Happy Halloween and an Update
Amazing how things can change in two short years. When I drew this back in 2022, I had been on a hot-streak of drawing not only 1977 related material, but all types of art. But by mid-2023, my life became way more complicated than I ever expected during my retirement years. I’m 67 now, and by all rights I should be sitting back and enjoying the quite years of my life doing things I love to do. But the past year has been way more stressful than I ever expected and it’s caused a major flair up of my depression and anxiety. This is for the most part due to the fact that we purchased a new house a year ago and have, for various reasons, been unable to sell our other home. Owning two homes in the current economic state, especially on retirement income, is extremely difficult, thus a major cause of my depression. The upside is we have a buyer currently, but there still a lot of things in motion to complete the sale.
For you newer readers, I have battled with severe depression for over 20 years. I also have ADHD which only adds to the mix of my depression and anxiety. I state this not for sympathy or as an excuse, but rather for clarity for you readers. I have not abandoned you or the comic, but when life hands me a pile of crap, my brain shuts down and basically leaves me unable to do even the simplest of tasks. It’s a good day these days for me to get out of bed before 10:00 a.m. and into my home office by Noon. If you knew me even in the slightest bit, you would know that I have always been an earlier riser and I’m generally one to bounce out of bed and get the day started. That energy is gone, but I am taking steps to get myself back on track.
In short, until the crap in my life gets resolved, I’m going to be unable to draw much of anything. I do see an end to what’s going on, but not until the end of November and then we have a ton of stuff to catch up on here in our new house which take 3-6 months to complete. Now, I hope to be back to drawing once the house is sold, as much of the work to be done on the house will be done by qualified contractors. My days of doing D.I.Y. home repairs are long behind me.
Bottom line is I’m around. If I miss an email or comment here, I am truly sorry for that. It is because I literally am unable to process words or thoughts sometimes. With that said…
I always try to have a positive spin on life and REO Speedwagon’s “Roll With The Changes” is a song that always gets my blood pumpin’ and reminds me of driving on the highways back in 1978 in my old ’69 Chevy Caprice with this song crankin’ on the cassette deck. I hope life is treating you well.
We have missed you, but your health and well-being is more important than our need for your drawings.
Thanks for understanding!
Glad to hear from you, recognized that one as soon as it popped up, always liked that scene. were here, hoping things get better for for you. your health is more important than anything.
Thanks, man!
If you want I could grant a story involving West Harris and Plan 9 going on a summer road trip. West cleans the van and drives them to their gigs. Meanwhile Plan 9 wonders what sex is West perhaps a mystic frog change his or her sex. Yet the mysterious West offers Bud and Jeff a instant campanionship. Relieving Lorainne and Robyn to seek romance from on palace of hedonism to the next. Will West the RA of the University West studies astrophysics, hydodynamics along with other subject become a stoner. Will Jeff be able to set up speakers like West. Will Bud stop being scared of spiders and snakes in order to impress West. Will Lorainne and Robyn figure out West’s gender and make West more street smart. Or will Plan 9 go to college and take STEM (science technogy engineering medicine) courses. Then again Bud and Jeff find simple arts courses a struggle and may wind up in West’s frat house trying and failing with snobbish valley girls gagga a me with the spoons. Love the old Halloween picture love that disco and wearing hot pants with halter tops though on pavement you risk hot buns. I did Charlie Brown dropping his sack of rocks on the zombie red baron feet saying rats while Linus awaits the great pumpkin. Did war of the worlds H.G Wells and Orsen Wells Victorian mounted calvary and 1938 US army motorized calvary M 1 combat car with a doughboy and corn cob pipe. Happy Halloween and take your time concerning crisis that you face I’ll wait.
Your comments always liven up my day! Thanks for being a reader and for the entertaining comments.
Glad to hear you are alive. I get depression, PTSD, Trauma therapy. Going to be busy with my EMDR light bar, I am going to be paralyzed with terror till the election. And if it goes badly I’m not sure what I’m going to do………….. Not every day a perspective candidate wants to make your existence illegal.
Yes, all this election bullshit is not helping any of us with depression or anxiety. My middle son is a gay man living in Florida and is now engaged. I too fear for his well being if Fuckface Von Clownstick is re-elected. So, I am hoping America does the right thing. We’ll see. Take care of yourself.
Especially now that this election “trans people” are the new “Great Satan”. They blame everybody but themselves.
The pain of retirement for me was the realization it didn’t mean I had more time to do anything. Things to deal with, things to settle. I retired in 2017 and it took till last year that I could slip into my current state of lethargy.
But that’s without any of the problems you’ve had—my sympathies and best wishes and good luck in the future.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for me and luckily it is not an oncoming train. Once this house bullshit settles down, I’ll be able to get a grip on my mental health. I took early retirement in 2019 at age 62 and was hoping by age 67 to be a tad more settled in. Maybe by the time I’m 70. 😉
Life wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for life happening. I can sympathize with you a little bit on that.
My shower stall is currently trying to migrate to the dining room through the ceiling and the furnace is completely disassembled all over the basement floor waiting for parts, the test run after putting a new five thousand dollar oil tank in didn’t go so well.
It’s routines that keep me going, and part of my morning one is reading the comics, including this one so I keep checking just in case.
As for REO, I still think this is one of their best…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rKasEGO2f0
Aw, man, a sagging shower and a blown up furnace. Those are some major reasons for being out of sorts, for sure. I hope all goes well.
I will do my best to add to your morning routine sooner than later. And what Kevin Cronin did to Gary Richrath is something I’ll never get over. REO would have been nothing but a 2-bit bar band if not for Richrath’s amazing guitar work. Cronin can take a flying leap as far as I’m concerned.
Those are only the ones I’m going to sympathize with you on, the list is a lot longer but that’s what happens as the years go on.
I finally had to part with my old Mustang, the frame was completely rusted out to the point that it just couldn’t be fixed or I would have.
The transmission was shot too, I found out about the frame when it went on the hoist to get that checked then it sat in the driveway for a year getting worse.
Pity, I’d been planning to put a new top on it this year too 🙁 but somebody wandered into my yard and offered me twice what the junkyard was going to pay so I grabbed it thinking he only wanted it for parts…then he drove it off !! after I’d told him repeatedly it wasn’t safe to drive.
The motor and body are good, nothing else is, and he fried the computer hooking the battery up backwards before I could stop him.
I saw lights, symbols and messages I’d never seen it spit out before.
I haven’t seen it driving around yet and I hope he didn’t just weld a piece of angle iron along the bottom to sell to some kid.
I’ve listened to more REO in the last five years since I retired than I ever did when they were at their peak.
They just slipped under my radar, even when I was in radio, except for the airplay-ready cuts that made the playlist or got requested.
Mostly because I didn’t care much for their ‘Top-40’ stuff, it always sounded over-engineered to me like a lot of 80’s pop stuff and I didn’t care much for that general style at the time anyway..
Live is a different story altogether and I’m sorry now that I skipped the chance I had to see them.
Hopefully the closing goes well, Real Estate transactions are done differently up here and I saw a few eye-openers when I was an agent for a few years.
Good to hear from you. Drop a note on the comic page a little more often, just to let your fans know you are OK.
I know, I’m sorry for that. But ever since May, when this deal to sell our house was first put on the table, I’ve been frozen in time, so to speak, with anxiety of the closing the deal. We finally have a closing date now, so I’m hopeful this means this madness will soon be over.
Sorry to hear about your depression. But I can understand. Having to endure through Hurricane Milton here in Florida has frazzled my nerves. So many in this area are homeless now and we feel fortunate to have survived with just a roof replacement and tree trim so far. Still, we will have to use our retirement savings and unfortunately try to remain employed probably for some time. Since we are the same age we understand how you feel about getting older. Not like the days when you and I experienced nearly perpetual comedy relief during our college years. I still have several recordings of our comedic antics and can’t believe how nuts we were. I still get laughs from all we did back then. I feel lucky we had those experiences and was glad you were my roommate. We wish you well and hope you can remember some of the good old days with a chuckle or two.
Email me at byron@1977thecomic.com and we’ll exchange numbers and stuff. I’d like to hear those recordings again after… damn… 45 years. Anyway, I’m sorry for your issues. My wife and I are both self-employed and continue to work our butts off. Certainly not like when I was in my 40s, but enough to wear us out every day.
And yes, that year we were roommates was a bright spot in those college days.