June 30, 2006
Tired of my whining about not finishing projects my wife sent me to a doctor for a physical checkup and a request to get some ADD medication. I don’t even like to take aspirin, but since I’ve been “swirling” and bouncing off the walls for oh, fifty-five years, I thought I’d at least try something. The doctor gave me a sample of Strattera and I took 25 mg. on Wednesday. I gave him my reservations (I don’t want to lose my creativity) and I asked him how I will know if I have changed and he said my friends will notice it almost immediately.

So if you notice any change in my comments here, please let me know.

Talk About Balls
“The movie Broken Trail had the scene of the castration all wrong. When we castrated, we saved the mountain oysters to clean, fry and eat. My Granddad liked to just drop them into the fire and when they turned black and popped open, he would fish them out and eat them on the spot. I still love Mountain Oysters.”
—Reggie Selman, Alamagordo, New Mexico

Yesterday, I rode my bike twice, swam ten laps, cleaned off two desks in the office, wrote the introduction to Mickey Free, transcribed my June 11, 1993 journal entry where I visited the set of Tombstone and met Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell and saw them film the scene where the director, Kevin Jarre, got fired (I’ll print the whole thing here later), started three new paintings and cleaned off the patio. Woke up in the middle of the night with a bad dream where I was trying to hide in a narrow passageway behind a steel fence and someone kept pushing hand grenades under the metal fence and I kept kicking them out. Finally, they (I couldn’t seee them, just their hands) held their hands against the bottom of the fence so I couldn’t kick it out and I woke up (1.30 a.m.).

Went out to the kitchen to read the side effects of taking Strattera and this is what it said:

The most common side effects of STRATTERA used in adults are:

• constipation (nope)

• dry mouth (yep)

• nausea (nope)

• decreased appetite (yep)

• dizziness (not really, well sort of)

• heavy flatulence (well, yes, but I did eat a pint of those homemade refried beans from El Sarape in Quemado, New Mexico)

• problems sleeping (duh)

• sexual side effects (can’t wait for this one!)

• problems urinating (nope)

• menstrual cramps (not yet)

Gus Walker, The Mapinator, Weighs In On Sci-Fi Westerns
Hey, regarding those crazy titles how about:

• Angel and The Batman

• Three Godfathers Meet The Sopranos

• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Open for the Village People

•Harry Tracey Meets Two-Face

Gus Walker just won himself a new Deadwood poster (Third Season, just out). You too can win a Deadwood poster or a “I’m Your Huckleberry” mousepad, featuring my painting of Val Kilmer spinning the cup. If we use one of your titles in the magazine, you get your pick. Send it right here.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Latigo Ranch
“We were delighted to receive our bundle of July/August magazines and eventually see the article 'Celebrating the kids who are saving our ranching heritage'. It's naturally exciting when one of our own is featured! There really is a funny story behind this, too. When the magazines arrived, none of us saw them—they just went straight up to the cabins. This past Sunday, one of our new guests came down to the lodge after getting settled in and said, 'We want to meet David. He sounds like a great guy!' We agreed, but we were puzzled at what would have caused her to form this opinion. She said it was the article, so we retrieved a magazine and read it.

“Thanks so much. Great article.”
—Lisa George, Latigo Ranch, Kremmling, Colorado

"No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair."
—Old Vaquero Saying