July 16, 2008
Had a good morning in cardio rehab. Walking farther and doing harder exercises. Feels good. There is a "wound unit" next to the gym and sometimes people walk through the gym going and coming. A woman was wheeled through on a big portable hospital bed on Monday. Both of her feet were missing. Really impacted me. At least I can walk.

A Trifecta
“Fred Nolan's interview with Bob McCubbin; Wes Cowan's quintet of cool; and Robb Kendrick's photogenic northern cowpokes are excellent features. Congratulations to all concerned.”
—Dan Buck, commenting on the August issue

I got a question for True West Moments on locoweed. I asked Marshall Trimble if he knew the answer and he did:

Marshall On Locoweed
"My brother was an equine vet and had to deal with the weed quite a bit. Loco comes from the Spanish, 'mad.' Scientifically locoweed is any number of plants widespread in the West, especially genera Astragalus and Oxytropis. The latter contains a neurotoxin, swainsonine.

"One species of the weed is known as 'purple loco' because of the purple flowers. It's also called 'wooly loco' from its hair leaves. There's another called 'white loco' for its white flowers.

"Often times cattle and horses eat local weed in the spring and fall when it's the only green plant available.

"When eaten by horses or cattle they go 'loco.' At times the animals become wild or crazy. It isn't always fatal but it can have a serious effect on grazing animals. Most of the time, animals become depressed and lethargic. Although some of the toxic effects resolve after animals are removed from infested areas, the neurologic damage may be permanent. Hope this helps."
—Marshall Trimble


A billion seconds ago it was 1959. What have a billion seconds taught me? Well, here's my sketches for yesterday:



We've had a disagreement at my house regarding these sketches. Every night I put the day's sketches across from our bed and, in the morning peruse them, looking for lessons learned as I wake up. Kathy mentioned a couple nights ago that if I die she's cutting up the sketchbooks and framing some of the images. Here's one of the images she rather liked from a couple days ago, so I painted another one on watercolor paper. It's called "Judgement."



Hope I can do more of these. Gee, I wonder what my hero, Samuel Clemens has to say about this?

"'On with the dance, let the joy be unconfined!' is my motto, whether there's any dance to dance or any joy to unconfine."
—Mark Twain