Sunset, Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

For Emily, with love.

Emily’s a former backhoe operator and homecoming queen, a longtime blackjack dealer at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas, a wild horse woman (woman who rides wild horses, in addition to the other meaning), and an ace stained glass artist, as well as someone who cares for other people, both for a living and in her life. My sister. She shares her birthday with our mom, Helen Bezilla Van Doren (1923–1986).

Emily drove across the country, from Norfolk to L.A., on a motorcycle when she was 20. Actually, when she got to the Grand Canyon her boyfriend, Cruz Treviño, met her and they rode the rest of the way together. Cruz is responsible for inspiring me to start writing music; I think if he and Emily had stayed together my dad might have lived another five years just so he could keep arguing with Cruz.

The only counsel my dad offered Emily for her trip was to give her his buck knife in a leather sheath.

Emily thinks Mom was a little envious. Her advice: “Go west, young man!”

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I’m very happy to note that as of today we have an index to earlier entries (there’s a link also on the right side of the page).