42 Comments
User's avatar
Heather's avatar

OMG business idea. I build my dream library complete with sliding ladders in the mountains. I adopt a lot of cats and build those cool cat ramps throughout. I hire a chef to make basic but fresh food. Call it a retreat. People love it and basically make it pay for itself.

Oh! My office is behind a bookcase that swings out with a hidden catch.

Like, I wouldn’t even need to make money beyond paying for this stuff. And the chef. Who basically just makes a pile of chicken sandwiches and leaves them in the fridge then goes back to reading. So long as I’m fed and I can hang out in my library and acquire new books for my “business”, I’m good.

Stephen Beals's avatar

That sounds like me if I win the lottery.

Heather Gottinger's avatar

OMG. I'm in.

Jim's avatar

I lived in Santa Fell New Mexico for some time. When I needed snow it was a drive up the mountain, even as late as June. In winter there was almost never any snow in town. I ended up working year round at the ski area there, it was always strange to take off the parka when I got back to town.

John Boyd's avatar

And the skies are grey.

I moved from a place of infrequent snow that melted quickly, the Pacific Northwest, to Quebec where the grass disappears under snow in November and returns to view in April. I've adapted to the cold for the most part, but I miss the evergreenness of conifers. The trees that blazed here with reds, oranges and yellows in autumn are now dead skeletons covered in snow. It's stark and a bit depressing.

W. Michael Johnson's avatar

Bad music I can bear, but I have left stores because of their smell. In fact I have a theory that Bed Bath & Beyond went down because all the stores smelled like the one in my town—completely permeated with a sickening perfume that I could tolerate for about four minutes before a headache started somewhere at the base of my brain.

Stephen Beals's avatar

This is why I always enter Macy's from any direction other than the front of the store.

Plum's avatar

Will someone please start a cat retreat??? And then can I borrow a cat???🐈‍⬛

Stephen Beals's avatar

I have one right here that you can borrow. She’s driving me crazy this morning.

Charlotte Henley Babb's avatar

It hardly ever snows in South Carolina, even in the Upstate near the mountains. But it hovers just above snow temps, that 38 degrees of the most dense form of water. When it does, the milk and bread disappears, 4-wheel-drive vehicles play NASCAR, and the rest of us try to shelter in place.

I love your cartoons!

heydave56's avatar

I gleefully confess to watching the cooker mug expressions. Most of the time, I anticipate their moods, but they are still my totem figures.

Figurines.

Christine Lehman's avatar

just want to tell you how much I appreciate your strip! I read it on GoComics but don't comment as much there. I'm especially a fan of the little signs on the desks - and read every one of them first, before reading the main part of the strip! Very creative and funny - thank you!!

Stephen Beals's avatar

Thank you so very much! I really appreciate it.

Shefi1280's avatar

Reading this for the second time, I notice there’s a sub-title which, when read right after the title sounds vaguely familiar… and the mention of California… (sound of penny dropping with geologic speed).

💡

And I thought it had been an example of St Beal’s poetic imagination 😅

Lou's avatar

The cold never bothered me, the wind , now that's a different story. Its like, " its not the heat, its the humidity". Lake effect snow is my zen.

Faith Senie's avatar

Did the Fun Fact about music go with a comic? This musician is hoping so, but it just suddenly appeared without one. I have been known to sing along with songs playing in stores…

Stephen Beals's avatar

Oh, that’s weird. It’s gone. Frankly, I suspect foul play and possible subterfuge. Or maybe because I did this way too late on little sleep, but that seems like a long shot. I would insert the comic here, but picture insertions in comments doesn’t seem to be a thing on Substack.

Faith Senie's avatar

I think you can edit the original post and add it back in. Won’t get emailed out, but anyone who reads it online will see it.

Stephen Beals's avatar

The answer: pretty bad.

Stephen Beals's avatar

And with that marvelous reminder (which should've been obvious, which is why I didn't immediately think of it), I raced back and added it. Thank you!

Faith Senie's avatar

Sweet! And yes, as a customer, I find the relentless holiday music this time of year gets annoying pretty quickly. I can’t imagine how bad it is for the employees!

DavidHill's avatar

It’s bloody cold today, and colder tomorrow. But no snow yet, alas :)

Did you change a substack setting for this posting that prevents images from being opened? Phone readers say “please restore”. If we can’t open the panels as images, we can’t expand them to read your pithy signs. :(

And we want to :)

[60 secs later.. images are working. So that’s “thank you” or “nevermind”, depending.. ]

Stephen Beals's avatar

I did nothing, but if I accomplished something by doing nothing I will pretend that I did something.

Bill Lukens's avatar

And I passed up the other 4 substack suggestions to read your art first. Thanks.

Bill Lukens's avatar

And doggy spas for those of us unfortunate enough to suffer from cat, rabbit, and horse allergies. I really miss cat critters and horses, bunnies too.

Miriam Boland's avatar

I think, in my self-involved small town way, what I dislike Most about climate change so far is how snow has disappeared from the bottom of the state I live in. I love snow! Sometimes I think i should move to the arctic circle, or to the land of the Alps, where I can see snow on mountains a lot, and maybe participate in it. I like to be cold, not hot. I’m one of those people who puts their head in the fridge to get cool sometimes, despite being yelled at by others who see it! Hopefully I will evolve further in my feelings about climate change, emotionally that is. Objectively, I *am* concerned! ☃️

Stephen Beals's avatar

I like the cold because my ancestors evolved in a cave on an iceberg, but it’s a little crazy here. We went from the surface of the sun to deep space in a couple of weeks, weather wise. The climes, they are a changin’.

Miriam Boland's avatar

Yeah, and before icebergs your ancestors (and mine no doubt, tho not listed on Ancestry.com) were in the steaming sands of Ethiopia and nearby jungles! 🦍🐘🦏 🌞

Stephen Beals's avatar

They probably got lost while looking for some new flint. This explains a lot about me.

Miriam Boland's avatar

The getting lost? Or looking for a new kind of lighter? You could always check with the Flintstones! 🗿

Stephen Beals's avatar

Definitely the getting lost part. That sounds like a family trait passed down through the ages.

Miriam Boland's avatar

Guess that’s why so many folks love Ancestry.com so they can find families they’ve lost track of. We found one branch of ours that had a coat of arms that looked like a picnic blanket, just red and yellow squares. And we still like to picnic!

DAVID's avatar

I live where snow usually used to fall sometime in November or December and stay until March. Now you never know. It falls and melts. Decides to try again; falls, melts, falls, melts and then finally just gives up.