Come On In, The Water's Fine!

Well readers, welcome to my first (and only) sober blog. There has been a lot of sentimental blogging about the 'mix and i fully intend to jump on that bandwagon. I would like to talk about something that really tug tug tugs away at my heart strings: Summertime. We all know its coming. Unless you are a complete fool, you are thinking about it obsessively with every wrinkle of your 'meat space' brain. Whether you're a kindergartner or a bitter 9to5er, the summer brings the hope that you will be able to do whatever the hell you feel like doing. Summer assists the ebb and flow of memories. Summer assuages the pain of Winter, and the sexual rejection of Spring. Summer is and always will be the most awesome time of our lives. And who do you think has tapped into the pit-stain yearnings of The People in a way that only some freaky shaman could? That's right blogosphere dwellers! Steve Alaniz and Francesco Marciuliano. The recent run of Sally strips has been raking the muck from our post-modern world and getting to the truth of what it means to be a righteous human being/family unit.
Let us have a recap of what has happened in the last week: Mon: Ted is chillaxin' in his neighbors pool (a true American hero!) Tues: War-painted faces, brandishing a yo-yo and a baseball glove, Faye and Hil have TP'd their own house in a summertime-freedom frenzy. Wed: the Forth fam is sweating it out on their couch, ice cream is melting, and Sally is having Looney Toon like hallucinations. Thurs: Ted Forth is a pillar of righteousness in the guise of a little league baseball coach. Fri: Hilary has caught the brightest firefly ever. (There are no fireflies in the Golden State, but the this strip really struck a chord with me. It takes the imagination of a child like Hil and the greatness of a mom like Sally to treasure a bug's ass and I love them for that.)
And so we find ourselves in the now, looking at today's strip. (If you haven't seen it go to http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/comics/archive.pl) I had a visceral reaction of joy to this strip. I can't find words to describe how i feel about the awesome way in which Sally and Ted are constantly exploiting our square world (maybe heart-rainbow explosion?) It hearkens back to a time before Hil was born, and Sally and Ted were a couple of happy-go-lucky free-spirits. (Sally! if i didn't have so much respect for Ted i would sweep you off of your feet and marry you!) The fact that they have managed to maintain that 'spark' while raising a child and having a boring office job is truly robust, and universally inspirational. Let us do another quick recap of the week. Mon: OMG HA HA! Tues: HAHA! cute. Wed: HA! so true! Thurs: HA!HAHA! Ted = #1 Fri: only an emoticon can describe this, ;) then... Sat: OMG! ROTFLOL!!! WHAM!!! back to the good ol' yucks!
Mr. Alaniz, Mr. Marciuliano, i salute you.