A look back…

The best picture of me (taken very spontaneously by Lezley) in 2021…after spending a very sweaty afternoon moving Lauren into her dorm room at SUNY Albany. It tells the story of 2021 in one sweaty, exhausting moment.

As of this writing, the last time I managed to post anything here was in July.  July was a LONG time ago…

A LOT has happened… And the only way I’ve kept anyone up-to-date on it is through the comic strip. Seriously. It’s nothing against any of you, it’s me. Even my MOTHER has mentioned this.

If you want to know, go back and check them out.

2021 started with up losing Maggie. That sucked.

Life kept going on. I continued with my Family Styles series… although my heart was slowly falling out of love with the series.

I started running again. Like, I REALLY started running. Every single day.

In January I was huffing and puffing through barely 4-5 miles a day… and that was mostly walking. This morning, I ran (RAN) 10.5 miles. I’ve gone through five pairs of sneakers. I never thought in a million years I would be in better shape at 46 than I was at 18.

I dabbled in running back in 2012ish. Never ran more than 6 miles in one shot. And that was every other day or so.. or when I felt like it. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I love it now. I start every day with my run. 2am, 3am whatever… I’m on that treadmill getting in my miles. I feel good.

Next: the jobs. Lez and I were lucky to have incomes through the pandemic…but Lez suffered more because a big part of her salary was commission based. Sales dried up, her commissions went down. Despite that, we were okay. Our lavish lifestyle was easy to maintain… mostly because we never had a lavish lifestyle.

Lez left her job in May. She found a better job in July. I left my job (a place I worked at for 24 years (right out of undergrad)) at the end of October. An opportunity,  which I only found out about because a fan of the comic strip, who has become a really good friend, let me know about… was something that I couldn’t say no to. When I had the good fortune to be offered the position, I HAD to take it. It’s a great job with great co-workers. I honestly love it.

In doing that, our lives took an abrupt, yet necessary, change. We both now worked from home. To some, that would be hard… but since Lez and I already worked at the newspaper together, it wasn’t that big a deal for us. Even though we’re working a feet away from each other in separate rooms, we actually see LESS of each other now than we did then.

In the midst of all of THIS, Lauren went to college. She’d completed her SUNY Albany Freshman year virtually. Now it was college in-person… not virtual. We brought her to Albany in August. Another big change.

Bob began to suffer a little. Starting November 1, I was working different hours.. and hours based on the Central Time Zone (main office is in Chicago, I’m in New York). My day became more structured… especially since I was learning a new position. I was under the impression that by working from home, I’d somehow have more free time. Yeah, that was a hell of an impression… one I got very wrong. Because of this miscalculation, I was unable to finish the Bob Tarot Cards in the time I’d originally outlined.

No Bob 2022 Calendar. No new Bob book for a second year. I mean, I really felt like I’ve dropped the ball. But at the same time, I realize that EVERYTHING has changed. Bob has to change too. Just because I can’t top what I once did, doesn’t mean I can’t do ANYTHING. I just need to re-configure… like everything else.

I have no idea what’s ahead for the new year. Not a clue. 2022 will be the TWENTIETH year of Bob the Squirrel…which will be a time of reflection. But not too much. For the first time in forever, I’m beginning the new year with something I rarely had: a sense of optimism.

Trust me, it’s weird for me too.

A tail of a milestone comic strip squirrel

6,000 squirrels

I suppose today is a milestone comic strip.

Today, March 4, 2020 marks the appearance of the 6,000th Bob the Squirrel comic strip. No bells or whistles… in fact I only started really keeping track of the number after I hit 5,000 a few years back.

But, using modern technology (and my obsessive compulsive nature of keeping good dated backup files) I’ve dug up every previous milestone comic strip.


Strip #5,000 – June 8, 2017

Not much to say about this one… I did put together a giant GREATEST Hits show for this one. Took a lot of tape and Funtac to put that show together.


Strip #4,000 – September 12, 2014

Our wedding was in October of that year and I was keeping our plans and anxiety alive and well in the strip… and pretty much in real time. It all worked out to be an amazing day…


Strip #3,000 – December 11, 2011

I was closing in on ten years of Bob the Squirrel at this point… and I questioned if I should continue doing the strip.  I had a small, loyal fan base, but the likelihood of the strip being my only job was looking like a longer and longer long-shot. Should I quit and try something else that maybe would benefit me financially? Or did the squirrel talk me out of it?


Strip #2,000 – March 22, 2009

We were in our new house just under a year when I drew this. This was also when I was really into the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints. Lucy’s favorite was Pistachio Pistachio … I would get a spoon and feed it to her right out of the container. I tell Lez that she should have known what type of guy I was by witnessing that act. She had every opportunity to grab Lauren and run… 🙂


Strip #1,000 – June 20, 2006

I wasn’t sure if I should include this one… despite it being the 1,000th strip. This may sound horrible… well, it DOES sound horrible.  I sometimes forget that I was married once before… and that I had a whole other life in a whole other city. But, I did… and I have the strips to prove it.  And really, aside from a few bits of clothes and my drawing board, the strips are the ONLY things I kept from that life.

So, that’s the strip… thousand by thousand. Hope we’re all around for the 7,000th – which, barring any life complications, should be appearing November 29, 2022.

2018 can kiss my furry tail… and some other stuff…

What does 2019 got that I don’t already have?

Around this time of year I do a recap of the state of Bob.  What I did, what worked, what I totally messed up… but, you know, mostly the mistakes.

In 2018 I worked harder than I’ve ever worked before. And yet, I really think this year (with a few exceptions) saw my weakest work ever. Some days I was scribbling just to stay alive. The content flow gave me purpose. Totally irrational. But, when you see a life preserver you don’t complain what it looks like, you just grab onto it and hold tight.

Yeah, it was like that.

The routine of the work, the process, was the only thing that kept me sane.  Seriously.  What’s worse is that all that grad school talk about process (the stuff that I listed under “total Bullsh-t”) is really true! Dammit, they WERE right. Guess that justifies the student loan I’ll be paying off until i’m 62.

All in all, this year can kiss Bob’s tail… along with assorted parts of myself.  Some parts it can kiss twice.

2018 sucked. It aged me far more than the conventional 365 days would.

This year has been rough…what with the uncertainty of everything.  Hold up… I take that back.

The only thing certain was/is uncertainty.  85 days this year there was nothing BUT uncertainty… along with a lifetime of wondering if it’s coming back. The “ALL CLEAR” in big bold type is followed by fine print that says, “… yeah, but watch your back… for, like…forever, sucker!”

There’s no more rest.  It’s part of us now.

I started out near the edge of losing it all… with each day since January 1 doing what it could to push me closer and closer to it.  There were a few times when I came close enough to look over.  One time I did look over… and thought: “It might not be that bad…”

We were reminded of the brevity of it all.  Of mortality. Of weakness in times of strength and strength in times of weakness. Of wondering when it’d all be over… and the emptiness of that moment when it was. I was encouraged, discouraged, enraged, emboldened and just so damn proud. Of wanting to change, knowing that change was needed, and yet still resisting the change because I was/am so damn scared.

I was up, I was down, I was like a yo-yo.

I was in my head more than I should have been. Anxiety was at an all time high.  Panic attacks dive bombed me when I least expected it.

I was selfish, selfless, real and completely fake. I was alone more than I wanted to be. Ignored what I had, bitched and moaned about what I didn’t have.

Grateful.

Relieved.

Exhausted.

Making plans that will never touch the face of reality. And reality… what a pain in the ass that is.

Reminded again and again of the risks I never took. The thanks I never gave. The total prick that I was. Seeing where I could be a better man, and wondering why I wasn’t good enough already.

Through ALL of this, there was that squirrel.  The longest relationship I’ve ever had.

I love my wife, my daughter, my family, my dogs… but that squirrel… that made-up, talking cartoon squirrel, man… life preserver yet again.

I’m not hoping for a better 2019… hope like that is futile and just a set-up for disappointment. There are more challenges ahead as always. I’m just going to keep on being… protecting my life. Appreciating the little things and the big things like health and humor. I have to. Because I don’t know if I could do 2018 again.

Thank you all for sticking around. Your appreciation for my work is everything… but make no mistake, I need that squirrel just as much as you do… if not more.

 

 

not talkative…

WordPress… not sure I like your new look… but I’ll give it a try anyway…

 

Categories: art comic