Petaluma Fire Chief Albertson told me that the City was seeking public input on the design of the new fire station. Given Petaluma's fervid passion for preserving the rich tapestry of our local heritage, it seemed only natural to celebrate the storied history of the site's previous tenant in the design of the new fire station.

I was actually disappointed when Brian didn't file for the Mayor's race because I was looking forward to the cartoon ideas he would provide during the campaign. And - heaven help us - if he'd run and won our city's mayorship...his antics would have provided a cornucopia of inspiration.

I was asked to write a little about my cartooning process, but to claim that I have a "process" would be a misrepresentation because each time I face a sheet of white paper it's a brand new challenge.

I've always loved to draw, but never took it seriously until just a few years ago. As a result I feel that my drawing mechanics are still relatively rudimentary. I attended art classes in college 36+ years ago, but I was a gadfly at best...absent more often than not. At the end of the semester, I would crunch to pull together enough "work" to squeak out a "B." Also, I went to college in the '60's when "creativity" was the mantra and few instructors taught basics like line, color and composition, preferring to let the kids do their "own thing."

I envy artists who actually studied "art" and have a strong line and.or sure inking "hand." My inking sucks. I struggle to make my finish drawings as good as my "roughs."

If you go through the five drawings I've attached, in addition to the final piece, you will see three concepts, the inked line art as well as the final image that I finished in Photoshop.

The third concept actually came to me after I'd submitted the drawing. I often think of another (often better) idea after I'm done. Because my work has me at the computer 10-12 hours a day, and cartooning is an avocation, I intentionally limit the amount of time I'll devote to any one drawing...otherwise I might never be finished. The current "time budget" is about three hours per cartoon. Of course that doesn't include the concept sketches which I will often do in business meetings when I should be paying attention to the discussion.

Henry Hansel comes to the rescue fo all of us "late adopters" of plasma or LED high-def TV with the widest-screen TV Petaluma has ever seen.

Petaluma's natural air conditioning is back on this morning...(thank God for the coastal fog)...but last week - even with all the windows open and the fans cranked up to max - the house felt like a pizza oven. The dog was panting, the cats were spread out on the tile floor and I was scouring the Yellow Pages for air conditioning installers.