The New 60 Comic

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Man Plans, God Laughs 03/17/22

You know the phrase “Man plans, God laughs?” When you think about it, it’s really true. Though why God laughs - I haven’t the slightest idea. I remember a case in my misspent youth. I was driving back to college with a friend of mine. We planned. We rolled a bag of joints for the roughly 17-hour trip from NY to St Louis. Please don’t judge. I was a teenager. At any rate, somewhere along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a police car comes up the left lane, sirens blaring, going at least 100 miles per hour. After cursing, we lifted out the ashtray and placed the bag in the cavity, and then stuffed the ashtray back in place. I envisioned a phone call, “Hi, mom and dad, about my second semester, I’m gonna spend it in a Pennsylvania prison instead.” But God laughed. The cop just whizzed right past us, chasing whoever he was chasing. After a massive and collective sigh of relief, we removed the ash tray and went for the baggie. Not there. It had fallen into the innards of the car and was likely lying untouched somewhere on the Penn Turnpike. Man plans, God laughs. Our comic was a bit less dramatic illustration of this saying. In this case John stood out on his deck and looked out over his property and talked with his wife about prepping the garden the next day. They went to sleep that night and when they woke up in the morning, there was an issue. 6 inches of snow had fallen. God laughed. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the grist for our first comic.

The next comic is something we’ve all been through. Most recently, my wife and I babysat for our granddaughter so our daughter and her husband could have a night out. They had only two remotes to their tv. They patiently explained how to use them and in what order, and after our grandchild went to bed we went to watch a movie. Guess what? I had no idea what to do and so, despite having hi-def multiple streaming options at our disposal, we ended up reading. It has also happened to John while staying at 1) a beach house and 2) a ski rental. Each one presented a new and different problem trying to figure out how the tv works, regardless of how detailed the owner's instructions were. Whether you end up reading, playing cards, Monopoly or a mean game of Twister, you don’t end up watching tv. To each his own. And with that, this half of the New 60 is signing off. Because I'm on vacation visiting friends in London. And I'm being kind of rude.

See you next week.

Cheerio,

Andy and John