Secret to Getting Ahead - Mark Twain

1995 Yearbook Signature: Next Year

Flies Spread Disease - General Taylor

The Envious - Kahlil Gibran

1995 Yearbook Signature: Mr. Leland

Mark if the Mature Man - Wilhelm Steckel

1995 Yearbook Signature: Never Pay

Wait for a Date - Myriad Sky

1995 Yearbook Signature: Love Sucks

Stupidity and Genius - Einstein

The Devil's Chief Servants - Sherman A. Nagel

1995 Yearbook Signature: To R.N.

The Liar's Punishment - George Bernard Shaw

1995 Yearbook Signature: I Didn't Really Talk to You

Creations of the Insane - Kappa Maki

1995 Yearbook Signature: Be Who You are

The Noblest Revenge - Thomas Fuller

Depression vs. Recession - Harry S. Truman

1995 Yearbook Signature: Doogy

Do the Least Damage - Scott Adams

1995 Yearbook Signature: Alex R.

Love Our Neighbors - G. K. Chesterton

Year Book Inscription Cindy

The Moral Test - Hubert Humphrey

The Best Things in Life - Art Buchwald

Removal From My Life

10^th April 2014

Dear Cassi,

       

It came as a strange event earlier this week when I got a Linked in request from one of Turtle Noses’ friends and sent him a reply asking him not to communicate with me in the future. He answered me by demanding that I not communicate with him or his family and informing me that he had blocked me on face book. He claimed that he had sent the request by accident.

       

I can say I know little of this fellow save for that he is a member of the cult of Sphincterus the Turtles Nose. That would be the pet name I gave to your ex husbands devoted friends. I can say this fellow has a drinking problem and was arrested once for DUI. His removal from my life is no loss, rather his removal is something of a gain, well, and to be honest I’m happy to have one less bit of crap lying about.

       

Over the past five years I’ve given a fair degree of thought to what Turtle nose could do to make up for our failed friendship. He tried any number of strategies to return me to his life but rather than building a bridge they only deepened the river.

       

Truth be told, when you wrong someone you care about you should make things write because you care about them not to get them back in your life. It comes to me that we should do the right thing for the right reason and hope in the end it works out.

       

We all try to live in this world and get about our way. All of us except that group of cultists trying to please their evil master.

Live in this world, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal

What You do When You Lose - George Schultz

The Last Few Days

1^st September 2013

Dear Cassi,

For the last few days the pounding heat has stalled me from whatever work I set myself to with all my tries to rest quashed by the stink of my own fluids. The nature of my situation and the fact that I can make no relief pressed this into a stinging wound the pain from which drove me on like a whip drives a horse.

My feet are swelling now and my salt stains almost everything around me. This has given me only the ability to limp along in my labors, but it was yesterday in the lap of the heat that I found strength and began drawing my comic. It is today that I battled the heat in processing the finished drafts to post and as the last was tagged, scheduled, and listed the pounding heat gave way to some welcome cool.

I spent some time on the lawn with the cats as the house cools to match the outside air. For the first time in months I felt something was right with the world. This is one of the deluding moments where a person feels as if they have felt that click that changes everything.

       

Today was a minor victory but ten days of this level of productivity would still fall very short of my goals. In life we always try to find the easy way but there just isn’t that sort of thing.

Never stop fighting, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal

The Best Leader - Theodore Roosevelt

Pounding heat

28^th June 2013

Dear Cassi,

       

The pounding heat came back today and reminded me of the harshness of California summer. I remember in times past before I started to buy all my fans when the pounding heat would make my skin weep with perspiration and so anything I lay upon would be stained.

       

There is a stench to humanity in this heat and a lazy nature that pulls the hours into an abyss of red. In this heat the working of fine tools is impossible and any paper handled will become marked with the fluids of the handler. This is the time I dread the most over the year as even the bitter nature of winter cold cannot paralyze  a body so completely. Often there is little I can do but let the fan blow air across me as I sit in bed stripped to the waist and nearly dead to the world.

       

The nature of this heat comes not so much from the world but from the building in which I dwell having had the insulation deteriorate over the years. The dark roof traps the heat of the sun and presses it slowly into the house. I often take a panel out of the sealing and let a fan blow air up into the attic.

       

What I need is insulation. What I really need is a better job so I can pay for insulation.  What I have needed for the whole of my life is a family that will support me in searching for the better life I seek.

Funny how the heat means so much,

Richard Leland Neal