Rick and Vance's dream ride..

I just put a down-payment on "Sneekers", a wolly yak. The two-up saddle is being crafted as we speak. I'm sure with Rick's writing career about to take off, we should be in Nepal by next September. I can see it now, the prayer cloths flapping in the breeze, the Tibetian villagers running out to greet us with hand-made trinkets and bricks of hash. Rick and I always dreamed of going to Nepal, but I can't remember why. We wanted to go to Nepal and rent a flat in Dorchester, England for no aparent reason. This is the kind of shit that happens when you ditch class and hang out in doughnut shops.

"After leaving a show one night, I told the cab driver to pull over, I gotta' yak. And believe me, that dosen't mean that I have a long haired buffalo living in my back yard." - Ron White

Old motorcycles

The adobe garage in the old backyard in Albuquerque was my small workshop for two of my favorite old motorcycles. The Norton and the BMW. Both bikes came to me by way of trades. First was the Bimmer. I traded my 1978 Honda 750 for the BMW to a guy on the west side. The BMW was a 1975, R75/5 in excellant shape. The bike never gave me a minute of trouble and I ended up selling the bike to Joe, a paint and body shop owner in town. The Norton was the result of trading my 1970 International Travelall to "Buster" out on South 14. The bike was stored in a corn silo and buried in 3 feet of cowboy boots. Don't ask me how that came to be, I really don't want to know, I just wanted the Norton. We struck a deal and I came up the following weekend with fresh gas and a battery charger. After several hours on the charger, the bike came to life. I rode the thing back to Abq. with no lights, no brake light and marginal brakes. Anyway, I got it to the garage. Wow, I was so happy. Rick, my next door neighbor at the time was also happy. He owned the Metaphysical bookstore in a house that is no longer on the corner of Lead and Harvard. He rode a BMW and actually offered to fund the opening of a repair shop for motorcycles if I was game. I respectfully declined but would tinker on Ricks bike when he needed a hand.

Jobs we've had: Unclassified

I was packing up a moving van in preperation for the move to the new Moonpie Chronicles Western Region Offices next week, and I came across this photo taped to the bottom of a desk along with a note demanding $15.75. I recall that one of Vance's first jobs after high school was that of Bat Man (or possibly "Batman." Though at the time he claimed he was working as a "Bait Man" down at Isleta Lakes.... Or maybe he was dating Justine Batemen. I don't remember any more)

I am confused as to why he is wearing no mask, why he's tied up, and why he's smiling.

Jobs We've Had: Pharaoh of All Egypt and the Upper Nile

"And it's Egypt land, Egypt land and we're all working for the Pharaoh." ~Richard Thompson

"Nyaaa! Where's this Moses fellow now, see?" Edward G. Robinson

I got this gig through a temp services place back in '84. It didn't pay a lot, but it kept me in beans and tortillas. By some trick of the time-space continuum, they also managed to get me jobs working as the two other guys shown here. We used to go out drinking together after work on Fridays.

The job petered out after J.C. Penney bought out the whole Egypt concession and turned it into a semi-modern 2nd world country. The temp-services place didn't have any other Pharaoh jobs, but I did get to play Santa at the mall later in the year.

It's Official

I've always been a big fan of the word Official. But like in the "Official Secret Decoder Ring" sense.

But today's news is Official, but not in that sense. Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from the director of the Creative Writing Program at UNM to let me know that I'd been accepted into the MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)for next fall. This was a huge relief for me as I'd been sweating it out.

The next step is to somehow get awarded a teaching assistantship, which means that A.) I won't pay any tuition, B.) I'll get paid about $20K for two semesters, and C.) I'll have health care again. In other words, I'll get paid to get a Masters degree. Of course I will have to teach English to a bunch of college freshmen, but hell. I can do that.

I hope.

Rick's Dream car

This is the one I never had, but always wanted. Fortunately, the new esposa is also int Karmann Ghias. Our plan is to one day buy and restore one. Or just buy one that someone else has restored.

One of the best features is that there is no room for the kids.

I also want one of those old wooden motor boats from the 1930s. Those things are bitchin'.

Bull wrangler

In the post about Mexican cows and 'shit', Rick spoke of the angry bulls that would chase us. Luck was on our side due to the fact that 'Fiddlesticks', a local wrangler, was usually near by on those close calls. He would simply lure the beast into his convertable and drive the bull to the "north 40".

Two great quotes

I (Rick) don't want to use this as any sort of political forum, but I just loved these two quotes from The Daily Beast regarding the president's speech...

"How much of this can we believe? Personally, I’d like to believe all of it. [...] But I can’t. He lost me in the first five minutes. Americans, he said, are 'the hardest-working people on Earth.' And he said it with a completely straight face."

~ Tucker Carlson, MSNBC Correspondent
..., and its laughable follow up by the wooden and inarticulate Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal...

"You only had to watch Bobby Jindal's hopeless effort to be the new, racially inclusive face of the Republican Party-it was like having Dougie Howser, M.D. follow Hugh Jackman MC."

~ Tina Brown, Editor, The Daily Beast

Pulling shit out yer ass..

When Rick says he's "just pulling shit outta his ass", he's not kidding. Here is the only known picture of Rick and I that "one" summer when we worked as women at a dairy farm in Belen, New Mexico. Rick has never bitten his fingernails since.

Celebrity Girlfriends: The early years

Diana Rigg, A.K.A. Emma Peel in "The Avengers." Hot stuff.
It seems I saw her in something years later and she just didn't have the allure. Of course, she was only 27 when she was on this show.