Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for March 13, 2025

Gus acting like Gus, the seldom appreciated grownup in the room.

I wrote day before yesterday …Arlo being wishy washy. Now I will write Stop it and move.

I had this problem too, when I was young (didn’t many of us?), but thank God, it all worked out.

I’d be a lot happier with a winning lottery ticket.

They all need to be close to each other. Now more than ever. You don’t get a do over on these life experiences. I’m sure Mary Lou wants everyone to be there for this blessed event. I’m surprised Gus hasn’t pointed this out to Arlo, and Gene will definitely benefit by having his father there to relate his own experiences.

Arlo really doesn’t want the change – but apparently, everyone else (including a lot of us readers) do. So…

This story is very powerfully true.

Satisfaction!

Jimmy is being wishy washy. I would think that the comic would be easier to write using all the characters he has created.

Sometimes you can be so afraid to take a step that you loose the opportunity. Knock Knock, Arlo.

After my job was moved to Mexico in ‘22 I decided it was time to get back home near family and friends so I decided to retire and find a place on a lake. It’s nothing fancy but beats living in an apartment.

I apologize if this has already been mentioned, but one has to wonder if this whole plotline is staging Mr. Johnson’s retirement.

I picture A&J finally deciding to move and the final strips are of them packing and saying goodbye to friends and neighbors. We are left behind as they get in the car and follow the moving truck. The very last strip is an epilogue.

It’s actually pretty consistent for someone with decision paralysis to be known as not adulting well, and to postpone big decisions.

Arlo, you’re not being wishy-washy. Your “gut” is telling you that you don’t want to move but the emotional extortion from the others is causing you grief and you’re not man enough to tell them what YOU want, or DON’T want.

Which is you don’t want to up-end your life and cater to those who only want to use you and Gus is a professional manipulator/user. He’ll tell you any lie for his own ends and he’ll pretend to care until the sale is made.

Just where did the pop culture myth BS of the goal of life is to BE HAPPY and to BE HAPPY 24/7? Just who is Gus (as well as Meg and Co.) to tell Arlo what will make him happy? If they really cared about that they’d shut their mouths and let A&J decide what is right for them instead of pressuring them to make Meg & Co. happy (well, happier, they’ll never be happy)

Time to strap on a pair Arlo and stop whining like a little girl.

Think we need to review the meaning of the word “comic”

Make a decision and live with it whether you like it or not. Not making a decision still gets you having to live with it.

I will do anything but make a decision.

But Arlo seems already to have found happiness in his life, just as it is. So why take a risk on losing that, by changing things?

I don’t get it, the house has been lived in and I don’t think the kids would sell Arlo a lemon of a house. So what’s the screw up?

My uncle knew he would go before my aunt. They downsized from a house to a condo together, so that burden wouldn’t be only on her, and they’d have a few happy years together at the new place. It worked out well for them.

You would think a man Arlo’s age would have his act more together. Is the a single reason why they shouldn’t move?

Whatever happened to the sailboat?

Define “happy.”

Gus seems to be doing all right, looking at the beach from his balcony.

We probably waited too long to move to our dream house. It would have been much easier 10 years earlier.

♫ If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice! ♫

A hands-free headset means he has a hand free for a cigar.

Score. Mr. Know-It-All finally showing a little humility. Liking this.

I’ve been reading the comments here for the past few days & something that no one has brought up is: in my retirement years, the LAST thing I would be doing is pulling up roots & moving to the coast where the hurricanes have been getting worse & are only going to get worse. Living in the same place is as your grandchildren might be nice, but I always loved going to visit Grandma. But Hurricane Alley is not where I’d want to sink my hard earned home equity, but it just might actually sink!

I have never had a goal of being happy; I was always focused on understanding it all. Being happy could possibly have been easier but the risk of being less happy is always present.

Ah, there we go. Yup, trying too hard to not make a mistake can be a mistake, and make you make mistakes!

Before I retired, I had a bunch of possible places to retire to: Westchester, a couple of places in New England, Portland OR area, more. I wanted to check them out and pick the best one.

Then my SO had to take a trip to the Denver area and loved it. I figured I could spend the rest of my life trying to find the “ideal” retirement place and never actually move. So now I’m in the Denver area. Problem solved.

I have been reading the comments here for a few days. My previous post hasn’t shown up, so I will make this one short. The last thing A & J need to do is to pull up stakes & sink all of their hard earned home equity into a house in Hurricane Alley. I certainly wouldn’t.

What happened to him that was so bitter

gave up on ‘happy’ satisfied with CONTENT.

this is a comic strip and instead I’m getting life lessons?

I’ll have to take a view opposed to most of the commenters here. I hope they don’t move. Why should they? To be closer to the kids? Maybe if they were in their 80’s, sure, but A & J only seem to be in their 60’s at most (even though they seemed older than me when I started reading the strip). What bothers me the most is that they would be throwing away all the time and expense and sweat and heartache associated with their present house, which they must have had for the last few decades. I love the house and where I live now, but I still miss our previous house and location and wish we still had it (as well as the current one!).

One other thing that I’d be concerned about, which I see frequently in the many advice columns on-line. It sounds like new parents often are expecting the grandparents (or at least grandma) to become a free full-time babysitter. I doubt that Gene and Mary Lou are thinking this way, but it sounds like Janis might be.

An elderly relative once told me, “Don’t follow your kids. They’ll move on ya.”

New reader here. Who is Gus? Thanks.

Id be happier with world peace and competent leadership

Arlo, you’re in your 60’s. You are the adult and you should rely on your experience. I am sure that you will make the right decision.

Gus is dropping some truth bombs today.