"Mosquito Overdose"

So the original caption for this panel was along the lines of "Alaskan Overdose" and then "Why There Are No Frogs in Alaska" (there most certainly are - even in our neck of the woods) before stripping the text and making it a purely visual piece, one of the relatively rare non-verbal gags. Not that there's anything remotely funny with today's post (sorry/not sorry). Either.

I had some initial hesitation over making fun of a topic that is close to me, so I side-stepped the issue in the editorial process. Let's just say that I take it personally when I hear folks judging drug addicts, because of my own personal experiences with addiction. It's humbling to realize you never would have made it but for the unconditional love of others, and it makes me grateful have survived those years of comparative debauchery and abuse. And in hindsight, having such a firsthand perspective definitely adds empathy and alarm about the current situation, a slow-motion disaster that compounds our collective, cumulative grief from the epidemic (the other one that is) (aside from this one). And let's not forget the capacity to endure life's mysteries is enhanced considerably with a sense of humor, albeit gallows humor at times.

And one last warning note - more of a feeble croak at this point - but it needs to be yelled from the proverbial rooftops, repeatedly: amphibians are in trouble. Which means so are we, as species on this planet we're supposed to share. This isn't just a canary-in-the-coal-mine situation, it's a red flag being waved around in the middle of a wildfire.