Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 13, 2025

Baby steps?

I’m so old I remember when closing the trunk lid took quite a lot of oomph, especially on the kind of second or third hand junkers my dad drove.

Alternate plan: Eat sandwiches that are so heavy that lifting them to my mouth burns calories.

Step 2.5 Set gym bag in parking lot. Step 4 (fixed): Drive home, leaving gym bag behind.

Next Day: Can’t find gym bag. Go back to bed.

Don’t forget to stop by the burger place near the gym.

There’s more to it than that, though. At some point you have to put the gym bag back in the trunk. And all those steps to get to the rear of the car and back. It all adds up.

Best not overdo it Pig!

Have we ever seen Pig drive?

At least he’s driving to the gym. That’s something.

Don’t forget to park as close to the door as possible, this will allow you to spend more time in the gym.

Pig if you are taking care of your own home you do not need a gym for there is always something to do ;-)

As they said on Car Talk, walk to the gym, then turn around a walk home.

Also, turn the key manually, rather than using the remote start option…

I’ve always heard that the hardest step in a running program is the one out the door.

Lift those beer mugs! A one and A two….

Haha! It’s funny because he will be by the exhaust of his car.

Go for it pig. Focus! Unless you have a Fiesta. Both Fords. You don’t drive a Prius do you? I’ve lost all respect for you.

Pig could have the gym bag on the seat next to him and not risk pulling a muscle lifting it out of the trunk.

If I can get myself into the car, I know I’ll get to the gym and do my workout. The hardest part for me is always convincing myself to get in the car. That’s especially true after being away for awhile or after a sickness.

At my gym, I actually saw a lady finish doing laps downstairs and taking a one floor elevator downstairs to the weights area. You can’t make this stuff up!

Lots of discipline.

What will you do with the gym bag, Pig?

Don’t bother Pig, nobody likes a skinny pig

I’d add a similar idea – put away the remote when you watch TV. Problem with that is, I wouldn’t even know how to control the TV directly from the screen itself

I’d like to think Stephan is having a pop at people that drive to gyms and back.

A neighbour opposite me does this every week and l asked her how far it was.

“Two miles.”

I suggested that if she walked or even jogged, she wouldn’t need a gym.

GoComics won’t allow me to post her reply.

My new Ford Explorer warns against doing this. You can screw up the auto obstruction detection if you close it manually they say.

Dave Barry once said something to the effect that there’s nothing more American than driving your car to a building where you ride the elevator to the third floor and exercise on machines that simulate walking and climbing stairs.

For entertainment, buy a trunk lid without automatic closing and that opens to just above your loves’ reach…

I just renamed my John to Gym and I work out every morning.

It’s a start! Burned 13 calories!!!

I knew a woman who would drive around the parking lot at the gym for 20-30 minutes just trying to find a parking space near the entrance so she didn’t have to walk too far.

In the past couple of weeks, I have noticed Pig and Goat strips that, by the dialog, seem like they should be Pig and Rat strips. Interesting.

By the time he closes the trunk, he’s too exhausted to hit the gym…yeah might as well stop at the burger place!

You forgot walk to car

forgot step 5….open gym door walk around gym then drive home

One step at a time is his approach.

Pig has to jump a dozen times before his luck allows him to reach the trunk lid.

My trunk doesn’t have a button. Whenever I get something out of someone else’s trunk I reach up to close it. In the last few years I’ve noticed that people seem to be finding this increasingly strange.

or one can drive aimlessly around the largest American city by land size as this senior did the other night. Trying to find my way home in “the still of the night” with no success. Finally decided best stop and call the police and they got me where I belong and no not the looney bin. LOL.And what was so urgent to be out late: buying kitty food for 2 spoiled rottens.

At my current gym, there is a lady who sits on one of the exercise machines and looks at her phone for almost an hour. We’ve figured out she’s forced to go the gym by her company, and her phone gives them her location.

What does Pig do with the gym bag after he takes it out?

and don’t forget to reward yourself with an ice cream cone on the way home!

“Exercise Regimen For The New Year” will probably be quit by the second Friday in January…

Did Pig just plan to leave his gym bag in the parking lot?

On our car you have to press the button to close the tailgate. Otherwise you’ll break the mechanism.

Pig will run out of gym bags soon.

Sounds about right to me…

i thought it was going to be, “get into trunk and close the lid and take a nap.”