Utility Pole with Weird Symbol

Does anybody know what the hell that means?

Joe Draws a Banana

Joe returns to his artwork, this time a nostalgic digi-ma-doodle of a banana,¹ his favorite food from back in the day when he had a stomach and the general set of innards required to eat. Poor Joe. No more bananas.

1 There was indeed a request for Joe drawing on an iPad^a though the requested subject was not a banana. But sometimes Joe asserts his own free will.

 a As this doodle was in turn drawn on an iPad. Again, wheels within wheels, man. (This seems to be the catch phrase of Joe's current day.)

Joe Picks Out a Halloween Costume

With the Halloween season nearly upon us, Joe must choose a costume. What will he be? Ah! Joe decides to dress as...  a skeleton.¹

More to come!

1 Wheels within wheels, man.

Joe Plays Roller Derby

After solving the debt ceiling crisis, Joe blows off a little steam with a vigorous round of roller derby.

What's next in Joe the Skeleton's New Big, Very Exciting Day?

Floyd and Sunday Morning Shadows

DJ Sweater

June made DJ a sweater out of an old partnerless argyle sock. Brilliant.¹

1 I always thought the little-dogs-in-outfits thing was just frou-frou. Turns out that little Chihuahua-esque critters are actually prone to chills. Mr. DJ shivers when there's a nip in the air. An argyle sock-sweater is just the thing.

Trot, Trot, Trot, Trot, Trot

Brown Beer and Orange Sandals

Joe Solves the Debt Ceiling Crisis

Having started his day with some quiet painting, Joe steps out into the world and solves the debt ceiling crisis.¹ Go Joe! More to come in Joe's New Big, Very Exciting Day.

As per Marco.

Sarah at Galatoire's

Water Meter

Favorite Idiomaticisms of the Past Couple of Days

• Eavesdropping at Whole Foods: My cashier, talking about her niece or somesuch, described here as "spurled". It took me a moment to parse: "spurled" = "spoiled".
• The girls wanted doughnuts. It was early. I stumbled bleary-eyed into the doughnut shop. The lady at the counter asked me, "Are you woke yet?" (Again — partially due to my not-woke-yet-ness — it took me a moment to parse: "What's that?" "Are you woke yet?" "Oh, yeah, trying to get there.")

Woman with Short Hair

Walkin' the Dogs

With our new addition, I now walk two dogs. It's like flying two kites at once. And one of the kites is young and goofy and doesn't quite understand how this business works. There's lots of tangling. Good fun.

Joe Paints a Landscape

Before entering into the hectic fray of his busy day, Joe takes a meditative moment to paint a landscape.¹

1 Okay, okay. This wasn't actually one of the requests. (We'll get to those.) But a while back, Matt asked me to paint landscapes. Trouble is, we don't have many landscape opportunities in our densely packed little city. (And landscapes are hard, and I'm lazy.^a) So as a bit of smart-assery, I outsourced the landscape painting to Joe.^b

a Though I may still get around to them one of these days. 

b For what it's worth, the landscape that Joe is painting is in fact a cheeky insider reference to a landscape I did myself paint as a young lad, the Lost Painting at the End of the Earth. So... I've drawn a landscape-drawing-copy of a landscape-painting I once painted, and I've drawn Joe in turn painting a landscape-painting of that landscape-drawing-copy. Wheels within wheels, man.

Joe the Skeleton's New Big, Very Exciting Day1

Perhaps you remember Joe the Skeleton. Perhaps you don't. A recap. Joe is a skeleton. He wears a funny hat. He has big exciting days. And he does whatever the readers say he does (a sort of crowd-sourced bloggy choose-your-own-adventure).

Now, after retreating from the limelight for a spell, Joe is back. And he's ready for a new big, very exciting day. And you have to say what he does during this big day. And I, the mere facilitator of this illustrative narrative, draw it. And then you tell me the next thing. And I draw it. And so on and so forth. And Joe’s day unfolds with great fun (and bizarre unpredictability).

Let the game begin! What happens first on Joe the Skeleton's New Big, Very Exciting Day?

1 As per Marco's request.

Meteorological Musings: Winds of Change

Well, Karen was a shoo-shoo:¹ puffs of wind, piddles of rain, a few events cancelled.² But now this cold front has moved through, and suddenly we have our New Orleans version of autumn. Right now, at 6 a.m., it's a frigid sixty-four degrees.³ (Brr.) And highs today in the mere seventies. We have entered one of those brief spells where our weather here is what might be considered perfect.

1 A nothin' storm.

2 Our weekends are so busy these days — kids activities and whatnot — that was the most significant consequence, a comparatively unbooked schedule, a quiet treat.

3 Tangentially (that's what footnotes are for), DJ Tiny is curled up in my lap, and he has the hiccups. Oh, there. They just stopped. Dogs with hiccups are funny.

Party Time

Driving home just now, I pulled up at a light behind a construction guy in a battered white truck. As soon as he came to a stop, he popped open the driver-side door, walked around to the back of the truck, opened a cooler in the back, took out a Bud Light tall-boy, got back in the truck, and when the light turned green, rolled on his way. I guess party time couldn't wait.

Fat Boy

I don't know about you, but that name does not make me want to eat one.