Thanks Jeff for the hospitality. I hope my behavior wasn't too boorish.
Oh man, all this really happened? You WERE here? With my sleep deprivation I thought I was just hallucinating and imagined everyone being in my house.
Thank you to everyone for coming and bringing food, gifts, goodies, and monitors!
It's been a lot of work over the past few months, not just getting the games ready, but also the huge task of Spring cleaning and pretty much re-organizing every room in the house to where I'm finally happy with it. So, my "Spring" cleaning has taken about 6 months...I think I started right around the time of Kurt's party. Anyway, setting deadlines by having an event definitely kicks your butt into gear...that, and Compran who kept on me thankfully to get 'er done.
So...Huge, HUGE thanks goes out to Randy, who was really my accomplice/partner from the beginning with all of this to help get everything in order, without whom I would have never got the more than half dozen games that needed attention figured out. He's been helping me for several months with diagnosing, researching, and repairing things...moving things around not the least of it also. He was there any time I needed him, a true friend and I felt like this was really his party also. He just helped an unbelievable amount, to the point where we didn't feel we needed to have a "Repair party" since he helped tackle everything on the games that needed tackling. I definitely learned a lot, and happy to see some of these games finally come to life and playable the way they should be. Thanks, Randy!!!
It was a lot of work, especially the last week and even MORE the past few days leading up to the party, and as I pulled an all nighter and went without sleep to get everything the way I wanted it. That being said, it was a tremendous reward to have everyone show up, friends from all across the state...Mick/ Hamster/ and Rob (who finally made his first visit!) from Tampa/ Nokomis/ New Port Richey respectively, Greywolf his own bad ass self, PinDan and Ron from Sarasota, Jeff not Jim from Vero, Spiney form even further south in PSL, Russ and John from Merritt Island, Craig from Melbourne, Steve and Doug from Jax, and all the local Pops guys and gals (Deltona/Deland doesn't seem that far anymore!). I'm glad a bunch of people who have never had the opportunity to make it here before finally did make it (even Compran's wife shannon...FINALLY!)
, I was honored to have you here. It was a nice reward to see everyone's eyes light up and play and see a bunch of things they don't normally see. I was personally extremely happy to see ALL 6 of my Atari collection of pins up and playing at the same time, for the first time ever. That was a big reward for me among other things, not everyone's cup of tea but I love them all.
There's a bunch of other people and locals I didn't mention, still a bit groggy...but I enjoyed getting to know some of the other Villagers I hadn't previously had a lot of time to chat with...Curtis, Paul and family, Pierce, Ralphie, Buck and wife, Chad and wife Desiree, Art , Eric, Al and Julia, Kurt, Doug, even Prok
... and other locals....I know I'm forgetting a few more, the night goes fast and not enough time to chat with everyone, will post more later I'm sure. It was just a great time to have a bunch of friends and good people to spend the evening with, and my surprise to find many were batman enthusiasts as well. even I don't have a Batman tattoo on my body like Paul...that's very impressive!
Anyway, thanks again to everyone, and glad everyone had such a good time.
P.S. Lost and found: We have a plate someone left and a nice solid plastic cup. Please lmk who they belong to, can get to the next event if I don't see you sooner.
Bats
