We both made it

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Did I mention that Carmen was joining me in Rome?

Our original plan involved us being here for 4-5 days, moving on to BCN and picking up Vision on of the Seas for a frolic around the Med before sailing across the Atlantic. That was what I had planned in May/June of 2017. Made all my reservations this past Feb.

Then I got the wild hair to go back to grad school which stood my plans on their head. It isn’t like I can just disappear for four weeks. I think I have previously mentioned that, unlike other fields, accreditation for legal education in the US requires attendance in class. Yes, that is right – attendance in class is mandatory. I am not sure why. Perhaps it is to justify continuing the system, thought pattern, and attitudes of the current educational trends. One would not want to believe that law could be learned on its own. Oh, wait a minute – it is! At least in California you can still do an apprenticeship (5 years) and sit for the Bar exam. But Law, like Medicine, is a relatively insular educational process that is highly regulated and controlled. Medicine, at least when I studied didn’t require attendance at lecture courses. The knowledge was on you. Labs and clinics were another matter. But I can easily draw a difference between didactic presentations and hands-on training.

The end result is that I have to go back to my ordinary life on Thursday while Carmen gets to float on a boat.

The hotel complex is lovely. Clean, well laid out and welcoming. The staff is more organized that many of the Italian hotels that I have used in the past. Dinner was pasta in the hotel restaurant with a Canadian colleague before we both were hit with time zone wack and needed sleep.

Where did the day go

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It sort of vanished. The 29th of Sept that is. Eaten up by flights and time zone changes. After all, when you board a plane in the evening, stay on it for 13 hours plus adding on the fact that traveling east adds on the hours – well, there you are? 13 hours on a plane + 10 hours in time zone changes and a day just vanishes. Totally and completely gone.

I managed to sleep, the food once again was excellent. The lounge in Istanbul is wonderful. Arriving in Rome on the other hand…. we arrived at 2345 and then taxied for about 15 minutes. Followed by a bus ride to the main terminal. Coming in from Turkey means EU Immigration. Since I hadn’t checked anything this time, I headed straight for passport control to find that the automated machines had been turned off for the night.

flying in

The line looked to be several hundred long with only two counters open. I decided to believe a small secondary sign, backing out of the queue and joining the EU line. The Immigration official just looked at me, spent a few seconds paging through my passport to find a partially empty page, then stamped me through.
I was more than ready for sleep when I arrived at the hotel.

 

Almost, maybe, yes a seat

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It became rather interesting last evening when I received the usual 24 hours out notice from Turkish Airlines to check in for my flight. Admittedly, I don’t enjoy doing such things on my phone, but since I wasn’t home nor in the mood to haul out my laptop I didn’t think it would be all that much of a challenge.

Just hit the button, right?

Wrong. Ok, the landing page worked perfectly and checked me through to seat selection. Funny thing, I thought I did that months ago when I made my travel plans. There are two seats empty – 5A and 5K. I try and select one. No dice – this seat is reserved for someone who needs a basinet. I try the other. Same thing. I log out and try again. This time it tells me that the flight is full. Check in at the airport.

Oooookkkk. And I will know that I have a secured flight when? 1415 at the earliest on the day of the flight.

Attempts this morning, both before and after class netted me the same thing. So I went to the airport.

Lovely woman at the check-in counter says, no problem. What is more, I can join Turkish Airways Smiles & Miles program. Much as I love Lufthansa, they simply don’t give full credit for most of their partner airlines. Turkish does. They are less expensive and the lounge in Istanbul is fabulous. The cost is time for the money saved.

Right now it certainly is worth it

So hanging out once again in the new United Polaris Lounge. I have downloaded all my missing course materials and am planning on [perhaps] finishing a couple of writing assignments while I am under way. The alternative is Sunday which may turn out to be a better possibility.

Why was I in class?

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yes, I know that education is important. Certainly the US government is paying through the nose for me to entertain myself with attending classes. But really, one has to set priorities.

My choice this afternoon was being a good kid and attending my Health Law class with an alternative of going to the As game. Now, for those of you who are not in any way a baseball fan it might seem as a little to no choice. I actually made that choice last night when I turned in my Thursday afternoon ticket for a second seat on Friday evenings game. It wasn’t an easy decision but a practical one: the game starts at 1235 and class doesn’t finish till 1530. I didn’t think there was any chance that the game would still be going long enough for me to get there.

As it turned out, I wouldn’t have made even the final out but in this case absolutely the game was still going on when class ended. That means over three hours. It means that I missed a great game.

Oh, I didn’t mention that the As wiped the Angels off the diamond?

Since class didn’t start till 1310, I watched the play-by-ply on my phone for the first couple of innings. And then, the third inning started shortly after the start of the class. I couldn’t resist and kept phone running while I desperately attempted to pay attention to the class. I mean really, defending medical malpractice vs watching the As score six runs in an inning?

It got worse, or better, depending on whether or not you want to feel sorry for the LA Angels.

Finally score? 21-2.

Move, please

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One of the challenges that I am facing four days a week is BART between Civic Center in San Francisco and North Berkeley. It isn’t that I love riding on a crowded system, but rather it is a better alternative than driving back and forth. Part of the joy involves the basic mechanics of getting to and from the subway platforms. Most of the time the escalators are working, except when they are not. Most of the others taking the system are polite, except for those who are just plain rude.

Let me explain:

  1. there are elevators which most of the time are working, bear no relationship to the main portion of the station, and smell like pee at best;
  2. there are escalators which are usually, but not always, in the middle of the platforms and mostly work;
  3. finally there are stairs which connect the platforms with the main portion of the station; and
  4. there are normally all of the above which connect the main portion of the station with the surface of the local neighborhood.

So to get from one level to another you have to pick one of the options. Leaving out elevators which are to be avoided if at all possible, one has to navigate either stairs or escalators. There is the standard custom in Europe which translates to walk on the left, stand on the right. This convention is observed in almost all non-Commonwealth countries some of which may apply this standard in reverse.

It is not a hard concept. Stay on the right if you are not going to walk up if you are on escalator. There is really no great reason to stand on the left. Reading your phone is not an excuse. Making a play for someone in whom you have interest is not an excuse. Placing your luggage or grocery bags at your side rather than in front of you is not an excuse. Any of these are rude and obstruct the flow of those who want to walk up. Why anyone wants to walk is not a concern or needs a comment. It should be sufficient to recognize that someone wants to get by and to allow them to proceed on their way.

Then we come to the stairs. All of the stairs in the BART system have railings on both sides. The railings are there for reasons of safety. They help those of us who need them to haul themselves up, they provide stability for anyone with an unsteady gate, and they help direct the flow of traffic along the sides. NOT DOWN OR UP THE FREAKING MIDDLE. (Emphasis is obviously mine). I don’t mind someone who needs time to get up or down; in fact I can applaud their strength and courage in tackling stairs. I can appreciate anyone who looks at the stairs as a mountain to climb or a chance to burn off a few calories.

What I don’t understand is anyone who needs to walk up (especially) or down a flight of stairs in the middle. Not holding a railing, not keeping to the side, and effectively obstructing completely the flow of foot traffic in both directions. I am exempting anyone with medical/psychiatric reasons for not complying with normal traffic flow. But your average commuter, fixed on their phone, dragging themselves up the stairs while effectively preventing anyone from getting around them.

This morning it was a well-dressed woman with three bags. Since the bags were held in her left hand, there really was no reason for her to hike up the middle of the stairs. She could have used the railing on the right side. She could have even been obnoxious and walked on the left. Instead, she chose to take more than her ½ out of the middle, effectively blocking anyone from below in getting past her on the stairs and forcing the rare person attempting to get to the platform to play skinny statue to the side.

As you can imagine, I had already navigated down at North Berkeley, numerous stops and crowding on the Milbrae BART followed by a scrum on the first set of stairs up from the platform. So my temper was not the best when confronted with someone who obviously wasn’t paying attention to anyone else. I am older, I have grey hair and simply, I didn’t care what she thought of me.

“Excuse me, I need to get past, please.You are completely blocking the stairs.”

(picture the interruption, the angry look followed by glancing behind to see a mass of people including, but not limited to- big, burly people with bicycles.) She actually pulled over at the intermediate platform and started berating me for being rude and not giving due consideration to her age.

I just thanked her for getting out of the way and dashed up the open stairs, laughing because I obviously had 20+ years on her.

Sept 11

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This is the 18th remembrance of the Twin Towers, Pentagon and Flight 93.

Any of us who were old enough at the time can identify where we were, what we were doing.

For my generation, previously the impact had been President Kennedy’s assassination closely followed by Martin Luther King, Jr. For the slightly younger group, it was the death of Princess Diane.

But in 2001 – the whole world changed in relation to how we felt, how we looked at others. Worse, in how many started treating others actively and discriminatorily simply based on skin tones, facial structure or a panic based not on fact but fear. One of my fellow officers started using his orders and ID card when traveling rather than his passport simply so that he, as an early 40s African-American man, didn’t pulled out of line for a strip search every time he flew. Obviously, that army colonel could be confused with a terrorist.

It changed our view of war from relief of being done with the Cold War to an obsession with asymmetrical warfare with a heavy emphasis on Non-State players. We, the US as a country, reverted to much of the same behavior as we had done in South America in the 1950s and 1960s and were surprised when the results were not exactly sterling. We reaped the results of our covert battles with the Russians in Afghanistan and were stunned when the Taliban turned against us.

Our behavior on the world stage has not always been that which we can point to in retrospect with pride.

Let none of that hinder you in looking back. Being awed by those, “just doing their jobs,” who responded to the World Trade Center in New York, many of whom gave their lives then or have suffered long term medical impairment since. Those from all the countries who at the Twin Towers that day, visiting, for meetings or currently being assigned to work in NYC. To the family, friends and colleagues who we lost between one minute and the next. Think of the military and civilians who died at the Pentagon where we can only be grateful that the new section was not completely in use. Where the chance to use a new conference room, unknowing to the planners, would result in death. And to those of Flight 93, bringing that fourth plane down in Pennsylvania at the cost of their own lives. Preventing the deaths of hundreds to thousands more hand that plane reached its Washington DC target.

Once again, I commend Exhibit 13 by Blue Man Group to you.

Exhibit 13

Four Decades

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Does that sound more impressive than 40 years? Not sure but that is how long I have been married. The advantage to using the above tag on the post is that the software doesn’t seem to be able to handle a number as the first word in the title.

Go figure, I can’t. And spelling out forty is just dumb. Especially since I can’t spell and depend on word correct for the presence/absence of “u.”

We were married 10 Sept 1978 on a lovely Sunday afternoon that was unseasonably hot. I think I have shared pictures in the past. I had long hair, George’s was auburn and to his shoulders with a seriously matching beard. Since I changed computers, I don’t have the pictures at hand.

Looking back over the years just since I have had this blog – it is rare that we have both been in the same city on our anniversary. For example, ten years ago I was in York (UK), he was in Tel Aviv.

Looking back, I figure I was lucky. Found someone who could make a commitment, had a kind heart, and could put up with me even when there were really bad days.

Married for better, worse, house renovations and even a return to the education system!

Lasted a bit longer

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at the ball game. It might have been because I wasn’t as cold. It might have been because the As were obviously doing a lot better than the previous evening.

In any case, had fun. We made a lot of noise. The As won (8:2).

This wasn’t a day on which I had to go to San Francisco. It wasn’t a day, as it turns out where I needed to give Daughter #2 a ride to/from work in the early hours of the morning. It was a day for reading, picking up the crop share (garlic, lots of tomatoes, melon, squash, cucumbers, grapes, apples etc) and sitting in on a class at Cal.

Without the travels, my life has become rather a blur from one day to the next with distinguishing characteristics based more on which classes I have rather than cities seen or interesting people met.

But I did get to avoid Dallas with George. There are a lot of places left in the world that I would like to visit. Dallas isn’t one of them….

Cold & wind

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I didn’t last the whole game. It was cool. I can’t say it was cold; not when Minnesota or northern Sweden are my comparisons for what is really cold. Rather, my nose started to run, there ere way too many Yankee fans in our seating area. Once the sun went down, I was no longer blinded by the glare but the breeze came up.

All of this is either my excuse or explanation for heading home early. It explains why I missed seeing the As lose in the last couple innings.

And I survived my classes…

Interesting SPAM

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most of the time I just delete everything that Askimet places in my SPAM folder. By and large, it is BOT produced comments that are about Canadian Pharmacies, penile enhancements, fund frauds, illiterate links and other fun stuff. I would say that it is not worth the reading.

Then there was the gem in today’s queue warning me that the Democrats are out to bring back the draft.

Oh, really? When did I miss that? Why hasn’t it been in the news?

And what is so horrible about having a draft? I should never ever vote for someone who thinks that others should serve their country like I did for, oh, let us say 33 years? Or that I might vote for someone who was not interested in cutting federal employee wages? Or that might leave my social security intact?

For the sake of not starting an argument with anyone who thinks Fox produces objective and well rounded news reporting, let me move on to reality.

The As beat the Yankees…….

Too much sports?

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Since George went with me to the baseball game last night, I owed him. Well, sort of.

Anyway, I went along to the Cal football game this afternoon. He has season tickets in Section E which turns out to be well placed as far as being out of the direct sun by the time you hit half time, but not as great since there are no backs to the seats. The couple sitting next to us were great, one of those behind ran his mouth continually until well into the third quarter. An amazing number of opinions. Can’t judge their accuracy, I just don’t care that much about American Football. I don’t dislike it terribly, not like boxing which I firmly believe needs to be outlawed completely in all education to include the military (hint – the sport in which you win by inflicting brain damage on your opponent. Yes, I am Army, but that doesn’t mean that the Navy or Air Force need their heads rung…).

From there it was on to the As game by way of BART. Unfortunately, the As didn’t manage a complete come back and lost 8-7. I made it to just about the end of the game…..

I don’t think I am going to go for two games in a day again.

Not counting an As doubleheader of which there is maybe one every few years.

Or perhaps I am just cheap

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

(written while snarling since my original post vanished into the bitbucket or wherever drafts go when WordPress decides it is not going to cooperate. You would think I would learn to copy drafts before hitting the “save the draft” button. Unfortunately that lesson has not yet been learned).

Anyway. I think that I am representative of my generation – at least the European version or the person who lives in a major city. My first thought when going anywhere outside walking distance is to take public transportation. If this is not possible, I will drive. What is not first, second or fifteenth on my list is Lyft/Taxi/Uber. I don’t even think about them. It is not that I haven’t had occasion (a 0600 flight out of SFO for example which is earlier than is possible to safely make on BART. And not being willing to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on a family member by forcing him to drive back through San Francisco during rush hour – which for purposes of anything can assumed to run almost continuously from 0430-2330 Monday through Friday with occasional gasps of total insanity on the weekends when even more fools come out to play) to use them. But I view them as a fall back.

Not so much by the younger generation which views taxis and the private alternates as a routine method of transportation. I can easily understand part of their thinking. When a bus doesn’t go directly, why spend 90 minutes on the bus when the drive takes 13? If you are not eligible for a Senior Discount, the price isn’t going to be that much different if you have to change bus lines (hint, UC Transit doesn’t include transfers on your fare). If you live in the city, you really don’t need to drive. The monthly cost of using public transport and Lyft is going to be less than that of owning a car, even given the limits on convenience.

All of this is explanation of why, after seeing one daughter off to the house of another that I took BART and the #65 home rather than call a Lyft. BART runs, and allegedly the bus does as well. My total cost was under $3 (remember what I said about senior discount?) I am sure that it took longer to get home than if I had taken a Lyft. In fact, I know that since the bus was running late and I didn’t exactly have the jacket and three sweaters than are often needed for a Northern California evening jaunt.

But I arrived safely home, didn’t spend that much. And avoid having a bill to pay at the end of the month.

Words are weapons

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While chasing down interesting details in WestLaw has proven both educational and entertaining, I don’t feel like I am getting much of anywhere on drafting a memo after more hours than I would care to acknowledge. The format is clear; and the detail provided on citations was more than adequate.

My frustration can be take down to two major issues – either of which or both might be related to the fact that I am not a lawyer. In both cases, I am still the one with “challenges.” The first is that I just don’t think like a lawyer. I understand in essence the concept of citing reasons and cases – but I think part of my resistance stems from the fact that I just don’t get/agree with the whole issue of settling disputes by law suit. To me it is the act of less than rational human beings, somewhat a kin to solving disputes with handguns. Substitute words as weapons and we are close. Having lived in non-English speaking areas for years, I became accustomed to code based legal systems. Then, of course, UCMJ is completely code based. The application of code/regulation involves choice on the part of the BCD authority, but common law has absolutely nothing to do with the military.

All of this means that I have little clue on the content of what I should be placing in a memo that is due 1530 today. I might be able to do references, but the rest of it….

Organizational Skills

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A good friend who went on to get a PhD after she finished her military career made a remark that I found quite interesting. In her opinion, being organized for school was not all that difficult since being in the military and accomplishing anything requires a fair amount of self generated structure and discipline. It was her opinion that one continued in professional, organized mode and everything was not as much of a crisis as it would be for a younger person who only had experience being in academics.

At least for some people. Others I think depended on the military itself to provide structure complete with schedules, goals, objectives and organizational structure. The same might be said for being a student at various levels with professors and instructors who can manage to present a syllabus at the beginning of the course, have planned lessons, assigned readings and presentations. If it is all laid out for you, then the onus falls upon the student to plan appropriately.

I really don’t mean to whine, but lawyers simply don’t think the way the rest of us do. Since that is the case, and most certainly no one is going to change the entire US legal system of teaching just to make my life more sunny, I am going to have to get over it. Get over being irritated at every sentence needing a citation. What is wrong with footnotes, I ask you? What is wrong with clear English (or German, Norwegian or whatever particular language you are drafting said document in…)?

Perhaps the key to my frustration is not that I can not be organized nor is it that life happens while I have deadlines. Nothing about that has changed in the last 50 years. I think my frustration comes from the disconnect between what this course of study is requiring and my basic skill set. I didn’t spend most of my military career with a set organized schedule and clinics full of patients. Rather, my best jobs were those where I was the trouble shooter – sent in to fix a problem, an organization, find a solution or investigate an incident. Those are not regularly scheduled programing. Maintenance was not me. Something that is clearly working and organized is totally and completely boring.

So here I am, fighting I think against rules and regulations for exactly no point except that they exist. Deadlines exist. I have to write these papers, briefs and summaries. Lawyers are anal. I am not. When you are a fixer – no one ever expects the 100% perfect solution. What is needed is a major correction from the current course and someone else will spend weeks, months or years fine tuning whatever it is until they break it and the cycle starts over.

Meanwhile, I get to summarize cases, write a couple of memos and deal with the basics of life which include food, laundry, transportation and taking out the garbage since George is still in Switzerland and Euclid Pick-up is early on Mondays.

Three Classes

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on Tuesdays I have three classes – one in the morning and two in the afternoon. While it might be lovely to sleep in, there is the small problem of getting to school for an 0940 class. Getting there involves the bus to Downtown Berkeley; adding a good 25 minutes to my travels and costs me $1.00. The 65 Bus goes down the hill on a regular basis as long as I pay attention to the timing. My alternative is drive to North Berkeley which will cost me $3.00 in parking but takes 10 minutes. Since I have the money, right now NB seems to me the better alternative. As it turns out, there seems to be parking till shortly after 0800 and the BART that goes through the station around that time actually has more room than the earlier ones. Plus, getting on a stop earlier increases my chances of finding a place to sit rather than having to stand for the entire journey.

The same with waiting for a downtown train as apposed to taking anything that comes through with a chance at MacArthur onto what is guaranteed to be a sardine can packed full with irritated students, commuters and the occasional highly fragrant homeless person sleeping in one of the car’s end seats.

My morning class is Constitutional Law II. Mostly about Due Process, I am not having all that much problem following the materials which should probably scare me but isn’t at the present. There are three of us outliers – two LLMs and me – who haven’t taken Con Law I. Since, as I mentioned before, the last time I looked at any of this was either in War College or somewhere around Eight Grade Civics it may be a bit of a challenge.

Probably not as much as my afternoon “Legal Research and Writing” class which I am going to just look at and treat as “copy editing by legal standards 101” and just attempt to motor on through. It is becoming increasingly obvious that I don’t think like a lawyer – they actually are not at all logical. At least I am not alone in the class in intensely disliking placing citations in the text rather than in footnotes. It might make it easier from a formatting perspective, but it really sucks as far as readability goes. As might be obvious, most countries’ lawyers use footnotes, not included citations.

The final class, which is actually sandwiched between the above two is Health Law I which apparently has to do with Providers and the regulations pertaining to same. The material is not all that difficult to follow, but the logic of case choices and sequence is escaping me at the present.

Ah, well. I will survive this. Probably, surely? I think most definitely.

Federalist #51

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Since I failed to do it before –

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

(italics are mint)

Is the famous quote from Madison in the Federalist #51 published on Friday, February 8, 1788 and credited to either Alexander Hamilton or James Madison. The complete text can be found in the Congress.gov website.

I am not sure whether to claim I spent the last week thinking too little, or thinking too much. One of the challenges of representational government is that it must represent all of the people. Not just those with the issue of the moment, or those with the most money. I am certain that my grandmother, coming to the US in the early 20th Century around the age of 10 wasn’t as worried about the US government as she was being safe from the pogroms, having enough to eat and perhaps being able to get some education. For her and most of that generation, money was safety, food, clothing and a future for their children. They had faced starvation, death, weapons and sea voyages in steerage. They had no place to which they could return even if they had wanted.

I have seen the effects of hate let loose: in Bosnia where neighbors when after those who had lived next door for decades; in Iraq where blowing up houses, schools, hospitals, convoys became common place without regard for those just trying to survive and protect their families; in Afghanistan where destroying history was paramount and teaching the young allowed only if doctrinal and if those taught are males.

Divisiveness, single issues, fanaticism all take away from freedom. It is easy to say that you “believe in the constitution” when it seems to support what you want but not as clear when those same freedoms have to be allowed to those with whom you don’t agree.

I am hoping we are strong enough as a country to survive the current bigotry, bullying, and white male supremacy and come back to a middle ground where hard work is expected and rewarded, children are fed, medical care is available to those who require it and schools actually teach science.

It shouldn’t be an unobtainable dream.

Not so hot

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Or rather too hot.

My life this past week has fallen into the “not too terribly organized” which is not the way I really appreciate living. I like knowing “where my stuff is.” Which might just explain why I am so anal when traveling about placing everything in an exact place, not having anything cluttering up desks and counters and getting crabby about sharing space as I get older. Right now I am drifting between our house and that of the Eldest as she recovers from surgery. I am willing to leave her alone for a couple of hours, but not for an extensive time period. It doesn’t help that school is starting this week nor that the As are in the middle of a home stand.

Telling myself excuses much?

Today’s game was against the Astros. We had done decently to well in the last couple of games. The team, unlike one of the NYC teams, is not high on arrogance. But sometimes they just don’t completely have it together. The fan numbers were good but not great inspire of the front office providing discounts for students and encouraging large numbers of groups to attend the game. Our group was high energy with drum count at six and cowbells at least double that. Jose now has an As jersey that says “More Cowbells” in the name location and 149 for the player number.

The game started well, then the pitcher seemed to lose it. For that matter, it had been chilly in Richmond. It wasn’t in Oakland, but I wasn’t exactly dressed for the warmth. After six innings the As were down and I was significantly overheated. Since it didn’t seem like either of us had an alternative, I headed first home to pick up what I needed for tomorrow’s assignment and then back to Richmond.

Oh, and a stop at Safeway for ice cream… Best way to cool off….

Doing all right

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After serious consideration – well, all three minutes of it – I made the decision this morning not to head over to UCHasting for the class I am auditing. Actually I probably made the decision last night when I didn’t finish drafting everything for today’s class. In all, it made me more comfortable to hang out in the Kaiser Oakland waiting room with George than it would have to be BART across the Bay and unable to get back should there have been a problem. It is not like the Eldest hasn’t been this route before – we were hoping that her surgery in April would have permanently have solved her problem – but her pain came back so here we were again.

There was also the fact that she was first up in the surgical queue today rather than the last case of the day. The only thing positive about having to be anywhere at 0600 in the morning one can say is that traffic isn’t anywhere near as bad as it could be.

Her surgery went well; she looked awake in the recovery room and we just about managed to get her back to her house before the block wore off. The cats, of course, were delighted to have her back if only to snuggle before using her/her bed once again as a trampoline. Daughter #2 and I will be alternating time here along with George for some daytime coverage so that we don’t leave her undefended for the next couple of weeks just in case.

I have an exam tomorrow, so will head to the city, hit part of the afternoon game then hurry back. After tomorrow – no class till the 20th.

Eighth Grade Civics

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Ok. I can do this and remain sane. I have to remember that I am tossed in with the non-US crew. The group of people who have a much better sense of world history than I, a command of significantly more languages, and knowledge of other legal systems. I can accomplish writing assignments, research, class discussions.

I even remember studying the US Constitution in Mr Kaufman’s Class in fall of 1963. I was in that class when we learned President Kennedy had been assassinated. Where the theoretical discussions of succession of power rapidly became something other than dry words in a textbook.

There is a different feel when the Dean of the Law School comes in to teach an hour on separation of powers. But some of the slides look remarkably similar to what I saw on overheads all those decades ago. The Constitution still stands, but the issues have changed over the years and for those of us [US Citizens] who don’t want to acknowledge change, there really isn’t much choice. If we want to live in 1787, then those proposing such a “return to our Roots/Constitution” need to think long and hard about what that means:

      1. 1) No electronics – no Twitter, no PCs, Macs, cell phones. The writing implements then were quill pens, paper. Deal with it
        2) Give up your transportation. Horse, buggy, wagon are it.
        3) Everyone but white males gives up all rights to include citizenship, property etc. OTOH no one really cares about how you (white male) got to the New Nation
        4) Government is minimal – part time. Everyone (men) have a job. A real job – like farming or running a store,

      1. 5) Right to bear arms means responsibility to do so. All men get to serve their country in the military. Flat feet are no excuse. Plenty just finished serving who might no longer have feet.

 
Or we can accept that the constitution grows with the country. A country built by immigrants and for immigrants. Some whose ancestors came over the land bridge thousands of years ago, some invited to leave their home countries because of their actions and beliefs (think Pilgrims) and some arriving now, seeking a better life for themselves and their children.

All of us who took eighth grade Civics/US Government or US History need to do a bit of a refresher. And then think long and hard and why we have let the Executive Branch of the Government take over. Madison in the Federalist Papers #51 makes some excellent points.

Quilts and a side of As

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Ok, you have managed to avoid having to listen to me discussing baseball for, oh let us say at least a day. So first I will mention that the As are doing fine – in spite of a couple of the relief pitchers. Essentially they rock. A goodly number of my fellow Right Field Die Hards are in Anaheim this weekend expressly for the purpose of watching the As walk all over the Angels. Well? 2 out of 3 ain’t bad as the old country song goes.

Otherwise, I have put a bit of time into quilts that different daughters were making for friends babies.

To be clear – my daughters are not having children, but have several friends that are doing same.

The Eldest finished all but the machine quilting and just wasn’t up to it at the moment so

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and I took it over to her today.

Meanwhile, the quilt and bibs that Daughter #2 sent off in the mail have arrived –

the model, quilt, bib towel

and just to make sure