November 5, 2005
Sally R. from the Attorney Generals office Emailed me back at about four yesterday and said she’d try to move my December one speech to the first session at 8:45. That coupled with the fact that Nevada is an hour behind us, just may give me enough time to do both speeches.

Kathy and I met the Tumalos at AZ Wine Co. up in Carefree last night at 5:30. The store has a nice little wine tasting event on Friday nights and invite different wineries to send their staff and sample wines. Last night they featured The Cape of Good Hope Winery from South Africa and we tried five different wines, personally poured for us by Simon who had a very strong accent. “Are you from Cleveland?” I asked him facetiously. I particularly enjoyed the reds, and bought a Rhebokskloof Merlot, 1999, for the unbelievable price of $17. The store charges you $10 for the tasting, but if you buy wine they wave the fee. Pretty sweet deal really.

Afterwards we all walked over to Saba’s Greek Restaurant for dinner. I had the lamb chop special and we split a bottle of red wine. (I bought $72, Sue account, includes tip). The Tumalos just got back from New York City, their old home, and had many stories to tell. I learned that someone who is crass and vulgar is called a Garmento (evidently, off of low class working conditions in the garment industry at the turn of the previous century?), so of course I had to call everyone I who got near our table a Garmento, including myself. Much fun. Got home around 9:30 and watched a Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Very funny. It’s my current fave show and even though it’s “fake news” it always strikes me as an oasis of sanity in a crazy upside down world.

And speaking of sanity, I got this missive this morning:

“I re-read the articles by them two lesbian writers. Nope, still no agenda-advancing, chardonnay-swilling, voting-for-Jerry-Brown editorializing. Readers may disagree with the conclusions that some of Bommersbach's and Saar's sources came to, or that Bommersbach and Saar themselves came to, but both articles are good journalism and
good historical reporting, with evidence provided for every supposition.

“The suppositions may be wrong. True West Magazine may, on occasion, publish something that's later discredited. And historians are always having their theories overturned by new evidence. If history were easy, I'd have majored in it. But for now, I'm damned grateful to True West for taking on a subject that I've long wondered about but never knew where to start researching.

“If the folks who object to the articles are doing so because they contain errors of fact, I wish--and I'm serious about this--that they'd write a rebuttal article and cite their sources. If Saar and Bommersbach are wrong, I want to know. But if they're just shameless hussies, tell 'em to keep it up.”
—Emma Bull

That was a relief, especially after having gotten beat up all week from disgruntled partners, etc.. Got up this morning and hosed out the ‘49. My neighbor Bruce saw me and asked if he could look at the old Ford and I invited him in (he was standing out on the road yelling at me). He oohed and awed about the car, especially the interior. It’s original and very cherry. That’s why I’m so concerned about the pack rats getting in. Bruce also took a look at the open garage (no garage door) and said it wouldn’t take much to close it up.

Today is recycling day so I drove up to the hill behind the post office and loaded out all our paper, cardboard, green bottles, brown bottles, tin and plastic (NO PLASTIC BAGS!) into the specific containers. Ran into another neighbor, Joe Y., who warned me J.D. wants to come down and start up my John Deere. We laughed. J.D. makes such a project out of stuff like this. We’ve got to set a day and a time. He needs to bring his tools down. We have to stand around and spit and tell lies. You know, guy stuff.

“Perils commonly ask to be paid in pleasures.”
—Old Vaquero Saying