Lost Blog (February 17, 2006)
The following blog was originally posted briefly on Feb. 17, but blogger.com lost all the postings for that day:

I met my neighbor J.D. at noon today to dig post holes in the front yard. He has one of those mini-jackhammers from Home Depot and it really busts through the rocks. We live on a virtual rock pile out here and it’s no fun digging by hand. Of course, we almost clipped the phone line (don’t tell Kathy!), but I think we spliced it back together decent.

After the digging, I did my 599th and 600th sketch without missing a day. George Laibe says I’m “wood sheddin’” which is a Nashville slang for practicing your chops at home to get in shape for a tour.

Speaking of the Laibe-Man, last night I went up to the Buffalo Chip and had a beer with George. He’s concerned I’m acting too much like a local band (showing up anywhere and everywhere and not getting paid). Ha. He’s right, of course, and I’ve had plenty of experience in “local bands: and know first hand it’s more than a metaphor. He’s also concerned about my “swirling,” which is another way of saying ADD, or going around in circles. I woke up at two in the morning mulling this and went out in the kitchen to write down a few thoughts. Here’s what I wrote:

What Do I Truly Want?
To be organized, in a clean space, and focus on the tasks at hand with clarity and single-mindedness.

What Stops Me?
Pretty much everything. This blog, Email, meetings, dog petting, Wrangler fittings, wine tasting, beers at the Buffalo Chip, road trips, The Colbert Report and post hole digging.

I try to be industrious. In fact, I made a vow sitting at the kitchen table to be more industrious, but then I read this quote:

“If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.”
—Sir Joshua Reynolds

Another Passing
Veteran TV Western producer Frank Dobbs passed last night. You'll find his many credits on imdb.com. He'd had heart problems due to his overweight and then cancer caught him, so he went pretty fast. We got involved with Frank last year, since he'd been fond a long time of Glendon's The Old Colts and was trying to raise private financing for it with a couple of Western groups in Texas. No luck so far, but he remained enthusiastic until his health started declining. Frank knew everybody involved in Western films, so there may be a tribute out here for him. He was involved in the Golden Boots as well as the WWA occasionally. If there's a wake, I'll keep you informed.”
—Miles Swarthout

The Shirt Off of Brokeback
Corrine Brown in Denver tells me that one of the shirts Heath Ledger wore in Brokeback Montain is in a bidding war on eBay that is approaching $55,000 (this was around noon time). I haven’t heard the final tally, but that’s a whole bunch of gay apparel, in any denomination. Evidently the shirt is a Rockmount, a Denver shirtmaker that supplied the movie with Western shirts

Hutton Alert
BBB: Tombstone is all over Fox news this morning concerning some fight between the locals and the town marshal. Lots of Earp references. Hope you can access cable TV in the office. Might also check Fox news on the net. Cute reporting.”
—Paul Hutton

Yes, I got this fax this morning from former Tombstone City Marshal Max Hurlbut:

• Fourth Tombstone Marshal Appointed This Year!

• “$40,000 in narcotic funds missing. The deputies allegedly are taking bribes, doing drugs, drinking on the job and asking for sexual favors in return for issuing citations.

Here’s my proposal for a new slogan for the Town Too Tough to Die: “Tombstone—Where Nothing’s Changed Since 1881.”

Old Is Worth Keeping Department
“I have to agree with you about the demise of a community's core sense of who they are The major culprit of course is franchise mentality. But another one is ‘new is better’ or to put it another way, ‘old isn't worth keeping’. I am a watcher of Extreme Makeover. But a thing about it that troubles me is that they no longer remodel, or fix up. They tear down and replace, regardless. For instance, the one at Peyton, Colorado which is near one of my daughter's. The house was around 100 years old, one of the oldest remaining residences in the area. Site of where a local woman had raised a large family. Sort of a part of local history. And to me it did not appear too dilapidated. The people living there have taken on
foster kids and home school them. OK, they needed more room. So why didn't they build a new house for them to live in, and fix up the historic place for the home school. No, they tore it down and built 2 new buildings.The answer I've figured out is because Sears wants to showcase their products and they want new shiny places to show them off in, not some museum. So bring in the bulldozers. It really upsets me. There I feel better now....”
—Sharon Tally

Favorite Onion Headline de Jour
Psychic Helps Police Waste Valuable Time

“Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy.”
—Old Vaquero Saying