February 13, 2005
Rain finally stopped. Standing water everywhere. Ground very soggy. When I walked across our land to find flat rocks for the Spanish driveway this morning, my shoes sunk into the ground several inches. This is totally absurd in a land where caliche creates ground so hard back hoes lose their scrapers on a daily basis. Amazing.

Slept about 11 hours last night. Got home about ten, after a birthday party for a certain Ninth District Judge who just turned 60. We played against each other in Little League and he's from Winslow, a great guy. Kathy was in heaven at the party because everyone there was so Liberal. "Leave no child behind. What a joke!" I heard her say on more than one occasion. Unlike our Cave Creek dinner parties, the people at this party actually snorted back and had other atrocities to add to the Bush bashing feeding frenzy.

I was talking to Roxie Bacon (a quite liberal immigration lawyer) how I am so impacted by the philosophy of Seneca and she was smirking. "Wasn't she with Lewis and Clark?" And when I told her no, he was from Spain in 49 A.D. she says, "Well, I was only two centuries and two continents off." (he knows exactly who Seneca is). So, as I was trying to relate how Seneca had really changed me, the birthday boy came up and told me my job was to get everyone in the dining room for cake. Without skipping a beat, I bellowed, "Listen up everyone! You over there, shut up! I need you to move! Don’t sass me! Let's move into the kitchen for cake. Get those feet moving!" Some were shocked, many were outraged, while some just rolled their eyes. As the people filed obediently into the dining room, Roxie walked by me and said under her breath, "That was so Seneca."

Ended up at Mother Radina's house at about four. Had champaign and Mexican takeout ($19 dollars cash, I bought). By the second bottle we were making reservations to fly to Michigan and see the Radina clan (I've never been to Michigan and Saginaw, where the Radinas hail from). Kathy called Brad Radina who looked everything up on the net and got us a good rate. We may go in May.

Woke up this morning and the front page of the Arizona Republic had a disturbing piece: "Alzheimer's Threatens A Generation: Arizona's aging Baby Boomers helping to make Westerns states a likely hotbed for the disease." The guy featured on the cover is only 58. Yikes! Very scary. I'd tell you more about it but I forgot to read the article.

Got a new poll up. Have you ever been to Deadwood, South Dakota? Click right here.

Worked all day on trainiac artwork. Really enjoying it. Got four scratchboards finished. Put in a nice yellow and purple color scheme of trains in mucho steam. Not finished but I feel hopeful.

"Art is never necessary. It is merely indispensable."
—Michael Mimmelman, The New York Times