For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 24, 2022

let’s see you do better, Lizard Breath, at assembling the tent for April

great sound effects. Lynn Johnston must have been a Don Martin fan.

It’s nice to know that when Michael pitches a tent, he pitches it underarm

Buy cheap (price) tent ….get cheap (quality) tent.

A tent-rum!

No, he’s pitching a FIT!!

Can’t say I blame him—putting things together can be frustrating!!

At least the instructions are in English and not Chinese.

April looks older here than the 2 years and 4 months old she’s supposed to be here. Especially in panel 2 where she and Michael appear to be conversing here about pitching the tent, she appears to be at least 3 and a half years old. Would a 2-year-old be that excited about camping out? Just my opinion but I don’t think so.

Lynn’s Comments:

This was done following an attempt to set up a family tent. My guess is that we didn’t bother to follow the instructions!

I’ve pitched a tent or two in my life. I had one that was so cheaply built that I ended up just stretching a line between my truck and a tree, hanging it from that and nailing it down. I was good enough.

Of course Michael is having a problem with this tent. With his problems with male pattern baldness as a young child, it only makes sense that he wouldn’t be able to get it up as a teenager.

More like pitching a fit!

By the end I think he’s just pitching a fit.

Michael is learning how to parent. He’s going to be a good dad.

It’s a nice night. Who needs a tent?

As a kid i slept outside all summer. we had an old “daybed” on our veranda and i would sleep on it all summer, only going indoors to sleep if we had a rainstorm that blew the rain onto me. Always slept better out there than in the house.

Too bad Michael never joined Scouts.

At least this was an attempt to stop Michael’s stalking of Rhetta.

It’s really not that difficult. I would much rather put up a tent than pull an RV.

Every dome-style tent I’ve ever seen has poles that are in smaller sections, held together by an elastic nylon cord which runs through the middle of each of them… this tent must be stamped “Made in Milborough”.

So don’t buy a cheap one, the good ones go up so easy April could do it…lol

Ah yes, the typical male in his teen years. Instruction manual…….INSTRUCTION MANUAL………..We don’t need no stinking Instruction Manual. Sadly too many men don’t grow out of this stage.

Supposedly!

I month ago we sold our last tent – a giant 8 person affair – because the wife and I both need hundreds of watts of 120V AC overnight. I liked most of the tent but it took at least half an hour of frustration to get the fly set up… the fabric tension was incredible. I don’t miss that a bit.

Too easy

It’s hard at first, but becomes easy with practice

My starter spouse borrowed my tent, he had trouble getting it up so he cut the shock cords between the pole sections, drove back to town and bought a new one.

Face Palm

“D’oh, English instructions ruined! Must use French instructions… ‘Le tente?’ WHAT THE ^&#% IS THAT?!”

Looks like the tent is pitching him.

Scouts would have taught him how to do that…

I think it would be a lot more difficult to set up one of those “spring pole” tents without shock cords in the poles.

Some assembly required.

In response to the “get back to nature” types, I point out that the last 12000 years of human history have been an attempt to get as far from nature as possible. Who am I to argue with that?

Let me guess: Lazy whining Elly dumped this job off on Mike!?

These days the poles are strung with shock-cord elastic. Makes things easier on some ways, harder in others.

The first time I tried to assemble one of these fiberglass-rod jobbies, my grip slipped and the pole whipped me across the face. If I hadn’t been wearing my glasses they’d be calling me Pop-eye today!