A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

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Wavering

By Jimmy Johnson


Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
Water is tricky to draw. First, you turn on both the hot water and the cold and then stick your hand under it. When it feels just right, you plug the drain. When enough water has run into the tub, you sit down, and inevitably you’ll feel like you’re being boiled alive. Water is also tricky to depict. I was getting better at it when this cartoon ran in 1995. The wave in the first panel doesn’t look very convincing, but the foam in the last three panels looks about right. When drawing water (with a pen), less is more. Water is about negative space, what you don’t draw. That’s the way it is for me, anyway.

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248 responses to “Wavering”

  1. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Jackie, I went through eight horribly similar months with my sister last year. So, love and hugs. Be strong.

  2. Llee Avatar

    Jackie…and when you can’t be strong, we’re here for you as much as we can!

  3. TruckerRon Avatar

    I just noticed that the Old Faithful WebCam has changed its address since I last looked at it:

    http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html

  4. TruckerRon Avatar

    And Jackie, the good that prayers can do is heading your way.

  5. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Thanks for the prayer and good wishes. My favorite aunt who traveled with us for thousands of miles (and I mean thousands) just died at lunch today. It hit me so hard that I would never hear her voice again. And her voice kept echoing in my mind.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  6. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Jackie, so sorry to hear about all of the medical problems. I have another surgery this week but should be fine as long as I start being more careful and stop falling.

  7.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Jerry in Fl quoted from “A Day in the Life,” for one (from the Sgt. Pepper album). Yes, I was quoting from John Lennon’s “Help!”

  8. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    Thoughts and prayers.

    ‘It hit me so hard that I would never hear her voice again.’ My kids [all three > 50 years] have suggested that I put a new msg. on our answering machine. I considered that, but then realized it’s probably the only permanent record anyone has of their mother’s voice. It even preserves that glitch, where she misspoke and had to punt. It stays.

  9. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    Jerry in Fl quoted from “A Day in the Life,” for one (from the Sgt. Pepper album). Yes, I was quoting from John Lennon’s “Help!”

  10. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    About Ludwig strip, I thought the deal with Luddie and Janis was that they wouldn’t eat ice cream. I thought he was also having ice cream. He was in front of freezer/refrig yowling?

    When we took our two cats to Hawaii they had to be quarantined for six months. We went to visit almost daily and took them ice cream bars and popsicles for treats, which they loved to lick off the sticks. It was pretty hot because the kennels were open air.

    Funny part is they had each cat in a HUGE cage, big enough for tigers and wouldn’t let them be together but I got them to put them next to each other so they could touch through wires.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  11. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    I forgot to mention but on my own group everyone knows when I disappear it is usually for something “bad” like death or illness, often mine. Well, the illness anyway.

    So they put a posting up like Waldo, “Where are the Monies?”

    When I do genealogy searches and look for “Monies” I get all the wills and inheritances.

    Daughter said her dad is showing improvement slowly and she is on her way here. Grandson thinks he lives here now, so he’s accepted the changes.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  12. Mindy from Indy Avatar
    Mindy from Indy

    Jackie – I thought that was the deal too. And my bit about the looking like my mom? I first looked at myself with the glasses on, the resemblance was so strong, I literally jumped and darted from my bathroom – it was just too much. I hear her voice in my head contantly – usually singing along to whatever I’m listening to.

    eMb – My high school best friend lost her dad a few years ago. He was a huge influence on my life as well; I practically lived at their house. He died a few days after his wedding anniversary. A year later, I called my friend’s mom to let her know I was thinking of her. She was out, and her late husband’s voice came over the phone. I had totally forgotten about the answering machine. Once the tears subsided, I called back and recorded the message. I’ve brought him with me every phone since.

  13. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Jerry, I have to tell you that I fall a LOT. I usually say I am amazed that I never break anything much when I fall (not counting torn rotator cuffs) My cardiologist said “there is something to be said for obesity”. Meaning the padding was protecting me!

    Good luck with surgery!

    Love, Jackie Monies

  14. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    Mindy/Indy: ‘my bit about the looking like my mom’. Reminds me of an incident a few decades back. Wife [and our daughter] had danced at a locally owned dance studio since about ’80. Wife’s father, daughter’s grandpa, Paul, a splendid gentleman who wore a moustache, had died in ’85, her mother ten years earlier.

    Same family owns a boutique in the same building. To drum up holiday trade, they suggest that the women and girls [and perhaps some of the few males who go there] dress up in any role they choose, and do dances and help at the store for one day maybe two weeks before Christmas. In about ’90, after daughter had moved away, wife decided to go as Charlie Chaplin and went upstairs to get ready. I was reading in the living room; the stairs were on the other side of a wall. She came down, and I gasped, ‘Paul!’ All it took was the moustache. Paul and her mother were both reasonably good looking, and wife was no slouch. But it sure confirmed Paul was her father.

  15. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Before we leave forever the subject of “drawing water” vs. “drawing water” I thought I would explain why I instantly thought of our old friend who drowned his wife in the tub at a hotel in St. Louis, MO. Part of the incriminating evidence was his allegation that he had “drawn her bath for her” and then gone for his morning jog. She had then slipped getting into tub and he found her drowned when he returned from running.

    The investigative detective started asking himself “How many men draw their wife’s bath daily?”

    Three murder trials later our ex-friend is serving life without parole and his trials set precedents I have read changed the American justice system. The book I read was called “Drowning In Lies”, although that may have been the t.v. movie? You can google Ed and Julie Post case.

    Ghost, Ed was such a close friend he handled sale of our house in New Orleans and would not accept any fees. He was a member of The Second Sunday Claret Club which was a small group of wine aficionados made up of New Orleans most devoted wine drinkers.
    I have been told the books, movies, etc. all mentioned his fondness for fine wines out of his price range as a motive.

    Enough for a ghost story! Even my dog sitter says I need to write a book.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  16. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    eMb and Indy Mindy, my Dad died 28 years ago, and I would love to have a recording of his voice. Hold onto those recordings!

    Jackie, hugs and good thoughts!

    Ghost, 🙂

  17. sideburns Avatar

    Ghost, how soaked with sweat Janis would be depends on the humidity. If it’s hot and humid, I’d agree with you, but not if it’s hot and dry, because the sweat would evaporate, helping cool her.

  18. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    I know that we don’t know exactly where Arlo and Janis live, but wherever it is, I somehow don’t think it’s often both hot and dry there at the same time.

    Jackie, a friend told me about a friend of hers whose husband came home and caught her taking a shower with a man who, obviously, was not her husband. Since this was in the Houston area, you won’t be surprised to learn that gunfire ensued. A lot of gunfire. My friend advised against becoming deceased that way, as it made for really horrific crime scene photos.

    And yes, get to work on that book.

  19. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Jean dear, several years ago, just before Christmas, I arrived home one evening to discover a recording on my answering machine of my Mom singing, “Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat. Please drop a penny in the old man’s hat. If you haven’t got a penny, a half penny will do. If you haven’t got a half penny, then God bless you!” I could plainly hear my Dad in the background, laughing at her.

    My Mom is now getting up in years, and my Dad has been deceased for almost 10 years. Needless to say, I have made several copies of that message and keep them in safe places.

  20. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good morning Villagers….

    It’ good to have you back and Mike is improving….you are in my thoughts and prayers.

    Well, it feels like the dog days of summer are here…90 high and the humidity in Southern Indiana is thick. Poor hens.

    Stay cool….

    ….ya’l have a blessed day

    GR 😉

  21. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Not quite right yet, more coffee….meant to address Jackie, that’s it’s good………..

  22. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    Ghost, what a lovely thing to have, and a wise move on your part!

  23. thundersoundsleep-thunderandrainsleep-thunderblackscreen-rainsleepaid-rainnothunder Avatar

    Everything is very open with a very clear clarification of the issues. It was definitely informative. Your website is very helpful. Many thanks for sharing!

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