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Hola, Jazz Pickles! I hope you’re all staying clean and dry in the recent monsoon of shit storms this period of history is providing. It’s not easy or relaxing for any of us so give yourself permission to feel unsettled. We all do.
If you read my post of two weeks ago, you may remember that Olive Oyl and I are coping by hopping in the car with our dogs and driving even further south of where we live in Mexico, and camping out for a month in a modest little house on a hillside outside of Oaxaca City.
The house is simple with limited amenities—no TV, pre-Columbian-slow wifi—but the grounds and view are even more gorgeous than we had expected. And the peace and quiet here are deafening but in a good way. Far from the daily din that we’re used to in-town—music, dogs barking, bad mufflers, fireworks, etc.—here, virtually all we ever hear are birds chirping or crowing. (A quick reminder that roosters are birds!) A few times each day, we’ll hear a donkey braying or a dog barking but that’s rare. We’re loving it. It’s the perfect place to spend a pandemic or a civil war.
It has not been all bubble machines and rainbows, however. This is a working vacation for me and I intended to split each day between drawing and relaxing. BUT, on our second day here, I hooked up my computer stuff and worked on Peyote Cowboy for half an hour when the screen on my Fancy Drawing Computer Gizmo suddenly went black. Long story short, I can’t replace it from here and I can’t draw either Bizarro or PeyCow without it. And yes, there are reasons I can’t just use old-fashioned art supplies. If only.
I’ve no intention of driving all the way home so I can resume my normally rigorous work schedule, so it will be interesting to see how the next month plays out. I’ve got one episode of Peyote Cowboy close enough to be ready to post tomorrow, Tuesday, Jan 19, but it’s a real cliffhanger and I’m not sure how soon I’ll be able to deliver the resolution episode. Sorry!
I’ll be honest, when this kind of thing has happened to me before, I’ve invariably launched into a tantrum and become very unpleasant company until it gets resolved. But recently I’ve had some major consciousness shifts and have been handling this without so much as a curse word muttered under my breath. (If you don’t understand the term “consciousness shift,” ask someone from California.) My beloved Olive Oyl has been nothing short of amazed at my demeanor and neither of our dogs is the least bit afraid of me—a true testament to how well I’ve handled this.
‘…and neither of our dogs is the least bit afraid of me—a true testament to how well I’ve handled this.’
And here’s why, sort of: After decades of being certain that humans are the result of an accident of chemistry and that there is nothing for us beyond this life and this world, I’m now equally certain that that is not at all the case. I agree that these things cannot be “known” by the usual means, nor proven one way or the other; I get that. But it no longer matters. Things have shifted within me that allow me to believe and experience things that cannot be proved. I like it a lot.
And now suddenly I find that I no longer think that unplanned interruptions to my plan, my schedule, my intention for the day, the week, the month is a catastrophe to be managed. Maybe something is telling me to take a break. Maybe I should listen. I’m suddenly looking at a solid month of a metric shitload of being quiet in nature. It’s not exactly what I’d planned but I’ll bet it won’t kill me.
Now it’s time to find out if Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons from the week will kill us with cleverness!…
One of my kids used to regularly tell me her long, elaborate story dreams during breakfast and I really wish I’d thought to record them.
They’re never too young to begin manipulating their world with force.
For those not sufficiently acquainted with the natural world, opossums are famous for playing dead. I’m not sure if they really do that or not, I’ve never had the opportunity to feel for a pulse.
You don’t have to go all the way out to the country, dude. There’s bound to be a few bars in town where folks do the same.
I suffered from this every winter that I lived in NYC. No amount of bad straw hats or ukeleles could help me.
Over on Wayno’s weekly cartoon blog, he features a clever way to use our new Secret Symbol, the Pipe of Ambiguity. His musical extra is pretty interesting this week, too. As usual.
That wraps up this week’s comedy swap meet, Jazz Pickles. Thanks for trading chuckles with us. If you like what we do and that we do it without ads or paywalls, or if you just want to help me pay for my new Cintiq screen, please consider dropping a shilling or two into one of the links below. We’ll love you for it.
Until next week, don’t believe everything you think and be open to anything.
BIZARRO SHOP We have new stuff in the shop that’s fun and cheap!
…Signed, numbered, limited edition prints and original Bizarro panels
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