April 4, 2005
Got a haircut at 11:30 from Bev ($20 cash). Got caught up on all the local gossip. The Schmidt’s sold their 5 acre, horse property, for $750,000 (they paid $350,000 less than two years ago). Wow! Sometimes real estate is better than gold.

Went home for lunch, made spaghetti, talked to the handyman who was installing a screendoor ($75 cash). He lost his wife ten years ago to ovarian cancer, still wants to find another woman, and he believes God will send him one, although the women at his bible study are not his type. “These women are wonderful but I just can’t abide fat women.”

"At least you’re not critical," I told him.

Six Degrees of Separation Department:
When we were having dinner at the Bacons on Saturday night, the news crawl came on that the Pope had died. Roxie told the story that several years ago when he visited Phoenix, it turns out, their daughter, Emily Bacon, was skate boarding with some friends when John Paul II came out in the alley behind the house he was visiting in central Phoenix, and asked what they were doing. He wanted to try to skateboard. Went a ways, very wobbly and jumped off. The idea of the Pope, in full robes, skateboarding a half-pipe in suburban Phoenix is pretty amazing, but true.

The young guy who photographed Kathy and I several weeks ago for Phoenix magazine, brought in his portfolio of Vaquero pictures. Very strong stuff. I saw several future photo spreads in the magazine.

I am perplexed by an atmospheric problem in twilight scenes I'm painting. I want to create scenes in my new book that portray weather, dusk and desert harshness. Mixed results, so far.

"Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge."
—Kahlil Gibran