Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 11, 2014

Baths, plural?

I can tell you from experience that baths and sleep aren’t always the fix. Sometimes it’s a change of career. Or a long vacation. Or some change in the work.

Mainly, she’s telling you ye need a bath, Gene.But she has a great incintive plan

A lot of arguments can be avoided if the couple involved realizes it’s late and they’re tired. If it’s an important subject and not just petty stuff, the conversation can be resumed in the morning when both have had a good night’s sleep.

My wife and I realized this fairly early in our marriage. Saved a lot of foolish arguments.

Save water. Share a shower.

Methinks our dear Gene is beginning to regret his choice of trying to “make it” with a manual labor job and settle for a fixer-upper house. It didn’t turn out to be as much fun as he dreamed it would – especially when the opportunity was given to him to go to college and get a better job that was less physically taxing and would have allowed him to buy a better house and have nicer things – and maybe even gave him Saturdays and Sundays off with enough extra cash to do something fun once in a while. (Sorry, that sentence was ugly.)

The latter choice is not necessarily any better, the problem is that he primarily gave it up because he was young and in love. Now as he grows older and some of that shine wears off (as it always will) he’s starting to think about what he gave up for her.

To add to it, she doesn’t seem to understand. The thought that a hot bath and a night’s sleep fixes it all shows that she doesn’t realize how deep this goes. She’s worked like this her whole life – she doesn’t know any better. She’s the child of a Small Business.

Gene grew up in a family that HAD that other lifestyle. He knows how things could have been.

This is a dangerous time for their relationship. I hope it works out O.K.

Lets’s not forget the Shrimp. Where has she been during all this?

MAN, that’s all it takes? I guess I remember those days. Too bad youth is wasted on the young.

@Bawana: I agree that Gene is showing some dissatisfaction, or at least frustration, with their current position. Mary Lou seems to be operating on a different set of assumptions. If this were real life, it could signal the beginning of some rocky time which might fracture their relationship. Or it. Could mean lead to them learning to communicate better and learn to consolidate their goals and compromise.

I think Jimmy Johnson has done an excellent job of portraying a happy, realistic couple with Arlo and Janis. I’m not worried about our (fictional) couple here.

Rudy says you have to have time to lick yourself and relax. Other wise you are wasting you 9 lives….

Man enough with the Gene and Mary Lou strips, when are we ever going to see Ludwig again...Just kidding.

If she doesn’t get a clue real soon, she might lose her husband. “Happy wife, happy life” is a cute saying but it takes so much more to have a lasting marriage.

I do think Mary Lou is showing signs of nesting syndrome, I wonder if this extra display of energy is a sign of something new to start.

Warm oil massages.

I recall that Gene went back to school to finish his bachelor’s degree before they got married. I can visualize him calling Mary Lou from his dorm room. I could be wrong.

Gene is going back to college.

Separate baths? Seriously?

I KNEW this woman was was bad news! There were lots of red flags, and poor ol’ Gene chose to ignore ‘em. She’s always been a bit pushy and controlling. He’s what, 22? And he rushes into marrying a divorced woman with a child? Some kids that age can handle that kind of responsibility, but most can’t. While it would be somewhat amusing to see this turn into bitter divorce proceedings (and realistic, as a lot of young, first marriages are like that), we all know they’ll work it out and (yawn) live happily ever after…

Looking at the last panel, I would say that Gene’s idea of a “break” would be a little more than a hot bath and sleep – at least a few days away, even if it meant staying in a motel 6 and strolling through a park (low cost entertainment) for relaxation.

Take it from a really long-time Arlo and Janis fan: MaryLou is not divorced. She and Meg’s father were never married, and he left as soon as she got pregnant. MaryLou and Gene met at the beach when they were children, so Gene knows the whole story. Gene went to college after high school, but dropped out in his … senior year, I’m thinking, to join MaryLou at the beach. In a year or two he realized he should finish his degree, and he did; then they got married.