April 6, 2005
Sometimes the Responsibility Gods reward us for doing the right thing. I have been putting off going down to Checker Auto and getting the Fix-it-Flat canisters and the two big jacks for the John Deere, but even though my eyes were burning and it was 6:30 when I finally got out of the office, I decided I had put it off long enough and needed to bite the bullet and go down there (it's about six miles away). As I begrudgingly rounded the big sweeper that drains Phoenix traffic up into our fine little community, I cleared the foothills and was stunned by a Bloody Mary sunset out across New River way. I immediately noticed that even though the sun had set, you could still make out plenty of color in the foreground and that one of the phenomenons of this twilight is—there are no shadows (Duh!). All of this is contrary to the boo-koo studies I have been doing of the train loping across the desert towards Tucson in the twilight. Of course, I was relying on Arizona Highways type art reference and I had been making it too dark. This was a gift from the Responsibility Gods. Thanks!

We've got dog problems. Peaches is such a bitch. She attacks every dog she meets on the road, including Buddy. and Kathy is fed up with her so she locked her in the yard this morning when she went for a run. Peaches went ballistic, flailing around the yard like a Tsunami tossed pooch, yipping and crying, totally inconsolable. So after about fifteen minutes of enduring this (I was in the kitchen eating breakfast and reading the paper), I decided to ride the bike and take her up the road to meet Kathy and Buddy and have them run home together. Only it didn’t work out quite like that. For one thing is was cold and I got Peaches about half way up the road and figured she'd find Kathy, so I turned around and came home.

Big mistake. Kathy came home and wondered how Peaches got out of the yard. "Oh, that," I said, intuiting immediately from the tone of her voice, that I had made a huge mistake. “I actually let her out so she could be with you. Wasn't that a sweet thing to do?”

Suffice to say it wasn't.

Hey, my good friends Cleis and Jerry Jordan are selling two of their casitas in lovely downtown Lincoln, New Mexico. I have wanted to have an artist studio in that sleepy little Billy the Kid town for the past decade and now here's my chance. Too bad all my money is tied up in a magazine. Ha.

If you want to sweep down and scarf up my idyllic getaway, go check them out at:

www.prudentiallynchrealty.com

And tell the realtor Linda Long I sent you and you want the BBB discount.

"It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."
—Old Vaquero Saying