April 18, 2004
More yardwork. Sore (Oh, the humanity!). Worked the new electric chainsaw and trimmed up the palo verde trees. Loaded up the Ranger with more limbs and made another trip down to the Skunk Creek Landfill ($20, open seven days a week). From there Kathy and I drove over to Shelmita’s on Cave Creek Road and Greenway and had a Mexican lunch (a Pacifico, a Corona lite, tampiquena, bean burro enchilada style and side of guacamole, $27, includes tip)

A suggestion, or clarification from J.Rae on yesterday’s headline:

“to gain the notoriety of a true legend, you need be gunned down from behind, for what is deemed as possible miscreant behavior (ie: insulting an obnoxious & overbearing neighbor, ticking off a patient & understanding wife, smacking a disgruntled associate, slamming the phone down on a schizophrenic subscriber, flipping off a bill collector, and other madcap scenarios)— not stabbed by a prickly brush —but, rather—a slug of lead. Then you will achieve sainthood status and live on in the mind & hearts of the people, along with Abe Lincoln, Jesse James, Belle Starr and Wild Bill Hickok!”

Our number one son, Thomas Charles (yes, he’s named after Charlie Waters, who calls him T. Charles) phoned us from Gibraltar this afternoon. He’s on his way back from Morocco. Went out on camels into the Sahara Desert, saw one of the largest mosques in the world in Casablanca ($800 million), and, of course needs more money to get back to Spain, thus the call.

I told him to ask his new Muslim friends for some cash, since he likes them so much.

Not really. His mother is wiring him money even as you read this, because, frankly, like most Americans, we are made of money.

“I think we Americans tend to put too high a price on unanimity . . . as if there were something dangerous and illegitimate about honest differences of opinion honestly expressed by honest men.”
—William Fulbright