​Ivan the Terrible
Here are a couple of “Ivan the Terrible” cartoons that I am posting mainly on Instagram. I created this comic prior to “Suits and Guarders”  as an exercise to develop my drawing style. It has served me well in the long run, and is a great way for me to create a gag in very little time. (It appears that Ivan ran off with the "L" in the word Terrible. That little rascal is into everything.)

​As if working as a lifeguard wasn’t enough, my supervisors recently asked me to get training and experience working the front desk. Now whenever a regular lap swimmer I know comes in, they say something along the lines of, “Aren’t you usually guarding?” Or, “Ahh, being promoted to the front desk, are we?” (Yeah, it’s amazing how many lap swimmers speak like Yoda!)  The front desk isn’t too terrible. Since there isn’t a down rotation, it gives me the ability to practice my skill at multi-tasking.
 
It can be a little more frantic at times and there’s less time to sing which is the way I entertain myself when I am guarding. But I can always manage to draw a little bit between customers, and that’s what I love to do most. The chair is much more comfortable than the guard stand and when there is a lull in traffic, I enjoy spinning the chair around in circles. I figure they’re alright with me doing this, unless I break it.

​I am repeating this strip from Christmas just to give you an update. This cartoon strip wasn’t based on a true story until this past week. I was asked by one of my supervisors to cut out paper snowflakes for the bulletin board! I didn’t make a fuss like Kurt did, but I did wonder if she had seen the comic before asking me! Life imitating art, don’t you think?

Comics Sherpa this week:
 
This week I hit a mile marker of 200 comics. I thank everyone for their support and encouragement. I truly enjoy doing this! It’s great to have this many comics to my name and now I’m pushing for mile marker 300.
 
On the pool deck, Arnold is in a heated discussion with Kurt on how to be a proper lifeguard. Kurt’s not listening as he has more years on the job. Is Arnold high strung? Is Kurt slacking off? Or is there just bad blood between them? Perhaps they should both read the lifeguard manual.
 
And in the guard room, Bernard is trying to get Jonathan out of the 70s and 80s music, but he doesn’t have a fax machine. Perhaps “Doc” can give him some assistance.
 
Tapastic
 
I just rolled out my cartoon on Tapastic.com. I am starting from the beginning and hoping to gain some new followers there. I will post these a little faster until they catch up with the Go Comics platform. Hopefully by that time, Go Comics will have the Sherpa cartoonists back on the Go Comics site. Hopefully. If you want to follow me on Tapastic, I’m here:
 
https://tapastic.com/series/Suits-and-Guarders
 

​One busy year is almost coming to a close for me. Between its high and low moments, I still managed to keep on laughing and continue to express it through the comic strip. Swimming, I must say, has paved ways or parted waters toward other aquatic fields besides lifeguarding. More recently I have been assisting as a coach for a year-round swim team, in addition to teaching private swim lessons on occasion. The value of knowing how to swim has helped me in several ways that I am thankful for. My fourth job, by the way, is coaching a small gym class on Fridays.
 
Since November, lifeguarding, coaching and lessons have dragged me to different pools and all I could think of was, “I really need to get back in the water and swim again!” Last week, I was finally able to make it to a DAMA (Durham Area Masters) swim practice. It hurts getting back in shape, but it’s great telling people, “I swam two and a half miles this morning.” The difficulty for all of us is finding time to do everything that we enjoy; getting back in the water was one of them for me.  I probably can’t swim as often as I want, but now I can safely say, I won’t be jumping in the water to get back in shape with the New Year’s resolution crowd. Here in NC, we are having some warm winter days, so why wait for the New Year? Take a walk, ride a bike, go for a jog or stroke the water. You’ll feel so much better!