Sure, go ahead and say that “George is taking this stuff way, too seriously. It’s just a comic strip and not all that great, anyway!” Well, I’m retired, so it’s this or I have to learn golf or pickle ball! Thanks, anyway! And I prefer biking! In the winter, I shovel snow! At this point, I can handle all of that! In fact, I manually shoveled sidewalks of four houses on Saturday, thank you!

Moving on:  It’s traditional for Mark Trail to spend a week at home after an assignment, before getting the call to head out on another job! Jules Rivera carried this tradition forward, minus Cherry’s hopelessly clinging “Mark! Come back soon, dearest!” scenes of Olde!

Oh, another tradition that Rivera thankfully dropped (which I like to remind you of at least once a year) is the use of exclamation marks after every line of dialog that is not a question! I bet a number of Trailheads see this as one of Rivera’s mistakes, because we need those silly conventions to snark on!

Also in the pre-Rivera Days of Yore, Mark sometimes got overseas assignments (e.g. Africa, Nepal, and even the Pacific)! But so far, Rivera has yet to place Mark outside of the contiguous 48 states (Florida doesn’t count)! For shame, Rivera! At least get Mark involved in something in South America or Canada!

So, what Mark Trail traditions of old do you miss the most and would like to see again? And I’m not talking about the style of the art, itself!

Presto Chango! Mark was back home this week! The first three days found Mark chatting online with Venus Verité about the flood and her hoping to get work with Bill Ellis! The rest of the week was the now-standard post-assignment Mark and Cherry Nature Hike! Of course, before the nature hike could be consummated, I mean completed, Mark got his traditional phone call! But it was not Bill Ellis! Rather, it was his De-Bait Team pal, Cliff! Cliff invited Mark to a Woodsman Olympics! This was revealed in Saturday’s strip, so we’ll have to wait for more details to unfold! And that’s the week, folks!

In spite of this useful information and Mark’s awareness of the impending flash flood, he didn’t seem very prepared when it came. I’d have thought he’d have some kind of emergency backpack at the ready. But he did get everybody to safety! Also, I’d recommend a radio that also offers a hand crank for power.