This whole fiasco with the mattress and dumpster actually happened back in May and was more prolonged than it appears in the comic. I have a sizable backlog of comic ideas and am trying to chip away at the older entries as best I can. My concern is that in doing so, my most recent ideas will then become passé themselves. It’s a never ending cycle…

But yes, I condensed the mattress saga for the sake of narrative clarity. When the mattress (and accompanying metal bed frame) first appeared, it was lying on its side propped against the fence immediately behind the dumpster. From this position, it partially blocked the adjacent alley and I had to slide it out of the way to allow my car to pass through. But that mattress stayed there for weeks! There were a couple thunderstorms during that time and I don’t even want to think about how much water it soaked up. Yet, one day, the mattress showed up shoved inside the dumpster. I audibly laughed when I first saw it. It was also perplexing because my working theory was that someone had moved out of the building and just left the mattress behind to get rid of it. Surely they wouldn’t have come back and unnecessarily altered its position. Maybe a current tenant purchased a new sleep setup and wanted to make some space? Either way, the mattress’s new arrangement was actually more detrimental because (I thought) the driver of the garbage truck would see that giant mattress flopping from out of the dumpster and immediately turn around. Even though I now know it’s possible for them to take a mattress, that’s definitely not the preferred method, right? Like you can’t toss a love seat on top of a dumpster and expect it to be gone on your regularly scheduled trash pickup. Right? Right??

Although it may seem like it, I am not losing it. Yes, a mattress by the dumpster was both an exciting and infuriating occurrence. Like seeing a dog poop right before my eyes, I’ll take genuine emotional reactions wherever I can get them. Being cooped up in my apartment for months has forced me to become increasingly analytical. I notice the minutiae and appreciate the mundane. My lifestyle has become admittedly abstemious and “monkish.” The day, weeks, and months can pass by in an automatic, almost trance-like state. It’s like I’ve found my homeostasis. I’ve got my routine and schedule down. I can support myself and I feel, overall, content. I am at peace… just no more mattresses by the dumpster!!!