October 23, 2002
Woke up to the sound of gentle rain on the roof this morning. Drank coffee in bed and listened. to the distant rolling thunder. This is such a treat on the desert where it rarely rains.

Got an E-mail from an Arizona Highways magazine photographer who has the assignment to shoot me for an upcoming article on Kingman. He asked me where I would want to be photographed and I E-mailed back several Kingman locations that have meaning to me:
• I lost my virginity at White Cliffs.
• In the article I rave about the Hualapai Mountains and I think a photo at Coyote Pass with the Hualapais in full glory in the background would be just about perfect.
• I got my nickname "Boze" from running the bases backwards at Dickie Grounds baseball field in 1964.
• My dad had Al Bell's Flying A gas station on Route 66, just across from the Smoke House (it's an empty shell now, but the butte behind there has much meaning).
• My Grandmother lived on Jefferson Street, just down from "Radar Hill." I grew up, running around those foothills and listening to her stories about our outlaw relatives.
• I once lost a drag race in a 1957 Austin Healey way out of town on a lonely stretch of Old Stockton Hill Road (it's where the hospital is now. Ha.).

Came home early last night and worked on several painting studies. Want to do good mood stuff and it’s so hard to be bold and yet hold back. Really exasperating. I did see a goofy cable movie last night called Degas and the Dancer Girl, or something like that. It was really lame, but the character Degas said he had to do paintings ten to twenty times before he got close to getting them right. That was freeing to me (I know, I know, it’s a stupid movie written by a stupid screenwriter probably making the quote up entirely, but I don’t care, I’ll take solace and encouragement where I can find it).

Bernie, our web guru, is coming in tomorrow and I am going to have him scan all of the artwork I have been slaving on, so you can see for yourself if it was a waste of time.