Olive and Rusty returned from their successful altercation with the Grungy Boys, only to get a tongue-lashing from Mark and Cherry, who don’t like other people infringing on their right to give beat-downs to local bums and bastards. After that, Duke the Plumber arrived and told them to prepare to sign over their retirement accounts to pay for a new water heater. While all of this was taking place, Mark was preparing to head out to New York for that AI conference he reluctantly agreed to speak at. 

It took eight panels for Mark and Cherry to get their Goodbyes done so he could fly out. Regular reader Daniel Pellissier noticed a squirrel in the last panel, apparently holding a stick or club. Daniel’s comment was that the squirrel would use it on Mark and Cherry if they didn’t finally break it up so the story could take off, so to speak. That’s how I took his comment, anyway. And that was the week.

Raccoons certainly are a bloody nuisance. Even some of my family members seem to think it is okay to leave food for them. I finally got my dad, at least, to quit leaving food scraps for them down by the ditch. It was starting to look like a raccoon convention!

The last panel is, alas, another attempt at humor, wasting a panel for what could have been additional helpful information. Besides, it’s a non-sequitur. Any visit by a raccoon is unwelcome, regardless of the length of stay.