Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 12, 2009

Lesson learned.

Just when Calvin started reading and staying quiet, Dad decides it is time to go home ?? Calvin would have done that earlier if only he knew.

If the battery’s dead, they’re going to spend a little more time getting to know themselves.

Don’t forget Hobbes! I don’t see him anywhere.

@ Gretchen’s Mom: Thanks. I might have to change the number in my name, though. Last year, it was just Jane Doe (see sketch to left) and three fawns. This year, it’s Jane, two fawns, a yearling she employs as a babysitter, and a NEW mom I haven’t seen before, with three of her own

And all this is in the middle of a city, one block away from a major thoroughfare. (Okay, not a big city; sort of a satellite town.) A web of snaky little ravines/dry creek-beds makes the area unsuitable for major development, thank goodness; and since we were having our own little recession years before the rest of the country, three properties next door to me have been abandoned and gone back to wilderness.

Hobbes is already in the car. He can’t wait to get home either.

4deer: that’s cool. i grew up and still live in what was canada’s first suburban city. the “green belts” that were planned were originally just overgrown lawns with a few sticks planted at regular intervals. 45 years later, the trees line pathways that run for miles and wildlife has corridors to live in and travel through as needed. my late mother saw deer several times on the “greenbelt” behind the house, and i met a couple (mother and fawn) on my favourite golf course last year. (they were browsing their way towards the south end of town but i didn’t have my camera to take a photo. spectacular feeling, to be so close - within a dozen feet!)

Calvin’s father is in close proximity with a child prodigy. Coincidentally, they are also in close propinquity.

Artybee: Hobbes is still swimming, he can’t stop enjoying it.

I thought, Calvin has begun to have fun reading a book in nature! I like this!

…AAAaannnd…it builds character! (…whatever THAT means!)

LX013: I thought the comics were left at home, no ?

It’s Calvin’s “nature” to read comic books. Maybe he should graduate to “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Calvin might actually enjoy those seven volumes, and it would keep him out of mischief for awhile.

We also how learn how cranky Dad gets when Calvin screws up.

Wait they hit the road and get home.

What happens if the car doesn’t start? Dad might hit Calvin rather than ‘hit the road’, and become guilty of ‘assault and battery’.

Isn’t Hobbs still wet?. How’s he going to smell on the trip home?

Can dad drive without glasses?

Leunardeuler: Perhaps he reads Comics! It must be interesting enough to have fun! Poor Dad, driving the car will be hard for him without glasses!

Would that not be assault and dead battery?

This reminds me of every family vacation I took as a child, ever… except the family christmas trip to disney, that one I’m repressing for the sake of my sanity.

Mom can drive, can’t she?

We’ll have to see how they manage with the dead car battery and Dad missing his glasses.

4 deer, that’s a cute story. I love deer and would love to see them up close. But not standing in front of our vehicle on a fast highway.

4dear Great story. The closest I ever got to that feeling was vacationing at the grand canyon. I was waiting on the tour bus when I noticed the deer, but I didn’t want to do anything to scare them so I tried taking photos from inside the bus. They were about the only photos that didn’t turn out from my whole trip to Arizona.

GretchensMom, where is your brother-in-law’s house? I just might be interested.

4deerinmyyard, you wouldn’t live near Ashland, OR would you? There’s so many deer running around there that the residents put up chain link fences to keep them away from their fruit trees and gardens.

The Pacific Northwest is teeming with deer, bear, cougar and squirrels!! Lots of parks for camping too.

4deer, in Kansas City deer are considered a nuisance. They destroy gardens and landscaping. Several cities within the metro area are trying to devise humane yet safe ways to reduce the deer population.

Our dogs discourage any deer from coming into our yard but I have to confess that I do enjoy driving around a nearby lake because I always see at least one if not several small herds of deer. They are one of God’s more graceful creatures.

Somebody mentioned yesterday, that this isn’t the real Calvin. I’d have to agree. Look at the facts: Calvin peacefully reading (unheard of!), and no Hobbes in sight. This must be the Evil Calvin!

Puddleglum2 said, about 5 hours ago

“Maybe he should graduate to “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Calvin might actually enjoy those seven volumes, and it would keep him out of mischief for awhile.”

Please no. As a child, I’m not sure that I ever found a series of books to be so disappointing. Here I am reading what I was led to believe was a fun and exciting fantasy novel and soon recognize that the books were merely a vehicle for C.S. Lewis to preach christian evangelism to children. As a kid, much like Calvin, I hated being manipulated by adults who would “hide the ball” in this manner. (Still do for that matter…)

At least Tolkein’s LOTR or Asimov’s Foundation books incorporate christian values without the trite and obvious allegory of CofN. Bleah… 30 years later and just the thought of Narnia still turns my stomach a bit…

Stede_Bonnet; I agree about the LOTR and Foundation books. Read them as a young teen, but couldn’t really get into the CofN books until I was older … after I saw the first movie … and got to talk with a pastor about the hidden agenda of CS Lewis. I read one of Lewis’ books as a child, and tho’ entertaining, it was definitely a bit above me and obviously evangelistic.

Mom & Dad even if you are real careful in loading the car camping LAW states at least two articles will be left behind I bet its not Calvin or Hobbes

Oh, and how dad leaves the car lights on?

lesson to be son forgoten

I think it was Out of the Silent Planet that I read when I was in college. Positively made me sick, the way women were told to obey their men. Something about “This is the way marriage is supposed to be, the man is lord and master of the woman.” Turned me off to this day.

LOTR is not much better. The few women in the story are impossibly beautiful and ethereal. I guess these authors didn’t know much about women.

@wicky, love that pun “assault and dead battery”! the sort of thing that you say “of course” when you read it, it’s obvious, BUT you would never have thought of it for yourself, so it’s a good thing there are other people around to help you appreciate things!

I know the wonderful feeling you can get seeing wild animals. I had the next best thing in June and July, watching peregrine falcons nesting, on a webcam that changes the display every 5 seconds or so. There are lots of such sites on the web. I got to see the eggs, the mother sitting on them, the chicks hatching and growing and finally leaving the nest (flying).

The one I watched was at Genesee in Alberta, Canada:

http://www.capitalpower.com/About/OurOperations/Pages/Peregrine.aspx

Right now there’s not much to see. The camera is turned away from the nest towards the countryside (great hunting grounds for falcons). There won’t be anything till next spring, when the birds come back from their winter vacations and prepare for the next brood.

I know a lot more about falcons than I did just a few months ago!

I wonder if Calvin would have enjoyed that? Wait, I seem to recall - wasn’t there a sick animal that he put in a shoebox, trying to save it, but it died?

Did the month already pass for their camping trip? Seemed to me the time was too short for them to have the camping trip. Weird! Time must be flied so fast!

I am sure Hobbes, the stuffed tiger and Calvin’s imaginary friend is still getting WET before they go home.

I once hit one of two deers while it crossed the road. I drove on the road way to home in the nightime. All of sudden, I saw them crossing the road, slammed the brake and already hit the deer’s rump. My car started to fall apart. bleeep that deers!

The Skulker:

My in-laws live outside a tiny town in the middle of nowhere in Georgia called Carnesville.

DickFoto:

GMAB!!!!!!!!!!

If you think our comments are so lame and you know that we leave them “day after day”, then what does that say about YOU and what YOU’RE doing here???!!! Doesn’t that make you JUST as lame for not only reading them but also feeling compelled to make such a statement???!!! Maybe you should just go kill YOURSELF as well!!!!!

This forum is about Calvin and his (stuffed) tiger, Hobbes. If you don’t like what anyone has to say about it then don’t read any farther down than the bottom of the comic panel! It’s people like you and comments like that that make the world a much less nicer place to live in so just do us all a favor: go away and don’t ever darken our forum section again with such rude, nasty, and unpleasant comments!!!

GretchensMom

Good for you. You pretty much said what I was thinking (although I have no idea what GMAB means and maybe I don’t want to know). Personally, I would say TALHSOMA to our friend who signed up just to bad mouth us.

Maybe Calvin’s getting a chance to drive home?? ;-) And Hobbes is already in the car reserving the driving seat for him?

@ Lewreader: How’s he going to smell? Probably with his nose, same as usual. :-D

@ Wiseguy: I wish all conurbs had substantial and well-planned greenbelts. That way, when civilization falls, the natural environment will have the best chance of rapid recuperation.

@ Stede Bonnet: Yeah, ain’t it a shame? What should be a fun, rollicking story, spoiled by the definite impression you’re being muscled. And it only got worse, the older he got and the more he wrote.

@ Music Nut: I’m in KCK, as a matter of fact.

@ Dick: Why on Earth you would feel compelled to read such lame comments about a friggin’ comic strip – day after day – is beyond me.

@ Rina Farina: Thanks for the nifty link! In exchange, I offer: http://ysmarko.com/2009/hawk-cam/ (That one will either cause you to take up hang-gliding tomorrow–or trigger an attack of acrophobia.) http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/washington/misc/art28334.html http://www.wvec.com/cams/eagle.html http://wdfw.wa.gov/wildwatch/eaglecam/ http://www.briloon.org/watching-wildlife/eagle-cam.php

@ Gretchen’s Mom: I feel ya, sis, but in re your reply to the trollish suggestion of mass suicide: never descend to the level, hon. (It always amazes me that there are actually people who feel compelled to announce: “You are different from me! You have more imagination than I do! You have enough intelligence to communicate with a variety of people on a variety of subjects! I can’t stand that!” I mean, if it were I with that problem, I’d strive to keep it to myself.)

@ All Critter Fans: I’ve got a really LONG deer story, but don’t want to take up the space here unless it’s okay with everybody.

with all the fresh air and sunshine , maybe both calvin and hobbs will sleep most of the way home, if not it will make for a long trip

dickfoto: (or is it richard cranium)

if you don’t like the comments here, there are other comic web sights you could be reading

It’s amazing how perceptive Calvin can be when he wants to be.

Calvin finally stops annyoing his dad for once in his life.

and by the way I think that your comments are awesome guys.

Some “family time” they’ve spent – chasing each other away – especially both parents unloading Calvin.

We have a herd of deer that come up out of our gulley and feed in our front yard.

The Chronicles of Narnia comment was partly for comic effect, but maybe Calvin would enjoy the books. As I said many hours ago, Calvin is a child prodigy (in some respects). How many six-year-olds say “proximity” (among other such words)? Besides, if you don’t like the “manipulations” in the allegory, just read for entertainment and ignore the rest. C of H isn’t necessarily for everybody, anyway, although I read some of them to my two younger children. My son read all the volumes and enjoyed them greatly and still discusses them from time to time. He’s a Christian so I suppose that might make a difference.

To wicky: “assault and dead battery” is exactly what I meant, but you caught it, so good for you. It appears that you’re a punster and like to use plays on words. At least that’s the indication. Go for it! Maybe I should have inserted (dead) before battery, but then you wouldn’t have made your comment, at least not that one.

Just as a goat (contralto or mezzo) says “Mehhh!”, and a sheep (tenor) says “Baahhh!”, so also a deer (baritone) says “Nuhhhh!” If you’ve ever heard a laryngectomy patient speak, that’s about what it sounds like.

For some reason I have a knack for imitating that voice. (Developed the knack before I ever heard a laryngectomy patient, so I wasn’t trying to mimic or mock!) Anyway, last year one of Jane Doe’s dimwitted fawns was browsing in my back yard, alone, and I was sitting on the back stoop being as invisible as I could, when I heard this strange, quiet, deep, ratchety “Nuhhh!” noise coming from the thick brush beyond my back fence. There was Jane, barely visible, telling her kid, “Get over here!” Without compunction I started imitating her, confusing the fawn. “C’mere, sugar!” I said, in deer-voice. Fawn looked up, noticed my existence, stared for a while; neither of us moving. Finally, chicken-mom nerved herself to come get the youngun.

Several days later, different fawn, alone, very close to the house. I made myself as still and small as possible for as long as possible. But every mosquito in six counties congregates at my back stoop the moment I sit still, and finally I couldn’t stand it another moment and had to swat at them. The fawn leaped six feet sideways. In deer-voice, I said, “Never mind; it’s just me. I’m sorry I startled you. I was just swishing at the skeeters. Just as you swish at the flies with your tail, so I have to swish at bugs sometimes too.” I shook my head back and forth, sending my pony-tail flying. “See? Like that. Nothing to concern yourself about; I was just swishing at the skeeters.” Demonstrated again with another pony-tail swish.

And the little fawn said (or seemed to say), “Oh, okay, I get it. You sure keep your tail in a weird place,” and went back to gnoshing on the pokeweed, seven or eight feet away from the back stoop.

By the end of the summer, sometimes Jane seemed to be leaving all three of them in my back yard on purpose, and going off to forage by herself.

It’s amazing how loud they can snort when they’re trying to see if a boogie-man is out there.

A deer freaked me out one day when I was going over the covered bridge near us. The sun was going down so it was semi-dark in there. I was halfway through and I spotted a deer just standing there on the bridge in front of my car. I didn’t know what to do because I was afraid he’d charge my car. My son and husband both had deer run into their cars at night and they really do alot of damage. I was just thinking of slowly backing up when the deer got that freaked look off his face, and slowly walked between my car and the wall of the bridge heading towards the back of my car. I looked in my rearview mirror and he was just checking the car out to see what it would do next. I slowly pulled forward and got off the bridge onto the road. When I got up the road a ways I pulled off so I could stop trembling and finish driving.