Pickles by Brian Crane for May 23, 2021

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

time for Opal to get out a needle and a spool of thread

It’s a funny enough strip (pun intended) but no laughing matter. I have bad arthritis in my thumbs and it’s painful to button and unbutton shirts. I’ve taken to wearing tee shirts or pullovers.

Snaps are better than velcro, which not only sounds awful when you open it, but reaches out and grabs fuzzy stuff if you pass within a few feet of it. I prefer zippers. Or for shirts, tee shirts: None of the difficulties AND inexpensive. No pockets which is a mixed blessing: No pens, but no leaked pen blots on your shirt too.

♪♫ When it comes crashin’ down and it hurts inside…

You’ve gotta take a stand, it don’t help to hide… ♪♫

A few years ago I started switching out my button shirts for the ones that have the snaps. They go much faster than the buttons.I started calling them “Snappies” for short. A comment that was started by a close friend. So we both know what we are talking about.

Plus if Opal and Earl ever get passionate, she can just rip his shirt open.

Good to see Earl doing his Bilbo Baggins routine!

Since I retired I have gained a lot of weight. I never wear belted pants anymore. I wear sweat pants all the time. I even have some that I call regular sweats pants and a couple that are my “good” sweat pants. I really need to lose weight for a variety of reasons. What really drives my wife crazy is if I yank them up as high as I can to my arm pits. She hates that! LOL :-)

Remember “Fats Stuff” on the “Smilin’ Jack” comic way back? His buttons would pop off and a chicken would grab them!

Tee Shirts with pockets. Don’t know why people carry more stuff but don’t want pockets.

Hey Opal ….. Earl did it again ;-)

Thankfully Earl was wearing an undershirt. His chest is probably even whiter than the shirt.

Gonna sound corny but I have come to like suspenders. In recent years, returns of lower back pain eventually became sciatica. Realized leather belts stretched across the area of the sciatic nerve. The tighter the belt, the more pain. Tried stretch belts and they modified the pressure somewhat, but still required tight fit. Tried looser waistband and suspenders which reduced binding and tension. Pain eventually subsided to occasional hits but more comfort overall. No, suspenders aren’t a cure, but they helped. At my age, whatever works.

Next step: jumpsuits with Velcro closures.

Oh Earl…SMH LMAO

Ole Earl……he really makes me laugh!

That was quite a senior moment there, Earl!

Velcro opening is the senior center’s song of lust.

Earl, wear pullovers, and try not to get lost while putting them on.

Wild velcros once roamed the grassy plains. The problem was that the bottom of their hooves acted like Velcro on the grass, so they literally walked the bottom off their feet, and bled to death. The last wild velcro was seen mating with a cheetah. Their offspring was velveeta, but that’s another story.

Amazing show of strength considering Opal reinforced the button thread with carbon fiber.

I’ve actually done that…

At a certain point, even snaps won’t do. Try velcro.

Are those Garmies?

Hulk Hogan goes through more shirts that way…

OK Earl, now you have to think up some reasonable excuse for the missing buttons when you give the shirt to Opal to be fixed.

good job Earl

Whether buttons or snaps, that ripping-the-shirt-open routine is even more fun if you’re wearing a Superman shirt underneath.

Yesterday over at Pluggers there were problems with shirt buttons, too.

My shirts snaps but I don’t consider them western.

I think this is a reprint, but still hilarious.

If you wear western shirts do one of two things, wear a tee shirt underneath, or buy western shirts where the underside of the snap is enclosed in cloth. Otherwise the underside of the snap WILL, and I mean maliciously, with forethought, grab and extract your chest hairs randomly, painfully, and at the worst possible moment.

Ladies, before you laugh, you only think you don’t have chest hairs, they’re very fine, in both senses, but it hurts when they’re pulled out prematurely.

I found the snaps to be cold.

I got rid of my button downs when I retired!