October 24, 2002
We are crankin’. Robert Ray has 75 pages in the can for January issue. We’ve never been this far ahead. It has allowed us to tweak articles and exchange better photos, etc. Really exciting.

Still, some are not happy. Got a call from Bob McCubbin, complaining about all the edits on his photography piece. He said, “Now I understand how all your writers feel when you edit their pieces to shreds.”

Took Meghan to lunch at China Joy ($13.60 cash)..It was fun to catch up on her life story. She’s a hard worker.

I drove the ‘49 Ford to work yesterday. A tire needed air, so I nursed it up to Circle K, got it aired up, then decided “It made it this far, might as well take it to work and show it off.” Well, last night I went out in the dark and it wouldn’t start. Called Kathy to pick me up on her way home and she did. Today, when Eric, from 24-hour-mobile-car-care, came by to help me start it, he said, “You left this here overnight?! You’re lucky no one stole it.” Then, when he told me he couldn’t put in new spark plugs until tomorrow, I said, “Well, let’s start this puppy and I’ll nurse her home.” It finally turned over, was hitting on about 4 cylinders, and I lurched out of the TW driveway and steered the barge down Cave Creek Road. You forget how many automobile advances there have been that we take for granted. No blinkers, so you have to roll down the window and give hand signals, like a Boy Scout. No seat belts, tiny mirrors. You’re sitting up on a high couch with a steering wheel that would give Mark Twain an erection, and the whole thing sidles down the street like two tons of Minnesota sludge. Aw, I’m makin’ it sound awful, but it was fun. The car was bought at Senseth Motors, in Forest City, Iowa in 1949 and has been in the family ever since. The speedometer has never rolled over. Amazing.

"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the
child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm."
—Aldous Huxley