I’m not a particularly superstitious spork, but clearly a curse is afoot.
It started in mid-April when The Snottening rampaged through our household. As the sole bastion of health during that incursion, I made sure the cold medications stayed in good supply and the Kleenex-to-trash conveyor belts were oiled up. Squeaky belts are not conducive to sleep when the coughing, sneezing, wheezing, and other assorted biological sounds that accompany a Snottening outbreak are already on the clock.
Oh, to return to those halcyon days…
The first week in May, with perfect Spring weather growing our meadow by at least a foot daily, the mower decided that forward was not a direction it was willing to travel. The last repair place left it in worse shape than when it entered, but it was the only place I could find at the time. You’d think “riding lawnmower repair” would be a thing, but apparently it’s some kind of Illuminati underground cabal working silently in the background. They probably have to dodge assassins in the employ of Big Lawn Care.
Alas, it turned out not to matter. The very next morning I was hit square in the lungs with The Snottening, v2. There are only so many bodily orifices that can produce mucus, but I assure you they were all clogged and thus I was sweating the stuff. By the time it got to my eyes, and no, I’m not making that up, the doctor believed that it might not be viral in nature.
Fast forward four blissful anitbiotic-swallowing days and I’m somehow feeling alive once again. We’re not sure how tall the lawn is, it’s certainly higher than the roof, but we’re now in the process of dowsing for a repair person whose technique involves tools rather than checking fluid levels and alternating bouts of swearing and prayer.
Alas, The Churchians was scheduled to begin on June 4. Not gonna happen. Too many heart attacks, illnesses, and broken machinery got in the way. The new date is July 8. We could probably start on the 1st or 4th, but nobody will be around that weekend. We’ll continue to post as we can. If we resort to an exorcist or a safari expedition to clear a path to the street, we’ll post pictures.
Otherwise, Codex has promised to post the Mother’s Day card Glyph drew for her, which caused some much-needed laughter yesterday afternoon. Look for it sometime later this week.
–> Quizzer
Tempest in a Teardrop: The Churchians 
Hope y’all are feeling better soon. So, don’t die, and stuff. If you die, you can’t write more of these great comics for us to read. And that’s what’s important, obviously.
Re: the lawn mower. The evolutionary battle between lawn mowers and grass has seen an upsurge in guerrilla tactics by the lawn brigade. The grass has started an ambitious project of evolving thorn-like teeth, strong and sharp enough to damage both tires and belts, while winding the stems snake-like around the blade axles in a form of suicide attack. They have also developed a spore attack mode, with the goal of disabling the operators or the dreaded whirling blades of death.
Stay safe. It’s a jungle out there.
-Your loyal fans
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Thanks, and yes, our grass has thorns. At least, the blackberry portions do…
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Medium-sized ongoing gripe: Why do you program your blog to have the text in pale gray instead of easily-readable black?
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I didn’t realize we were. It shows up black-on-white on my PC. What device are you using?
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I see grey-on-white on Vivaldi, Opera, and Firefox on Linux, and on Opera on Android. The oddball is Chrome on Android which renders the text black. No idea about Windows or Mac behaviors.
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Using Chrome on Android here. It’s still grey to me. As I type this comment, the text is black. When it gets posted, it turns grey. About the same grey tone as the bottom corners of the banner picture.
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