Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 07, 2019

CASTLE – a fortified, usually walled residence, as of a prince or noble in feudal times.

I heard that your senses become a lot stronger at night. It’s easy to see why burglars are more likely to break into your house during the day while you’re away, and not at night when there’s a risk of the homeowners being woken up.

Life is filled with ups and downs, unexpected joys and tragedies Dad. It’s life and it makes it all the more interesting. Adapt and go forth.

Too bad they don’t have ADT.

It is if you have thief’s sneaking around stealing your stuff id much rather live in a fortress these days then to be a trusting sucker .

Get yourself a toy tiger, Dad. Hobbes Snr? Won’t deter would-be burglars, but you’ll feel better!

this will build character

This is why I always sleep with a teddy bear.

There is only one solution : build a wall / s

And this was in the days before Panic Rooms.

Honestly, even I’M not awake at 2am. Its usually 11pm. Then I’m out

Watterson said that the reason Mom and Dad didn’t have names was that they were only important as Calvin’s parents. Yet he gave Dad a job as patent attorney, far from generic, and here they’re definitely the focus of the strip.

A couple of years ago someone kicked in the back door while my wife and I where gone for 20 minutes. Being gone such a short time probably kept them from taking more than my wife’s jewelry and my camera. It was quite a while before we got back to near normal emotionally. It still haunts me to some degree.

With computers today it is not sure you are save even at home!!You are x-rayed!!

Your home is a prison. When you’re outdoors in daylight it’s a warzone . . . at night its a jungle.

Man the parapets!

Your greatest fears are the ones that keep you up at night!

Many residential burglaries are committed during the day when everyone is at work. Also, burglars will more likely hit homes when they know the residents are going to be away.

What a wimp! Sad.

I keep a pistol on my nightstand; but I don’t have a child; especially a wild one like Calvin. A gun in the house with him would be a much higher risk than not owning one.

Just voicing the thoughts of most people who’ve been burgled

Wherever my family is gathered is home.

Once you’ve been robbed you are never the same again. Sorry. It’s not your fault or your house’s fault. It is okay not to sleep well for a week or so. Just get a book and a baseball bat to make you feel better. Eventually, you will be okay.

I don’t blame poor Dad, the way he’s feeling. Tough to get back to normal when you’ve been burgled.

Watterson has a way of being relevant to this day.

I’ll take fortress any day of the week. Do whatever it takes to feel safe.

This is the deepest we’ve looked into Dad’s mind. I wonder if Watterson had been burglarized, and maybe was putting his thoughts and feelings on paper. It was paper back then, wasn’t it? It’s hard, being the protector, when you’re helpless.

A Measles Quarantine sign on the door might do.

It has been just about a year since the arsonist came into our house. My wife had trouble getting over it but I slept just fine. Que sera sera.

I hope and prey, one day I will catch a thief, the police won’t have anything to worry about. Hell, they probably won’t find any traces of the remains.

Maybe they should install a moat.

Simple answer. Minefield.

A friend and neighbor had a sign at the end of his driveway, “MINED.” He owned the driveway so it was “mine” and not public property. The RCMP made him take it down.

This arc has the most days in a row with no Calvin.

I’ve always wondered if Mr. Watterson experienced a break-in or something similar prior to this series. Dad’s thoughts seem entirely too real.

I had just started installing our alarm system when someone cut our screen and broke in.

One motion sensor was on top of our gun safe, on the wall behind the bedroom door. They got my wedding ring and my grandfather’s ring which I forgot that morning and were sitting on the nightstand. When they moved the door to get to the gun safe, it tripped the alarm and they ran out.

Since then I put my target stand from the shooting range in full burglar view. No more break-ins.

I have noticed my hearing does. Can turn the volume way down and still hear it clearly.

It’s interesting to see Calvin’s Dad here portrayed as a human being with actual feelings and worries, as opposed to the jerk he usually is around Calvin. Bill Watterson once said he regretted almost always showing Calvin’s parents in a negative light. I think this strip makes up for that.

This was the strip that made C&H into something more for me as a consumer of daily comics. Both powerful and poignant, I can’t help but think that a lot of innocence was lost in this story arc. I have to wonder if Watterson went through something like this IRL.

“To somebody else, we’re all somebody else.”

A large number of firearm owners have had their weapons used against them because they lacked training, training, and more training. Even if ya can hit the broad side of the barn without discipline you’re a danger to yourself, your family, and neighbors. Get some training and keep it up and also keep those guns very securely locked up. It’s not something you want to “learn on the job.”

And yet we all live with the possibility of a stroke, heart attack or other deadly event happening at any moment, even for kids, but we don’t normally lose sleep over it. It’s having ourselves or our family attacked by another person that makes living with it difficult.

I have a sign in my window…..“Nothing in this house is worth your life.”…..seems to work.

A Castle is a fortress

Sadly, more true now than they could have ever believed back when originally drawn….

After we moved to the burbs from Milwaukee in the ’70s our new neighbors asked why we lock our doors.

Why not do what NRA groupies do whenever they’re running short on balls and courage: stock up on guns.

Our place it a virtual fortress. Laminated glass windows (won’t fall out of frame, even if broken with a crowbar), longbolt deadbolt locks on all exterior doors (solid wood doors), an alarm with motion detection, burglar bars on all the basement windows (plus lam glass) – they are there as a visual deterrent so no one will attempt to break them. On top of all that, the house is a log structure, so no breaking in through the walls instead (they’d need a chainsaw). It also doesn’t hurt that there is always someone home and awake at all hours. Burglars rarely have any opportunity. :P