More totally boring, uninteresting, ordinary, jejune, tepid stuff

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That's today.

Major problem that my oldest/dearest friend is helping me with. Her assistance is already drawing off a ton of stress.

I was called to a Circuit Court hearing on zero notice today which wasn't drawn to my attention from the notice. I confess that I got pretty peeved, commenting that I have to hike the ball, throw the pass, catch the pass, run for the touchdown and then kick the f.ing extra point. Well, you get the drift. The other denizens of No. 3 were glad I was leaving. I was still right irate when I got back, so I went into my room and closed the door. That is significant in my world. We run an "open door" shop, except when clients are in with us. A closed door says, don't even think about fucking with me. And they followed that advice. I ducked down to an adjoining town for a short-notice plea hearing in front of a judge who was a laid-back classmate in law school, but who runs the most formal state court I've been in. Sometimes the bowing and scraping gets old, I confess. But in this Army of Justice, he's a colonel, and I'm just a somewhat elderly sergeant.

I was thinking a good bit about my Dad this evening. I'm a generalist at heart, the proverbial jack-of-many-trades/master-of-none. One of the things that I do really, really well is run a meeting at a good pace which is interesting and memorable. My Dad taught me that skill, he was a master of it. My partner Amy is president of the Bar for this year (which starts in September), and I am teaching her the system, and she's getting it. She (at my suggestion) got the "dean" of the county bar to present the program at the monthly bar meeting this evening, to reminisce about what law practice in our town was like in 1959 when he came to the bar. It was the best program we had had in many years, a total success, with total good feeling and cameroderie (don't have a clue how to spell that) all around. All four of the candidates for Family Court Judge sat at the same table with me, including my partner Amy and my best friend, the incumbent, Dave. It was totally friendly, and I think that says something special about this county bar. Next month is the annual "social," a big dinner which is usually very well attended. Amy has moved it to a bigger venue this year because we've gotten the Governor to come. (Second time I've landed him for a speaker this year.) That's pretty cool, and we have already planned the "memorial" of the occasion, an inscribed copy of a rare book about West Virginia (Daughter of the Elm, by Granville Davisson Hall) that is a redundant copy on my local-interest bookshelf. Strictly shades of my Dad. By God, this is one thing that I'm good at.

I've been suggesting to Dave that he consider running for the Supreme Court - a state-wide race. He would be good at it, and I have a plan that I can't talk to him about yet about smoking out heavy money for the run. I doubt if he runs, though, he's about had it with politics. But he would be a damn fine Supreme Court Justice. He's a damn poor politician, and that's what MAKES him a really, really good judge.

A juvenile client who I'm VERY concerned about got detained today -- I have to raise some dust with a couple of state agencies tomorrow. She is one of the most "salvagable" kids I've represented -- smart, personable, but addicted to drugs and I believe at least depressed and possibly bi-polar. It will take somebody smarter than I am to determine that for sure, but based on my own experiences, I do know that she needs a thorough psy work-up. I gotta make that happen, she is depending on me.

My son Tim and I just had a long talk over at my Mom's house, we were talking about EMS in 2007. He said something that really touched me, that if/when he passes his paramedic test next summer, he's going to ask the state office of EMS to be issued my old paramedic license number. I was really touched by that. The guy who runs that office is someone I worked with many years ago.

For some strange reason, I have no clients scheduled to come in on Sunday. Hell, maybe I'll take ANOTHER 2 day weekend - that would be a treat.

I'm going to do a very selfish thing tomorrow - I'm going to be in Morgantown, and on the way out of town, I'm going to hit B&N, look for a book and suck down good coffee. Yeah, yeah, it ain't much but I'm an easy guy to please.

Mizpah!

R