August 13, 2004
Totally blew it on my Doc blasting into the Oriental painting. Got up this morning at six, bailed into it with big hopes and bold moves (ghost of John Bonham), but instead made instant mud, and not the good kind of mud. Bad mud. Bad mud rising. Just awful. Racing the clock, couldn’t stop. Wanted to turn it in at nine but blew past that and had to take a break. Cussing and ranting at my crappy skills. Dogs looking at me funny. Went for a fast walk with the dogs, got inspired, came home bailed into it again. More mud, more crap, more hackneyed poo poo. Finally gave up at ten, took it out on the patio to photograph, shot it twice, then ran in and got my colored pens, started solidifying shapes where I could. Kept going, lots of faking, Hail Mary stuff. Embarrassing really.

Other than that, I had a good day. Finished Classic Gunfights at about two. Meghan corrected several gaffs, exchanged a flurry of e-mails with Neil Carmony (Is it the Daily Epitaph, or is is The Tombstone Daily Epitaph?).

Kathy drove Tomcat up to Flag in the truck. Got a bed from Deena and a bike from Betty. Whipped out a scratchboard of Ah Kin, 35, from China, he’s a cook and new in Tombstone (1880 census). Very nice reference from Charlie Waters, who sent me a book he found in Fresno, California called Men of the West by Cathy Luchetti. Great images.

We have logged 555 True West Maniacs and they keep pouring in (Sam told me she has another twenty on her desk). Many Maniacs are referring to themselves by their numbers, for example, this is from a policeman who took exception to my LA sherrif story:

Mr Bell
Be Careful Hombre. As a career Lawdog, I can tell you we handle things that
come up where we are or where we're called. It's tough to tell the future and
know where to be (referring to your comment on the blog). We're over governed.
Too many be safe laws from too many liberals.

Hugh
Maniac#9

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically—to say ‘no’ to other things.  And the way you do that is by
having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.  The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good’.”
—Stephen L. Covey