Semi-Enjoying Two Mules for Sister Sara

 August 1, 2024

   What year is the movie "Two Mules for Sister Sara" allegedly trying to portray? That was my initial question when Kathy and I rewatched the old flick the other night as part of my homework for the Payson Film Festival in 10 days, featuring this and other Clint Eastwood westerns in the five day event. 

   It appears Hogan (Clint Eastwood) is riding through Mexico after a "sucker" experience in the American Civil War. So that would put us in the post 1865 zone.

   The film is allegedly set during Napoleon III's intervention in Mexico (1862-1867) which is curious because the American Hogan (Eastwood) carries an 1873 Colt pistol and an 1876 Winchester.

   Also, I counted only one mule and two donkeys in the film. So that was a little weird, considering there are two mules in the title. Also, if you want to get all timeline technical, Shirley Maclaine wears a 1970 bouffant hairdo (see below):

   And, if you are hyper-historically-critical, like me, the reference to "a fistful of dynamite" on the poster seems to be a heavy-handed reference to well, you get the picture.

  According to one website, Clint Eastwood, the actor, was playing on a loophole in his contract for "Rawhide," that stipulated he couldn't work anywhere else in the United States. Of course, he had already made three films in Spain for Sergio Leone, and here he was apparently trying to extend that run. Thus the wonderful locations in Mexico, primarily in Durango, but also in San Blas Estuary along the Mexican Pacific coast. Credit also goes to Sierra de Organos National Park near Sombrete, Zacatecas, plus Guanajuato City and also Tepotzotlan, a small town outside Mexico City. And frankly, the exceptional locations were the best part of the movie and enlivened the tired story for me.

   However, even with all the above goofiness, I have to say the original music by Ennio Morricone is worth the watch. He, of course, created the famous, falsetto cries on "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly," not to mention 399 other movie scores. In "Two Mules" he mimics the braying of a donkey to great effect. Just brilliant, although, once again, we're talking donkeys, not mules! 

"Sister if you wanna bless 'em you bless em dry."
—Hogan (Clint) to the semi-nun with the bouffant hairdo

Put Up Your Dukes! Let's Create A Better Version of History

 July 30, 2024

   This has been on my mind quite a bit. How do we create better history? And, by better, I mean one that most of us can agree on. I'm haunted by this quote:

"Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths."

—Yuval Noah Harari

   It's true and for a long time a whole bunch of strangers in this country believed in some pretty major common myths. Today, most of those myths seem shattered. So, by extension, it seems like our only hope as a country is to find new common myths? I have found a few clues from Jill, to wit:

“To study the past is to unlock the prison of the present.”

—Jill Lepore

“The past is an inheritance, a gift and a burden. It can’t be shirked. You carry it everywhere. There’s nothing for it but to get to know it.”

—Jill Lepore

“To write something down doesn’t make it true. But the history of truth is lashed to the history of writing like a mast to a sail.”

—Jill Lepore, all of the above quotes from “These Truths: A History of The United States”

Saguaros Say The Darndest Things

"Put Up Your Dukes!"

Lessons My Grandson Taught Me

   I recently told you the story about taking my grandson to art bootcamp for four days, and, how on the fifth, and extra day (thanks be to Delta Airlines and their tech meltdown), Weston took me to school on the ethics of being snarky. 

Weston During His Art Bootcamp

   I was raised on the "nothing is sacred" school of humor and when he quipped to me that nobody reads Facebook, I thought that was hilarious and wanted to include it as the punchline to my blog. I read it to him and he very calmly said he didn't want me to run it. Seriously, he's a little guy and I think I could take him, but his honesty and his forthrightness took me aback. Why not? I asked him, it's funny and the joke is at my expense. He simply said, "I don't want to be mean." Wow. It stunned me and in that moment he took ME to school. In this time of Snark On Steroids, he not only chose to not go there, he demanded that he not be portrayed as mean. I realized in that moment my two new prerequisites in life are now crystal clear: I am for humor with compassion and if it doesn't fit in that container, I don't want anything to do with it.

   Thanks grandson, for taking your grandpa to school.

“Anyone who believes you can’t change history has never tried to write his memoirs.”

—David Ben-Gurion

A Fistful of Hollars A Marriage Made Dedicated to Humor

 July 29, 2024

     I asked Dan The Man Harshberger to create a memorable T-Shirt design to celebrate the forthcoming dedication of the historical marker being unveiled on Montezuma Street in Prescott on August 14. Here is what Dan came up with.

  Brad Courtney, the historian who is leading the charge for the historical marker, ordered a dozen.    And you?

   On Sunday, I celebrated a milestone with this cutie.

   We have been married for 45 years. And, as I told our kids, at least 17 of those years have been absolutely blissful.

   I've been boning up on my Clint flicks, getting ready for the Payson Film Festival. And it has been a ton of fun.

A Fistful of Hollars

   Thanks to Paul Hoylen for sending me this video which is an update on the status of a remake of

 "Fistful of Dollars." 

  In the comments section, someone going by the handle @unkindestcut reminds us that:

"'Fistful of Dollars' was an unauthorized remake of 'Yojimbo.' 'Yojimbo' was basically an unauthorized adaptation of Hammett’s 'Red Harvest.' 'Last Man Standing' was an authorized remake of 'Yojimbo.'

   So, for starters, it's not an original concept, but then what is? But, beyond that, let me tell you why this film project will probably fail. They will hire the best writers and producers of drama that money can buy. Yes, of drama! And then they will study the structure of the Sergio Leone classic for clues, but they will blindly miss the most important aspect of the No. 1 Spaghetti Western and why it blew everything else out of the water in the Sixties.

"It's the humor, stupid."

—Old Cartoonist Saying

   Meanwhile, back to Bobbie Zimmerman for one last blast. As you may know, when Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature it didn't set well with a certain group of crafts people.

"Bob Dylan winning a Nobel in Literature is like Mrs. Fields being awarded 3 Michelin stars."

—Rabih Alameddine, a Lebanese novelist (see cartoonist quote above)

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall Explained

 July 28, 2024

   We are still putting the finishing touches on our cover story for the next issue.

   It features a 10-page excerpt from my next book. Some of my latest efforts will not make it into the issue, but they will be in the book, like this little dittie inspired by Dylan's lyrics (see yesterday's post):

Daily Whip Out:

"Children of The Bloody Swords"

   If you've ever wondered if mere words can evoke strong emotions, I suggest you watch again the trailer for A Complete Unknown.

   And, in case you were wondering, like I was, what was the inspiration for the mega-emotional lyrics, here is the Minnesota Muse himself on the backstory:

"Every line in it is actually the start of a whole new song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn't have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one."

— Bob Dylan, on the genesis of "A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall"

   And, FYI: Patti Smith performed the song with orchestral accompaniment at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony on December 10, 2016, to commemorate Dylan receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. During the rendition, Smith was overcome with emotion and missed several key lines. She apologized and explained to the audience that she was nervous about performing the iconic song.

"Oh, the times they are a changin'. . ."

—Bob Dylan

Twilight of The Gunfighter

 July 27, 2024

   As a cultural concept, the Gunfighter, is still a potent myth. But it's interesting to note that as a stalwart character in the annals of the Wild West, the Gunfighter—as a reigning myth— only ruled at the box office for about a quarter century (1948-1973) although the iconic image of a lone gunman standing in the middle of the street of a frontier town, about to dispense justice, still resonates with a few of us.

Daily Whip Out:

"Twilight of The Gunfighter"

   Today, of course, the so-called "good man with a gun," has been tainted by school shootings, disrupted political rallies and the proliferation of the AR-15.

   Meanwhile, got this from our Little Aussie Bastard and had to share:

A Complete Unknown

   I don't know about you, but this was very emotional to me—I teared up. Thanks James B. Mills! And, just when I thought I had summed up the Killer Kids of the Civil War with every quote and every possible angle, this lyric jumped out at me:

   "I've been 10,000 miles in the mouth of a graveyard. . ."

"Alias" Robert Allen "Bobby" Zimmerman

"I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard rain's ah gonna fall."

—Bob Dylan, summing it all up with the right words in the right order

Is Success for Horizon On The Horizon?

 July 26, 2024

   Got a couple events coming up next month. The big one is the Payson Film Festival on August 9-13 where we are going to enjoy some major Clint at the Sawdust Theater in Payson.

Clint Goes Rim to Rim

Then, on the 14th I'll be in Prescott for the unveiling of the new Doc Holliday plaque celebration with a party at the Hassyamapa Hotel afterwards.

Plus, we are finishing the next issue of True West and in it we are going to give you the inside skinny on the prospects for Kevin Costner's Epic Western.

   Here's a taste of that.

Is Success for Horizon On The Horizon?

"The thing I loved most about the film was its scope, but it may be too big and too ambitious for today’s marketplace. It’s a unique hybrid—a mini-series that wants to be on the big screen and viewed
as four separate films, but still accepted as one unified film in the end.”

—John Wilder

   This is a sneak peek at the commentary and you need to Google John Wilder to know how important his appraisal is. Also, when Horizon goes to streaming, Katy Bar The Door. Mark our words.

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."
—Mark Twain

A Teacher's Bloody Field Trips

 July 25, 2024

   Still plugging holes in the big 10-page feature on Killer Kids of The Civil War. Here's a couple more to chew on.

A Teacher's Bloody Field Trips

   Born in Ohio, the eldest of 12 children, William Quantrill, taught school off and on before turning to raiding in the "Bloody Kansas" corridor of the Civil War. His young charges included future outlaws Jesse and Frank James and Cole Younger, not to mention "Bloody Bill" Anderson, among others. He taught them all well.

   His biggest raiding lesson came during the predawn hours of August 21, 1863, when some 450 of Quantrill's Raiders rode into Lawrence, Kansas and slaughtered more than 160 men and boys (some estimates have the bloody total at 190). They also robbed the bank and looted every home. However, their main target, James Henry Lane, the leader of the Free State Party of Kansas, escaped, barely, in his night clothes by running through a cornfield and hiding.

Quantrill's Bloodiest Field Trip

on August 21, 1863

And It's Off to Graduate School

   At the end of the Civil War a generation of boys looked for a reprieve from the fighting, but some of these kids were too well trained to let all those warfare skills go to waste. Especially when so many people in Missouri—and throughout most of the south—felt oppressed by the banks and the railroads. With a little nudging—not much!—a whole bunch of spunky farm boys began to ply the trade they were trained for: bank robbery and train robbery. Over the course of the next twenty years a whole bunch of banks and railroads felt the bite and a whole slew of country outlaws rose to fame and infamy. A couple of them rose damn close to immortality. And, I think you know who that would be.

Coming later this year to a bookstore near you.

"I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time."

—Mark Twain

Killer Kids Final Copy

 July 24, 2024

   Still working on final copy for the Killer Kids of The Civil War. Here's a sneak peek.

Daily Whip Out: "Jesse In Hell"

   And, it must be pointed out, he's toting four pistols in the Bushwhacker mode. So much for present day re-enactors claiming the old gunfighters never carried two pistols ("The two-gun man is a Hollywood myth!"). Okay, maybe they were half right?

Damned If You Do. . .

The Shiftless And Cruel World of Guerrilla Warfare

   The terror for civilians caught in the border wars of the Civil War is that the guerrillas would often dress as Union troops and Union militia often rode around dressed as civilians. Both sides had allies in the countryside with the end result being nobody could trust anyone, even old friends, who often made secret deadly alliances. Spotting the enemy became  an impossible game where outward appearances were rarely what they seemed to be.

   One survivor concluded to his brother in a letter, "Low lived men who claim to be Union or Rebel as Occassion requires, [ride] the country destroying life & property, regardless of law & usages of regular warfare." Another Missourian, Thomas A. Peters, said, "I think about one half the Bushwhackers seen is the enrolled militia. ." And, as the author Michael Fellman puts it, "All bands of mounted marauders dressed in civilian clothes tended to be reported as guerrillas. There was also great fluidity in both guerrilla and militia band formation and some young men played it both ways." Put in stark terms, neither side had the slightest interest in a fair fight.

An Iconic Myth Is Born

   Out of all this terror and confusion and guerrilla warfare came a generation of young men who were schooled in the arts of deadly tactics and as they approached manhood, more than a few of them wandered west and encountered a broader and more significant conflict between three pre-existing cultures, indigenous and Spanish and Mexican cultures and it is little wonder that a mythic story would be born out of the ensuing conflict and that a caucasion gunfighter would rise out of this turmoil and take his place in the pantheon of worldwide myths. Some historians claim the gunfighter myth ruled from about 1948 to 1973, and that it has since devolved into parody.

On The Trail of The Yahoo Kid, Indeed!

   And, if you are interested in what exactly went down in Lincoln, New Mexico last Saturday, here is a follow-up article by Ollie Reed that ran in the Albuquerque Journal last Sunday.

A review of the Ellis Store Reopening

“Billy was 220 volts and everyone else was 110 volts. He was quicker than everybody. Everybody’s scared to death of him.”

—Buckeye Blake

Killer Kids of The Civil War End Game

 July 23, 2024

   Heavy into a cover strory on the genesis of the mythic and iconic Old West gunfighter Where did he come from? How was he created? After you read this, you won't be surprised, if you ever were.

James Writes Home

The School of Hard Knocks

   James, 15, confides to a friend, that he has seen sights "that would make the wickedest hearts sick." Tradition claims James gravitated to Gen. James Lane, organizer of the Free State Army of Kansas. For more than a year he follows Lane as a scout and some say, as a bodyguard for Lane as the troops battle against the Missouri Border Ruffians. All sides perpetuate atrocities—lynchings, massacres and all the horrors of guerrilla warfare. It is a rough school and the boys learn their lessons well.

Daily Whip Out:

"Bushwhackers From Hell"

"What's done to children, they will do to society."

—Kaerl. A. Menninger

Weston Takes Grandpa to School

 July 22. 2024

   Perhaps you saw that Grandpa Ha Ha took his grandson to art bootcamp over the past five days. He graduated with honors of course. He's a very talented boy and took to scratchboard with a relish.

Weston's first scratchboard, "Dust Rider"

   And, we also finished a treehouse in the backyard which he as named the "Cousins Nest" which is a play on words about the Crow's Nest on the roof behind the treehouse.

 Taking Grandpa to School

  Weston showed me YouTube videos to help educate me on posts that perform well. One of them, "Baby Shark" has 14 billion views. Yes, that is with a "B". Then he showed me a Minecraft video by Ish, a Minecraft event hoster, whose video on a simulated prison has 17 million views.

Weston's first Photoshop paste

   As his mother might say, "that is totally ree-donk-u-lous." And, speaking of ree-donk-u-louse, Weston found this artwork and flipped.

"Chata's Concern" from The Doper Roper

which ran in the Razz Revue, circa 1975

   "This is amazing! It is definitely your best painting ever. It's really, really good."

—Weston

   He also told me, "Grandpa, you need to advertise your art if you want to sell more. I would suggest you try and put a link at the end of this blog.

click here for a painting of Billy the Kid, as shown beneath: 

Bootcamp Warrior & Backdoor Billy Provenance

 July 20, 2024

   It's been a tough four days, but I am proud to say, our grandson has not only survived the Artist Triple B Bootcamp (Weston quipped, "Wouldn't that make it a quadruple B?") he has graduated with honors and has some fine art to show for it.

Weston Graduates With Honors

Full disclosure: I let Weston grab unfinished pieces out of my failure bin and "finish" them, which he has done with some flash and flourish.

   An explanation for the framed artwork in the background. The upper left two framed Billy pictures have been on the road for the past four years and thanks to Rusty York, they came home on Wednesday. The photo on the left hand side is the infamous photograph I bought for a quarter at the Longhorn Museum, circa 1957-58, and the drawing on the right is my first attempt at capturing the Kid on paper, circa 1958. The big painting on the far right is the recently framed "Back Door Billy" that Craig Schepp bought. As you probably already know, the frame on this painting is from the actual floorboards that the Kid walked on in 1878. And if you don't believe me, here is a part of the Certification Supplemental Report with the actual "true and correct copy original filed with the office Lincoln County Clerk," courtesy of Steve Sederwall.

   The 10 a.m., July 8, 1879 meeting of the Lincoln County Commissioners included these minutes:

To wit: "Isaac Ellis presented an account against the County for the boarding of Wm Bonnie and Thomas OFolliard, also feed for the horses, amounting to $64.00. The above was found correct and ordered paid. Warrant number 147 was issued in payment of same."

   This evidence goes with the two paintings framed with the floorboard wood.

Both Backdoor Billys along with the

postcard invite

Exhibit B

"Everything you say should be true but not everything true should be said."

—Voltaire

In Pursuit of Emotional Art

July 19, 2024

   The early bird gets the shot.

An early 5:30 am photo over Ratcliff Ridge

   I read somewhere that any art created without emotion is not art. I was a little mystified and frankly, worried, by this concept and decided to do some serous reflection on it.

   Most of the time—and this is going back more than 45 years—I have been on deadline so any drawing, or scratchboard or painting I have done in that time period had to go to press in X amount of time. And X stands for an eXtremely short amount of time! If I had to peg my dominant emotion while creating art during that time I would put it as stressful, or tense, as in—I want to get it right! This better be good! Oh, crap, this isn't turning out like I had hoped it would! I am such a loser, why didn't I continue my career as a rear chain-man on a survey crew?!

   And so, to be brutally honest, here are my dominant emotions while working on the vast majority of my art over the past half century:

• stressful and concerned

Mixed with a dash of

• apprehension and dread

   And with a nagging voice in my head that says, over and over, Who in the hell told you that you could be an artist?

   So, on the website Draw How You Feel, their challenge is "draw a picture of how you feel." Okay, that is a novel idea. Let's take a short look back on a few examples of my past efforts and the emotion I was feeling at the time I did them:

Daily Whip Out: "Outback Cop Backs Up"

   Yes, I was feeling dark and dangerous when I did this. If I had to peg it as an emotion I would say angry. Or, angry-fearful. Or, perhaps angry-cocky-fearful.

Daily Whip Out: "Punk-stalgic"

   Not sure why but this guy reminds me of Tom Petty which always makes me feel nostalgic for a simpler and more angry, but pure, punk time. Sad and woeful. Not suicidal, but close.

Is There Such A Thing As Angry Positive?
   I am often referred to in my family as the positive guy. Hmmmm. What does that look like? Let's give it a whirl.


Daily Whip Out: "Women With Attitude"

   These are fun to do, snippets of expression and glancing attitude. Not perfect, but what is?


Daily Whip Out: "Happy Go Lucky"

   The irony in this one is that I was attempting to illustrate the idea that in Arizona in the summertime people with their windows down have the right-of-way, because it's clear they don't have AC in their cars and you can bet that they are a tad short tempered. This was a hoot to do and I laughed out loud several times while doing it because, if you have ever been behind the wheel of an auto in Phoenix in July without air-conditioning you can totally relate. So, even though the drawing represents out of control anger, I actually felt giddy doing it.
   And speaking of which, big fat sugarloaf sombreros make me extremely happy, so that results in this:


Daily Whip Out: "Pure Hat Happiness"

Daily Whip Out: "Giddy Orgasmic"

   Is it possible to have an orgasm when you create art? I never have, but I have come close. If I can fire off a broadside at another Arizona town on the lower Colorado River who paid an advertising agency $100,000 to come up with a positive slogan for Yuma and then I did a whole bunch, like the one above, for free, well, that is very close to being orgasmic, and, or, in this case "Giddy Orgasmic!"



Daily Whip Out: "Lazy Successful"

   His eyes are way off, but this has a super lazy vibe that I love. So the emotion here is no pressure fun. He's floating in limbo and so was I. So sue me.

   Does any of this add up to great art, or, great success? Not really, but it does make me happy to revisit some of my artwork over the years and take stock of my emotions as I did them.

   That said, what really gives me joy is to see my grandson in the Triple B Art Studio doing artwork and having fun with me. Weston did this whip out while I was writing this blog.

Daily Weston Whip Out: "The Pineapple Man"

   

   Plus, both Weston, Uno and I agree with Georgia:

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."
—Georia O'Keeffe

Honkytonk Sue On The Hunt Sequence & The Love Dog Uno

 July 18, 2024

   Found an old Sue scene in the studio and I thought it had some potential.

Daily Whip Out:

"Honkyonk Sue On The Hunt Sequence"

      This entire sequence has some decent art.

   My model for this was Jerry Foster's wife Vicki when they lived up the creek from us and she was great.

   And, here's a rare photo from the shortlived Honkytonk Sue niteclub on Scottsdale Road where some nincompoop can be seen doing the gator at the feet of Honkytonk Sue on the dancefloor as a wall of Country Swinger in the background yuck it up. Don't worry, the gatordude got his comeuppance on March 22, 2008 when he went down on the floor to do the same dance at the Elks Theater in Kingman, Arizona and, well, not to get too graphic, but he ended up in the Kingman ER.

   Yikes. Prophetic, yes. 

   And, here's another salvage from the dustbin archives.

Daily Reworked Whip Out:

"Joaquin Murrieta Before The Storm"

   And, while we're finding old chestnuts, ran across this while looking for something else.

Uno The Love Dog

They're Plowing In Our Row

   Got a nice email from Ed Montini who was commiserating with me about the passing of our mutual friend Jana Bommersbach:

   "I recall a time we were back east visiting my in-laws, who lived in Philadelphia. My mother-in-law, a small town Ohio woman, was reading the newspaper, and pointed out an obituary of someone they knew to my father-in-law. He said something about how, just a week or two earlier, another friend of theirs had died. Peg lowered the newspaper, let out a dramatic sigh, and said: 

“Dave…they’re plowing in our row.”

My Longtime Friend and Co-Author Jana Bommersbach Has Passed

 July 17, 2024

   It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that my long time friend, Jana Bommersbach has passed. Her sister, Judy, informed me this morning that her sister died this morning and she was at peace.

   We go way back to the New Times days at the San Carlos Hotel where we shared an office.

   That's Jana at far right. And, yes, she was one of my first hires when we bought True West magazine because I knew she would write about Old West Saviors with wit and grit. She and I also co-wrote the recent book, Hellraisers & Trailblazers, which was a bumpy ride but our friendship endured.

Jana and me on Carefree Highway in 2023

Photo by Kathy Sue Radina

   When a memorial is scheduled I will let you know.

"Meet some of the women who should be in every history book."

—Jana Bommersbach, in the preface to our book

Ellis Store In the Rearview Heading West Into The Future

 July 16, 2024

   One more look at the fine folks who showed up at the Ellis Store last Saturday. This isn't everyone, merely the ones who were in the house at around two pm and I rounded them up and herded them out to the lawn.

Ellis Store Crew

   Honestly, we had such a good time we are considering doing it as an annual event.

   Meanwhile, saw this on the road this morning.

A Jackass Convention

   In my book, one Silver Lab, four albino bison and one fine jackass almost makes a quorum. The only thing missing is a camel.

We have a quorum!

   And my suggestion for the quorum is for us all to have more of two things: humor and compassion.

Daily Whip Out: "Mickey Free Heading West "

"It is beautiful if you are on the road to somewhere."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Road Trip Highlights

 July 15, 2024

   There is not much that brings me more joy than an extended Road Trip. Starting last Wednesday I took off from Cave Creek, heading up the Four Peaks Road to Payson, then on to Heber, Show Low, Springerville, Red Hill, Quemado, Pie Town (where we actually stopped and had some pie!), then on to Datil, The Great Array, Magdalena, Socorro, San Antonio, Malpais, Carrizozo, Capitan and on into Lincoln where we lost phone service. Ha. Not totally, but enough that you have to walk around the town looking for a signal. It's a 493 mile run and about eight hours and change. It can be grueling in parts (three pilot car construction zones near Heber) but it is also very serene, especially out on the mesas of western New Mexico.

Me and my Flex approaching Quemado,

New Mexico

   On the way over, I gave a talk in the Sawdust Theater in Payson, Arizona to fellow artists on how to fail more. Evidently worked because you can clearly see, someone is failing to find something more interesting on their phone.

Photo by Rob Mathiasch

 

      Speaking of Rob, he joined me in Payson, after driving up from Chandler, then we caravaned on to Lincoln. After the speech, I stopped in Star Valley for a haircut.

Bev's Breezeway

Photos by Rob Mathiasch

   Yes, my neighbor Bev in Cave Creek has a house, she calls a "cabin" outside of Payson and I stopped to get a haircut. The dog's name is Fluffy.

   Got back last night at exactly 5:30 after a round trip run of 986 miles. Might be one of the last times I do this on my own. It was fun, but I may be done!

  Oh, and for the record it is this wonderful Zonie's birthday today:

Lovely Linda turns 78

"I've been made blue, I've been lied to, When will I be loved?"

—Linda Ronstadt, "When Will I Be Loved?"

Bonus Quote:

"Lincoln is smiling."

—An elderly Mexican woman to Buckeye Blake at the Ellis Store reopening