Getting the grub, beer, booze, pop, chips and sauces together. Get hungry. Get mean. Get down.

Mom and dad are here. The “cussing of the lack of window screens” has already begun. I’ve got them in the loft upstairs. “It’s like an oven up there,” dad lamented, “You need to come up and flip me over in a couple hours, so I don’t cook too much on one side.” And then mom chimed in, “You can’t open the windows because you don’t have any screens. What if a pigeon flies in?” Portland’s lack of bugs and skeeters has never really forced the issue on the house. I don’t even think about it. I tried by best to soothe them with a, “Hell, just pretend you are camping.” That didn’t go over well. Mom ended the battle with a spirited, “You know, you weren’t raised in a barn.”

My house. My windows. My bugs. My life.

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Got a call from Jake Hauswirth about a month back on my way back West, still hot on the trail of my spring tour. Jake and his wife Missy own and operate a small Northwest skateshop chain called, “Exit Real World.” They go back over a decade and have been really good to Salem and Portland.

I met Jake in August of 1993. He was quite the enigma to us Midwestern greenhornes: He was a pro snowboarder, a drummer in the Sideways people, a skateboarder, an artist and and all-around affable guy who made us feel very welcome at the El Rancho Sideways in Salem. What a cool compound. So much creativity and awesomeness abound. Thanks for being good to us, Jake. It meant the world to us.

Anyhoo, he called to reconnect and see if I’d be interested in making Exit a squirrel icon. You bet. I accepted the gig and as soon as I got back to Portland I grew some fur, hoarded some acorns and got to work.

The icon above is Exit’s new mascot. And of course, I had to make a couple other versions to add to the kit:

01. “Exit: Winter”
02. “Exit: Bloodbath”
03. “Exit: 50% Off Sale”

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Christa Skinner, in the shadow of big city buildings, sends us a bunch of candy wrappers. I remember this one. Thanks.