compensation. Or win a wrestling trip to fabled Muff-Birmingham in the far corners of space, whichever door she so chooses. She opens the door of the refrigerator to see which one.
“Coke, Grassy?” she called over while grabbing, but Grassy was no longer there. Sprite instead.
Several of them, in fact. “Here we are!” said the seeming leader of the three.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0033, 0502, Blue Mountain, City Park, Mmmmmm's, Nautilus, North, Rooster's Peninsula, Toy Avatars
“You here for the Table interview as well?” Mmmmmm Salad Bar Jack asked, fresh from the new portal Wheeler installed just yesterday in Carrcassonnee’s *former* gazebo. John Lemon utters complete gibberish back to Mmmmm, but he understands and interprets.
“I see. First to interview. Luckey you.”
More incoherent speech from Lemon.
“Well, it will be a pleasure to serve with you sir on The Table. If I’m chosen. I don’t have much hope, actually. I worked with Baker Bloch over in Jonesborough.”
Gibberish from Lemon.
“No, not Heterocera. The Real World. TILE Creek. Ever heard of it?”
Gibberish. Salad Bar interprets that John Lemon doesn’t know where this is. Lemon asks (again only Salad Bar can hear this, if anyone was listening in — like us) if he was in a carrcass either positive or negative.
“No,” came Salad Bar Jack’s reply.
After Lemon’s next round of static, Salad Bar proclaims: “Instant disqualification, eh. Well, maybe it’s best I don’t show up for the interview. This Wheeler lady may have misinterpreted my resume. I play in *my* movies. Action adventure ones in the main, although we’ve branched out a bit lately, Gene and I. Don’t suppose you’ve ever hear of actor/director Gene Fade either, my close associate and colleague?”
We can understand from Salad Bar’s next reply that Lemon hasn’t. He begins listing out his filmography. “‘Salad Bar Jack in the River of TILE’? ‘Salad Bar Jack Be Nimble’? ‘Salad Bar Jack of All Trades’?” Lemon shakes his head. “Nothing?” It’s difficult for SBJ to comprehend this lack of recognition, but Lemon shakes his head again.
Lemon goes on a bit now with his incoherent talk, explaining something important to Salad Bar.
“Child, eh?” he replies after a pause. Lemon shakes his head again and corrects Salad Bar Jack. “Chilbo? Then we *do* know each other!”
Salad Bar Jack and John Lemon embrace.
—–
15 minutes later he also receives a chair at The Table. Wheeler remembers him as well. Curled Paper puts a check mark beside his name. On his way out he talks again to fellow Mmmmmm King Bill. “See you later you complete bastard, hehe.” But Bill is still worried about time and getting back to The Hill.
It seems it is too late. Bill Hill is no more.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0002, Heterocera, Mmmmmm's, Mossmen, Rubi^, Toy Avatars
Then of course there are the Mossmen…
… and Mmmmmmm’s, the original toy avatars I suppose you could call them. Both first appeared in the Jonesborough Toy Happening of 2008, the base event for the whole toy avatar phenomenon.
—–
Hucka D.:
The Mmmmmmm’s came from Mythos, specifically Edwardston. You’ve figured that out, haven’t you?
bb:
Maybe. So it’s backwards from what Grassy wanted to do: fly the First Goodmobile (Firstmobile) to Edwardston and Mythos. The [Firstmobile] actually *comes* from Edwardston. Makes sense.
Hucka D.:
Sense it makes. They are the last living toy avatars in Mythos, after everyone else is gone, let’s say. But maybe they really come from Whitehead Crossing and its own Edwardston and Green Turtle and such. It remains a maze[ of meaning].
bb:
I haven’t figured out exactly what Whitehead Crossing is. I’ve been so focused on Blue Mountain and Bigfoot and Rediscovery this summer and, so far, fall.
Hucka D.:
It will all even out.
—–
So Hucka D. had to buzz off to unknown destinations. Mentioned something about Burger King at Point-0, actually. Back to explaining Mossmen. So the purchasing of the first mossman, or the only mossman I still have, follows the pattern of other toy avatars such as Billy J. Thornberry (Billy Bob or B. Thornberry now?), because it cost me a dollar or less. The purchase took place about 25 years back at a Big Lots in this case, and I recall there was a whole wall of mossmen for sale. Shame I didn’t buy more at the time. Thus the source of the expression “there’s a big lot of ’em” sometimes spoken in my blogs concerning the creatures.
—–
Hucka D. is morse coding me from Burger King now. We have more information on the actor who’s slowly but surely becoming as much a star as mmmmmm Grassy Noll and mossman Gene Fade before him. Toy avatar thespian Billy *Bob* Thornberry hails from Henrietta, Texas, with a brother or father named Charlie who runs — hold on — a company called Zigzag, which is a, um, buyer of peanuts? No: pumpkins. Pumpkins or peanuts — maybe pumpkin seeds. Hucka D. remains unsure.*
And a brother or son named Dean who sometimes dresses up as Jolly old St. Nick on Labor Day and as a, er, turkey — *not* a pumpkin, Hucka D. is reinforcing — on Halloween. Interesting.
Located further away are cousins Joy, Shannon, and Jimbob, with the latter some kind of softball oddball twin to Billy Bob and who once played 4th base for the Montreal Penguins womens’ oddball softball team. I think that means he was the catcher.
Then there was mother/sister/daughter Henrietta whose story will have to wait. End transmission.
Jimbob caught pretending to be second cousin Dean robbing the Thornberry’s house on Labor Day.
—–
* In checking the region of Charlie, Texas, there is a large *pecan* farm (and Wicked Andy’s Insane Acres Haunted House!). Maybe that’s what Hucka D. was trying to interpret.
Zooming further out in GoogleEarth, we get this interesting moire effect from the bordering, square shaped plot. More signals?
Additional interesting sites from GoogleEarth in Charlie:
—–
http://www.earthimmigrant.net/minipeter/meet.html
http://www.earthimmigrant.net/minipeter/adventures/minimozo.html
Filed under Bigfoot+, Blue Mountain, MAPS, Mmmmmm's, Mossmen, Texas, Toy Avatars
Having reviewed the race track a bit, let’s test it out!
You can see the blur of racing Big Green Swirl successfully navigating the first curve…
… and then all the others to reach…
… The End, where Catcher catches. Good Catcher!
Smelting plant again and the surrounding track.
Here are the marbles I tested this day, with Big Green Swirl center stage. The marbles to its left in the below photo were too big to make it down the track (all flew off); the marbles to the right were too small and stopped somewhere along the way. Only Big Green Swirl made it down the whole track without hitches. Thus its new name of Greenilocks. Not too small, not too big, but just right. The prize for winning the contest was its marriage to Diamondia, the most perfect of the marble’s female species seen in front of it below, transmuted by George Washington Carver himself out of a peanut.
Many other marbles made the trip into Bigfoot this day, but the great majority remained in this metal container, clearly unfit to participate.
Empty Promises reminds Taum Sauk that there’s more left to Bigfoot than just a completed and tested marble race track. Later we would follow Taum on an exploring trip of the swamp and surrounding roads.
Taum Sauk also graciously lent a corner of his brick home to prop up a part of the track running around his plant. It had to be moved several inches to effect this. And below it in the photo is Taum’s atv, which he will employ for the exploring trip. Can’t wait!
Unholey Book.
Filed under Bigfoot+, Blue Mountain, Mmmmmm's, Toy Avatars
Details of the track now. As I counted today upon a revisit after work, Bigfoot’s marble race contains 42 1/2 pieces of O-27 gauge model railroad track, which takes it beyond Billfork’s 37. And I had a lot more 0-27 stuff to work with, actually. The thought crossed my mind to even enlarge upon the track here, perhaps extending it toward Mina Pool. But I probably won’t, even though I have tomorrow afternoon and then all day Thursday off now for more hiking fun and possibilities.
Each object holding up the track has its own small story to tell. Most came from the old high school football stadium once more. The 1st big curve of the track after the start is supported here by the rusty metal skeleton of an old chair, turned on its back.
As I’ve mentioned before, the race setup begins on top of Bigfoot’s very central spool table and ends on the bottom of same. In the below photo, you can also see some detail of the track beyond the first curve more in the background…
… as it passes the spool table to its west to proceed…
… toward Taum Sauk’s iron smelting plant, which it loops around to quickly reach…
… the bottom of the spool table.
This higher brick structure is another new one in town, and helps to prop up a northern portion of the track. I found it at the Plateau of Raw Art’s upper baseball field.
The rusty chair skeleton again looking east.
Filed under Bigfoot+, Blue Mountain, Mmmmmm's, Toy Avatars
This past Sunday was another beautiful day here in Blue Mountain. Memories of late September rain, rain, rain seem almost like a bad dream now. And it will continue like this for another 4 or 5 days. I will return!
Below we have pictured yet another Bigfoot mystery: What are these decaying sports bags full of white rocks, numbering not just one but three? The wife thinks they may be stones brought to the old school for decorative landscaping purposes. Makes sense I suppose. But I believe I’m going to haul them and their contents down to Bigfoot the next time I get the chance. The bags are found in a field next to the skateboard park (note to self: take own bag to Bigfoot for the rocks).
Since there are 3 bags of white rocks here, I also think back to the triangle of “White towns” in eastern Grayson County, Texas, as elucidated in this 2014 post.
Nearby metal circle. Purpose?
Track, bench, goal post.
Then it’s down, down, down through the tiny pine forest and its traversing roads again to the site of the Bigfoot art happening. Today’s stage 3 didn’t come without casualties, I’m sorry to say. I stepped on poor little Barbie Head while wandering around and around the site, setting up my marble race track. But the other toy avatars didn’t seem too upset. For some reason, they called her not Barbie Head (isn’t this a Barbie?), not even *Brain* Head, but *Brian* Head during the brief wake, and perhaps that *is* her name, since they should know better than me. Is the seeming she actually a *he*? They also seem to think it fate that she/he was crushed in this manner during the happening, and at this stage even. “Three’s the charm”, they echoed several times during the wake. Taum Sauk never budged from his sitting chair, but perhaps that’s because he was the most upset of all of ’em. Spaceman James Franco instead presided over the wake.
A new toy avatar came to Bigfoot this day, specifically for the purpose of catching marbles at the end of the brand new race track seemingly. Marble Catcher is his official title. I do not know his proper name; all the other avatars just called him Catcher or just Catch. Blonde Star Girl seems to give tips about the task at hand. “Arms out, arms out!” she appears to say in coaching him. But the larger toy avatar pretty much did what he came to Bigfoot to do this day, with most racing marbles “caught” at the end. Well, there was really only one marble to catch, since only one successfully made it all the way around the track. We’ll get to him soon enough. *Greenilocks* is his name. Congrats Greenilocks!
Many other avatars chipped in to make this a successful stage 3. At-At Imperial Trooper moves in to prop up an important ending turn of the track, where Greenilocks had flown off one or two times because of too much speed. Problem solved. Thanks At-At Imperial Trooper! You truly are a trooper now in the sense of, a) “somebody who does something strenuous, or tedious for a long period of time without complaining, and, b) somebody who overcomes a tough situation.
I’m not sure what muscular, hook handed pirate man did this day, but thanks anyway! Just being there showed your support. (Note: the pirate is perhaps strangely obscured by At-At Imperial Trooper in the above picture.)
This is the whole, completed race track. Hard to take a good picture of it, so I’ll just move to the various parts in the next post. Suffice to say here that it begins on top of the spool table and ends at the bottom of same. This is what it was all leading up to. So far.
Race track looking from the opposite direction (west to east).
Filed under Bigfoot+, Blue Mountain, Mmmmmm's, Toy Avatars
Sunklands 