Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for October 04, 2010

Great view you have there, Chuck…

A caboose would be more practical.

Now Chuck has a place to put boxes

Steel wheels, no blocks!

Got emotionally caught up in the bidding process, did he………….

A guest house for the mother/sister-in-law

That must have been an interesting willing bid. “Boxcar: $20. Shipping: $20,000. No refunds”

I want a big Atlantic! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-4-2_(locomotive)

That shipment must have been easy to track.

Time to plant a fast-growing hedge.

Cleo reminds me of me at the end of the day, heading for a gin on the rocks.

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy

And she’s hoping he doesn’t want to keep up with the Jones.

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy&uc_full_date=20201004

That’s seven long hours in dog days!

Water you doing, Cleo? It’s Miller time!

Little did Chuck know what series of events he would set off when he decided to buy one of those ugly old convex containers for a tool shed.

For shame! Never forget to change the water every morning!

The boxcar is for Bertha & Willie.

You know Cleo is just going to slop half of that water all over the floor, anyway.

No water for an entire hour? How would Claude feel if he couldn’t find the TV remote for 10 minutes?

It’s a parched landscape, indeed…

in the Oct th  2020 “CLEO and COMPANY” on Sherpa…

Cleo’s acting talent is well documented…

But most dogs I’ve known, and even some cats, have Oscar-quality chops when it comes to acting out their needs and preferences.

“You NEVER feed me!” being an act best performed in front of visitors, with appropriately saucer-shaped eyes and pathetic whimpers.

I had one who, when offered any food with liver in it would fall back on her haunches and rapidly scoot away from the bowl at top speed…

then snap her head to give me a pained look reserved for mass murderers of small animals.

A friend’s cat would refuse to drink from anything except a running faucet…

She did a pretty good imitation of Cleo in panel one when she wanted a drink and the tap was turned off…

including climbing into laps and throwing herself onto her back, emitting a melancholy low howl.

Some small children are good at it too…

By the time they’re teens it’s not cute, and they tend to learn that we can ignore it.

But a friend’s daughter used to visit me for a week every summer, when she was preschool and kindergarten age.

Her way of saying “May I have a drink of water please?” especially in front of others…

was to throw herself abruptly on the floor… and moan, in a loud stage whisper…

“I am SO thirsty! "

The tears in her eyes helped too.

Good morning Ballardeers! Q Date: 205.98358.41 Last crisp day of highs under 60F for a bit.

Looks like the neighbors are gonna build a rolling She-Shed.

Turd comes and gets me and sits in front of them looking sad when his bowls are empty, but you expect nothing less than today’s drama from our favorite basset.

Y’all keep your whistles wet. (((((Hugs!)))))

Before I go, I want to thank Stelbel for posting my puzzle solution yesterday.

The hosting site I use, Postimage.org, just wouldn’t upload anything.

Of course, tonight it’s fine.

Anyway, I had mentioned that you could see, by comparing it with the first solution I posted,

what the tenth difference was, that I missed at first… and just couldn’t see for ages.

I mention it because Montana Lady said the one she missed was tiny, so it probably wasn’t the same one.

It’s funny to me that we all feel like there’s some sort of order, and there isn’t.

The one that stumps one person may be another person’s first one found.

Occasionally there’s one little thing a lot of people miss… but sometimes … not.

I usually find them all… but yesterday I thought I had made the official solution and I missed an OBVIOUS one.

In spite of past experience, I think I just stopped looking after I found nine…

but then after Tigressy found ten, my brain refused to see another one.. until suddenly… bingo!

There it was.

I think it’s a good thing our brains don’t all think alike…

That way, people fill in the gaps for each other.

Creative types invent things that no one has ever thought of, make art, and write music, that no one has ever seen or heard.

Imagine if we all had the same ideas…

There’d only be one color t-shirt at the store, and only one flavor at Baskin Robbins ice cream.

See… if you miss a difference in the puzzle… maybe you’re creative.

I’m not sure how I got there… but let’s keep the thought.

;c)

Good morning Balladeers, (((((Plods))))) and Miss Susan.

My computer froze on the first panel, so I was trying to figure out what delicious new story line NH made for us. So, after being patient for a while, I saw that Cleo must’ve spilled her water dish again, and tried to give Claude a guilt trip.

The hospital finally let me come home. Now I’ve got three days of GoComics to catch up on. (Including Nighthawks’ puzzle!)

Glad you are back home, JP! I pray all went well for you, Sir!