April 11, 2005
Bad allergies. Woke up in the night sneezing. Bad bouts this morning. Snot everywhere.

Went up to the Cave Creek Lumber Supply and got two railroad ties ($29 personal business account) for the John Deere to jack-up the axil and save the tires. Went by the homeopathy and got a bunch more powders and pills ($481 personal business account). Went home for lunch. Had leftover salmon and an apple

Got a great thankyou card from the legendary Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson (in the movie Extreme Prejudice, Nick Nolte modeled his character on Joaquin). We recently did an excerpt on his new book and he and his co-author David Marion Wilkinson both wrote and thanked us. The name of the book is:

One Ranger: A Memoir, University of Texas Press.

One of my old neighbors, Ed Donaldson, dropped by the office with a friend who's a rocket scientist and a fan of mine. Ed Doerress works for Broad Reach: Space Flight Hardware & Vehicle Design. I asked him if in fact the most common retort at his place of business would be, "No, really it is rocket science!" and he laughed and admitted it is.

Before lunch, Bob Brink and I met with Harvey Wasserman about repositioning True West’s perception as a narrow niche pub. His take is that the distributors and the public have us niched as something akin to Gem & Minerals when we're really much more of a lifestyle magazine. We agree. Now, how to make that switch in the eyes of consumer, that is the question we need to answer.

We just finished our annual employee interview reviews and Sunday's comic strip Dilbert hit a nerve:

"Here are your regular goals and here are your stretch goals."

"What’s the difference?"

"The regular goals can be achieved by sacrificing your health and your personal life. The stretch goals require all of that plus some sort of criminal conduct."

My good friend and James Gang-Cole Younger expert, Jack Koblas has moved. He's still in Minnesota but now he's out to the country. I Emailed him back and asked him how he's doing. Here’s his reply:

"I had a heart attack a couple weeks ago and damn near went to Valhalla but am feeling great now. Lost 15 pounds, watching diet, exercise, etc."

I'm still sneezing at five. I guess it beats the alternative.

"All men should strive to learn before they die—what they are running from, to, and why."
—James Thurber