First, a word. You may have noticed that last week’s “Trumpet Call” comic was in black in white. That’s because our Color Department, otherwise known as John, otherwise known as our Department Of Color, was in bed feeling under the weather. But all is well as our entire Dept. of Color is back, large and in charge. We left the black and white version up on the site so you could see the evolution.

So the topic this week is independence. Both in how we celebrated this past Independence Day and the independence that comes with finally moving out of the house you raised your kids in, and moving into something more manageable, with lower taxes and freedom from mowing a lawn, tending to a flower bed and hauling garbage and recycling bins to the top of the driveway twice a week. First the celebration part. My wife and I downsized to an apartment by the Hudson River with an unimpeded look of a spectacular fireworks show. So how do we celebrate? By renting a house where you can’t see any fireworks. Makes sense. If you’re us.

And now onto the move. They say (or at least Kris Kristofferson says) freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. But you know, I never quite agreed with that. Because we felt the freedom of moving from a house where you have to do everything to an apartment where almost everything is done for you, and still we lost a lot of stuff, so take that Kris. In the move, we lost pictures, books, old athletic equipment, power cords, important records, you name it. In any case, Al and Joanne are now going through the practice that many of us, including me and John separately, have already gone through. The most memorable conversation I had with my wife when we moved was: ANDY: “Do you really think we need three sets of dishes in an apartment?” JOANIE: “Do you really think we need 4 televisions in an apartment?” I must admit she made a good point and we compromised. Our now cramped apartment has three sets of china plus 4 tv’s. In talking to John, it seems to us that most every couple is comprised of a hoarder and a chucker. Nowhere is this highlighted more than when it’s time to move. If the hoarder wins out, you then pay extra for a storage space to transfer the stuff that was unopened in your garage to a leased vestibule where the same boxes can remained unopened until the time of your demise, in which case it falls upon your children to do the onerous task of going through your unopened boxes. If and when that day comes, I implore my kids to obey this hoary saying, “When in doubt, chuck it out.”

That’s it for this week and we’ll see you again next week with the end of Al’s move plus a visit to his award-winning franchise, Pizza-on-a-Stick.

Have a great weekend,

Andy and John