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Days of Thanksgiving

Life seems to be a constant blur as the days fly by with such speed that it almost becomes alarming.  The variety of reading, the topics, and the constant barrage of information in law school is enlivening and thrilling.  On the other hand, the lack of change, and the sheer amount of information thrust upon us, and the endless days of a self-imposed imprisonment make the days not pass fast enough.  The diligence required of the situation is wearisome, and yet I beat myself up for not being diligent enough since I cannot seem to digest the material to the degree that I want.  Another week, and the full final preparation mode kicks in.  I am so numb from school now, I have to find something extra within me to endure to what will be an inevitable end of the semester.  Hopefully I can pull all above average grades again.

I have nothing really to offer with relation to school.  Income Tax requires so much time and effort that I can spend up to 3 or 4 hours on it a night.  The problem is that I then go to class and find myself still getting half the problems wrong.  It is hard to stay motivated when no matter hard I try, I seem to be incapable of making it all work out.  The final scares me in that I have no clue how I will work through the entire semester and the huge amount of material during the semester.  The only consolation I have is that with all I speak, they assure me it is the hardest class any of them ever took.  That does make me feel better, but makes me wonder why I thought I would take it the heaviest semester of law school!?  (insert swear words of choice!)

The rest of the classes are cake compared to tax.  Evidence is more memorization of rules and knowing the interpretation surrounding them.  The same is pretty much true for Legal Ethics.  I took the MPRE two weeks ago and have no clue how I did.  I prepped for two weeks and felt really good going in.  That test came from somewhere else though, so we will just have to wait and see.  I just have to get above an 85 for Idaho (Utah is the highest at 86, Oklahoma one of the lowest at 75).

Criminal Procedure is a class that heavily relies on case law and the nuances that come with it.  Sometimes I admit I wonder what the Supreme Court is thinking or what mind-numbing drugs they are on.  Sometimes I wonder if we ought not to abandon stare decisis and revert to the civil code.  Boy, it sure appears to be a whole lot easier than taking a course on 80 years of the Supreme Court trying to make a sentence of the Constitution mean something.

In addition to all that, I still serve as Ward Mission Leader.  How I dedicate another 10+ hours to that each week I don’t know.  J. Reuben Clark takes an hour or two, and then an hour for LDSSA/Institute.  President Gillespie of the Oklahoma City Temple pulled Amanda and I into his office a few weeks ago and invited us to become temple workers.  We have turned in all that paperwork and it looks like we start training to be temple workers right after Christmas.  We will start working two Saturday’s a month.  Where I will push my other Saturday activities, I am not entirely sure.  We will make it work.

Anyhow, I wish I had a day to sleep in beyond 7:00 AM.  But then again, I have always been selfish that way.  12 hours a day at school, Fridays at work, Saturdays in missionary work and trying to catch up on the yard and homework, Sunday’s full of church and missionaries, and the week starts all over again.  It is not so much that I feel like I am not spending my time in worthwhile pursuits, it is just hard to keep my mind about it and keep the purposes in mind.

We spent all day yesterday working in the Oklahoma City Temple for the Days of Thanksgiving.  We did an endowment, 2 hours of working in the baptistry, and 4 hours in sealings.  While tiring physically, it was a much needed boost spiritually.  I will look forward to working there on a more regular basis.

What will happen when this semester ends?  I really don’t know.  I think we are going to paint a kitchen and hang a new door in the bathroom.  We have to drive to Dallas to attend the temple there and buy our temple working clothes.  Then we start another semester.  I am definitely going to try and take a lighter load next semester.  Until then, endurance is the name of the game.

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Mom’s Letter, Oct 09

10-27-09

Paul,

Talking about the Andra reunion and Lava, did you know Uncle Otto  as we called him used to have a little cafe there.  I was just little + I do not remember Jackie being around so it was before 1960.  Why did the Andra side perish in the camps in Germany?  Were they Jews?

On the Jonas side I only know probably 1st cousins + then not very well on the older ones.  On the Andra side I know very few.  Well off do not associate with the black sheep + snubbed cause of religion.  Pretty petty when the hypocrites snub the jacks.

I did not know LaRita even had a boy named Dennis but I remember the others names.  I could not tell you what they even look like.  Most of the time you can tell who they belong to though.  Except for a few Jonas reunions + fewer Andra reunions I have not had much to do with relatives since ’68.  During the marriage I had to deal with the green-eyed monster I was married to so I did not even get to associate with my relatives when I did go to the reunions.  Do not you say one damn thing cause you do not know what went on in the marriage.  I tried to keep everything out of sight so you + Sis would not know.  Only thing Sis is smarter than you + she does not have blinders on like you do.  Habitual liars do not know how to tell the truth even if it would save their lives.  DO NOT say anything about the subject.  Let it go.

Sounds like you got quite a plate full with your schooling + other activities + working on your house.  There is no way better to learn than 1st hand + doing it yourself.  Glad to hear they got the ones who broke into your house.

As for Dan + his partner whether it be male or female it does not matter cause it was Dan’s business but you know what Paul you just do not give it up.  If you are you are and if you are not you are not.  It is no one’s business but Dan’s + that goes for your cult too.  If you remember Larry’s boy got messed up by one on his mission.  It is a way of life for some but a dirty nasty game for others.  The dirty nasty ones ruin it for the legit ones.  Your cult cannot change that.  I do not care what you say.  Your cult does not care about anything but making their membership list grow.  Whether worthy or not of their requirements makes no difference to them.  Remember I spent 39 years on the membership list before the BS come to a head and Duffin or Duff or whatever his name was help me free myself from the cult.  DO NOT say anything here either.  I have just as much right as you of an opinion.  I caint help it if mine is opposite of yours.  We will never see eye to eye on the subject.  You do not condemn me cause I do have a quarter century more knowledge than you on life.

In school, I never cared much for history but I read some biographys that really opened my eyes about the so called great american political figures and the corruption that has gone on in the US of A.  How a cold blooded murder can hold the positions of governors and presidents.  Pretty spooky.  I also read an autobiography of an anarchist who also opened my eyes to the corruption in the country.  Look what has happened in the last couple of years of an asinin ripping of a lot of people off for millions + billions of dollars.  I have seen how state govt rips the fed govt off.  An in the end all the pain + suffering of the unsuspecting humans.

I do not think competitive enters into it anymore Paul.  I think it is all selfish + greed.  you remember back when there was the big doings about buy american made products to keep the money circulating in our own nation.  I have only seen things made in other countries like Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Afganastan, Mexico + in South America, etc, or things made in other countries then repackaged in the US.  Why?  Cause of the cheapness of labor.  The american thinks he worth so much.  Americans + their double standards.  Stupid people who live beyond their means.  the ones who live wanting instead of living with their needs.  There is a different in buying what you need + buying what you want.  Night + day, black + white.  A lot of people buy buy buy + do not worry about where the $ is going to come from to pay on all the spending.  I know I never go you kids things you wanted but then I did not have to cause someone else bought your love by getting it for you.  But then I guess love never ment that much to me if I had to it unlike some others I know.

I am glad you two do not want a large house.  Working up int he Sun Valley area I seen all those great big houses + could never figure out why the people wanted them except to out do the neighbor.  The prices were ridiculous.  But then when I took Gunther back to Connecticut the prices were ridiculous back there then too.  Why have space you do not use?  Do you know how they build the buildings in England or maybe I should say Europe.  It looked like similar architect in the countries.  Americans are not as smart as they might think.  The old countries are a lot smarter in the general things.  I myself have always wanted a small log cabin.  Did you ever see the log cabin Aslett’s had in Mackay?  That was a cute one but I want a build-in fire place instead of a stove.  Maybe some day.

What is between Oklahoma + Arizona where one has high humidity + one does not?  Is there a high mountain range?  I do not remember New Mexico having high humidity there.  So if you leave Oklahoma will your allergy stay there or go with you?  You did not get your allergies from my side of the family, you got it from the other side that is sick.  How come the shot only lasts a week?  Do not they have them that lasts longer than that?  Just exactly are you allergic to?  Is it mostly pollens and such or do animals enter in too?

Paul, it is not Idaho I do not like it is the self-righteous hypocrits I do not like.  I love mother nature + all her glory she makes.  There is beautiful land, plants, wildlife.  It is the human species of animal I do not like.  But you are wrong on the govt part.  Idaho is corrupt as hell.  The 1st Amendment, separation between state + church, does not exist.  The state is run by a cult.  Idaho is 1 of 2 or 3 out of 50 that took away good time.  It was taken away Feb ’87 when the Unified Sentencing Act went into affect.  Then you got the asinines in the senate or legislature  who have been in there a while (Darrington – Declo) who says over my dead body will good time be brought back.  Darrington was a history teacher at Burley High when I went there.  A good upstanding mormon prick.  Greed is a corrosive in the fine upstanding govt of Idaho.  But I will not go on.  Politicians are vermin.

Sorry about the picture in 4th grade.  Where did it come from?  Who?  It was not Doug or Jackie’s writing.  Apparently someone stupid.  Now tell me if you looked at the picture that you would of known who I was.  Is there no common sense any more?

Paul, if Dad + Colleen were married in ’46 + I was born in ’54 how do you expect me to answer what they did?  It seems very difficult if I did not exist.  I have no idea when the house on State St was built.  I know Dad worked for Sego all the time I was alive.  I have no idea what Colleen did + do not care.  I remember a lot of Richmond being I lived there the 1st 14 yrs of my life + then back again after high school for a while.  no one came to visit except relation.  Evan + Spence used to come up to fish.  Evan the most in High Crick.  At bird season the front yard looked like camper city.  A lot of Jonas + Coleys, pheasant, duck, geese.  Joe’s boys, Lee + Earl.  I do not ever remember Ellis coming up.  He was too good.  We used to have the Jonas reunion down on the park ever year, by the highway where the elementary school was.  I understand it is torn down now but do not know if they built another one there or not.  There was always Black + White Days + baseball games behind LD’s.  The 4th of July they used to role a car off the NC mountain.  It was right behind the house pretty much.  There was the Group that Dad + Colleen belonged to.  Different holidays they met at someones place + had a party.  New Years was at our house.  Dad bagged the geese + Colleen cooked them + then the people brought pot luck.  We had a regulation pool table + the guys pretty much was downstairs playing pool + I do not know what the women did.  I pretty much stayed downstairs.  Colleen belonged to a bridge club.  I think it was with the women in the group but caint be sure.  Dad belonged to the Lion’s Club so there were outings + things that they put on.  There was a place in High Crick where they had suppers and breakfasts.  There were 2 wards, North and South.  The earthquake ’62 took North ward out.  It took the house on the corner, the one across the road + Sal’s house out.  I am sure a lot others too through out Richmond.  Cherry Crick Peak was loosened + said it would fall if we had another quake or some bad tremors.  Face rock shifted + turned into a frog.  How’s that for a few things.

Tell Amanda not to worry about writing.  We are strangers + she would not know what to write to me anyway.  Also tell her I do not care if she had judged me even though it is not her business to judge me.  How can you judge people start wit?  People you have never met?  She must of forgot where I have to live.  I am not allowed things like electric toothbrushes + I caint afford Sensodyne paste @ 7.50 – 4 oz.  She must not of read my letter very well cause I told her I had reconstruction where the gums were worn away but that some had come off.

You would think in this day + age they could figure out how to make + replace teeth + dentures.  Does she know anything about the ones that screw into the jaw?  I understand they are almost like real teeth + they keep the jaw in shape like natural teeth do.  But I hear it is expensive.  About a grand per tooth.  I heard a top plate you have to get over the gag reflex.  There is no way I would go without teeth.  I have seen it a lot here.  Seen a lot of snaggle toot people too.  I just do not see how people can go around with a mouth full of rotten teeth either.

I guess it is getting time to close.  I got 2 other letters to write, Gunther + Sal.  I finally got correspondence back with Gunther after 6 months.  I hope she keeps her nose clean cause I sure could not handle worrying about her being here.  The AG’s brief is due tomorrow so I guess I will be hearing from my atty soon too.

You 2 take care + good luck with your lives.  Hope no more robbers come your way.  You need an attack animal.  Were you home when they broke in?  Let me know how your small claim turns out against them.  So Long for now.

Love You,
Mom

Did you get the little card for your birthday?
I forgot to put both you kids names on them.
I remember after I mailed them.

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Jeep Wreck in about 1980

I thought I would share this story about my mother and me of when I was a baby.  It is a riveting story I had not heard from this angle before.  I knew my mother had wrecked her jeep, rolled it while drunk, and her dog was killed.  I never knew how I was linked!  Anyhow, I have changed the story some so it reads better for those who are not familiar with the family.

Colleen is my Grandmother, Sandy is my mother, Linda is my Aunt (the author), Doug is my Uncle.  I don’t know exactly when this accident took place, I assume somewhere in 1980.  The wreck was near Max Beet Dump, on Highway 24, near Minidoka, Idaho.

“The initial call from the police came to Grandma’s. Doug answered. Colleen was not there. I was asked about you, the police said there was no baby. I had seen you with [Sandy] prior to her drinking. Sandy was not above leaving you in the car when she would drink. So the police began the search. By the time Doug and I arrived at the wreck, they had found the dog, I think he was under the jeep. It was dark, I remember the field, the tumbleweeds. The shadows cast. The jeep upside down. Sandy was at the ER. The baby carrier that she used had been found, but no Paul. I remember hearing someone say, if you were out there, you were dead. The smell of the blackberry brandy all over the carrier, the inside of the jeep.”

“I remember Doug yelling, “I’m going to kill her.” Typical of the family, he rambled about every single thing she had done wrong in the past. Making himself madder and madder. I was freezing, terrified, my stomach hurt so bad.”

“One of the deputies radioed and we were told that Colleen was at home and that you were with her. Doug was so angry by the time we got to you. He fought with his mom about Sandy. All I could do was hold you and cry. Grandma was concerned about Sandy and Doug did not want her to go to the hospital. Colleen had been spared the emotion that Doug and I had just gone thru. I think Colleen had run into Sandy and had taken you so she would not leave you in the car while she drank. Probably because it was cold. I am curious about Doug’s memory of this. Your mom would probably not remember, she was drunk. I don’t remember anyone but the police and Doug and I looking for you. I believe we looked for a little over an hour before the call. Thing is, you were never missing. No one else really lived the terror, so this would not be a story connected with the rollover. There would/should be something in the police report, we did search for you.”

Now I am interested in getting my hands on the police report.  I wouldn’t know where to find it, even if they have kept it for this many years.  Who knew my life was so interesting at some point?  Does anyone else have a story about me I don’t know about?  I am certainly interested in hearing others’ stories, or even linked to this episode.

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The big 30, sweepers, and concrete

Yep, I finally made the 30 pounds I wanted to gain after returning from the severe weight loss I suffered in England.  Just Kidding.  After last night’s 12 oz of prime rib, I may be pushing the pre-England weight (which I have never actually reclaimed).  Really though, yesterday was supposedly a momentous occasion.  I lived to the ripe age of thirty.  So what do I have to account for my birthday?  Approximately at 10:08 AM CST I passed the 30 year mark in age.  I passed it at school preparing for legal profession.  I spent 11 hours at school, my wife picked me up, we went to dinner at a steakhouse, and I ate so much I had to come home and go pretty much straight to bed.  Does that sound old or what?

I guess if we count the dozens of Facebook messages and comments, in-person birthday wishes, phone calls, and e-mails I guess it was a pretty good day.  Thanks to Facebook, more people knew about the birthday than I would ever have imagined.  Who would have thought Facebook would have changed our lives so much in a few short years of our existence?  Really though, I am very appreciative of everyone’s sympathetic mourning.  In all honesty, I really don’t feel any older than the day I returned from British soil in December 2000.  The only thing physically I may have to mark any passage of time would be the deterioration of my eyes, which I attribute more to law school than I do to age.  Age to a guy doesn’t really seem to matter.  Unlike women who round it up to the nearest quarter century.  (Kinda like guys losing weight in the mirror where women gain it).  We wear the same clothes were wore ten years ago and think it really is ten years ago, and that we look it.  It really was just another day for me with an excuse to go out to eat something beyond what we really should have paid for.

Moving beyond the birthday, I have a couple of observations to make.  Just some musing and thoughts I can provide, even if not from wisdom.

This deals with more of quirky Oklahoma.  I had to learn some more of the lingo recently and thought I would share.  In church a few weeks back, I was asked to help sweep after classes was done.  I agreed and was assigned to sweep each of the classrooms.  Dutifully, I went to the janitor’s office and got a broom and dustpan thingy.  Each of the classrooms though had carpet!  After trying to sweep up the little chunks in the classrooms I finally just went and got a vacuum and then vacuumed each of the classrooms.  I made a mental note that I needed to inform the Elders Quorum President that the classrooms have carpet and not floors for sweeping.

A week or two later we are serving in the temple and find ourselves on the cleaning crew after the last endowment.  As I go to the janitor’s
office, the lady tells me to sweep the endowment rooms.  I then walk towards the broom with a nagging knowledge that the endowment rooms
have carpet.  I thought, “Wow, these Oklahoman’s sure do things the hard way.”  As I went to leave she asked me what I was doing.  I said,
“I am going to sweep the endowment rooms.”  She then pointed at the vacuums and said, “Why don’t you take a sweeper, it will be a whole lot
easier.”  Suddenly, a light dawned in my aged mind and I said something like, “you mean you call vacuuming ‘sweeping’?”  She nodded with a
puzzled look and told me to go sweep.  As I was sweeping the carpets with the sweeper, I wondered what they called the motion of using a
broom on floors.  Brooming?  Scooting?  Brushing?  Scratching?  I still don’t know.  I was afraid of looking like an idiot to ask anyone.  I
will probably find out soon enough.  “Brother Ross, will you go scoot the floors in the far hall for us?” I will be walking to the janitors
office looking for something to do some scooting.

Our sprinkler system continues to go in between the rain clouds.  For the most part, much of the pipe is in place and most of the heads are on.  In fact, most of the trenches are even filled in.  But the rain keeps coming nearly every weekend and the poor sprinkler system people cannot seem to get it finished.  Need rain?  Put in a sprinkler system.  Kinda like washing the car.  Do it, and the rains come.

I have continued to remove the concrete pad in the backyard.  It has turned out to be a multiple month workout!  Who would have thought a little 8′ X 12′ concrete pad would take 3 months to remove only half?  As lazy as that makes me sound, let me add some flesh to this ‘pad’.  It turns out that this little pad in the backyard has concrete 9 inches thick in places!  Thank goodness the individuals didn’t have access to rebar, but they were kind enough to put a layer or two of fence in the concrete near the bottom.  I purchased a 20 pound sledge hammer thinking I could have the thing done in a week.  This long later, and I am only half done.  I had to buy a spike to break the stuff apart.  I had to pull out my little sledges to drive the spike.  I had to dig around the perimeter of the pad so as I cracked it, it had somewhere to go.  Once I get a crack, I have to take the spike to it and then hope the fence inside will break.  As it slowly severs away, I have to bend it back and forth until the fence wire finally breaks.  Then I heave the block to the side and start again.  This process is painfully slow, exhausting, and in our humidity, draining.

What really justifies my taking so long deals also with the garbage man.  With these massive blocks of concrete, I have considerable weight problems.  The garbage truck will not pick up a garbage can that weights more than roughly 100-125 pounds.  So I can put about 2 cubit yards of concrete in the bottom and I am really pushing the limit.  Any extra garbage on the top just might throw me over.  There is more though.  The garbage truck is like a stinky old man with a hernia though.  If the garbage can is overweight, the driver has to rev up the truck to get the hydralics where they need to be.  Doing this speeds up something inside the truck and the 3 minutes the truck sits on the side of the road trying to pick it up, or get it all the way upside down leaves a huge puddle of garbage ooze compressed from within the truck.  It stinks, looks disgusting, and we pray for more rain.

I have two garbage cans, but in the past month, two of them have been left for me to reallocate half the load to the other garbage can.  Meaning, I lost two weeks in the last month alone where I could not send more concrete to the garbage cemetery.  So my little pile beside the pad has continued to grow, week by week.  I had another can rejected last Tuesday, so again this Tuesday, I cannot add more to the garbage going out.

The sprinkler man decided not to use one of his trenches, so I must confess, it is filling up with concrete chunks.  Anything smaller than about 4 cubit inches usually ends up in the trench now.  When it is within about 3 or 4 inches of the top of the trench, then I fill it in.  The extra dirt will be used to fill the gaping hole where my concrete pad was located.  I am going to have to get a load of dirt in to fill this hole I am creating.  Geez, if it isn’t one thing or another!  Amanda warned me that it was not necessary the concrete pad be removed.  Now I wish I had listened.

 

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Classes and JRCLS

I am writing after working my way further and further into the bowels of my 3rd semester of law school.  Honestly, I think it is easier than the first year.  It is a great relief to not have to worry about a paper or impending writing coming upon me.  Oddly, I can get into a routine and not really have to worry about anything upsetting that routine until finals (oh and some silly little MPRE exam in November I have to pass to fully take the bar and get my legal intern license).

This semester’s roster includes Federal Income Tax, Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Legal Profession (aka professional ethics).  The classes are enjoyable.  It is almost like the teachers are no longer out to intimidate us or make sure we have the salt not to drop out.  I hope it continues.  Hands down, my favorite class is still Constitutional Law.  My undergrad, Law & Constitutional Studies, is right down this alley.  The degree is basically a pseudo law degree with a large dose of constitutional law.  Not only do I enjoy the class, but I am familiar with everything we have covered already from Utah State University.  If it helps, my professor even reminds me in looks of my constitutional law professor at USU.

The next class to tie for first for what I most enjoy is strangely Federal Income Tax.  What an interesting class.  All of the law school classes up until now have been hypothetical realms of some future case I may deal with in whatever field of law I choose.  But Federal Income Tax is applicable to me as an individual and implicates the majority of Americans.  I did like the brief historical background too.  Did you know that the United States only had taxes from 1791 to 1802, then 1813 to 1818, and then our current taxation period started in 1861?  The taxes in all three periods were brought about because of war.  Too bad the money hungry government couldn’t go back to no taxes after they finished paying off the Civil War.  Oh, and the old taxable items were spirits, tobacco, and beer!  Income taxes didn’t come along until the 1890’s and contrary to popular belief, were Constitutional.  The Amendment just changed things so nobody had to worry about the proportionality among the states.  Since the first chapter it has been nothing but the nitty gritty of gross income and exclusions ever since.  It is nice to have a class with a little math and good solid answers.

Evidence and Criminal Procedure are pretty much up the same line of thinking.  The professor for Criminal Procedure is hilarious both for his jokes and his little man complex.  The evidence is an intense individual with a very dramatic moving teaching style.  I think he must make 100 laps across the front of the class room in each class and if you were to put weights in his hands, he would be one buff dude.

Lastly is professional ethics.  I wonder how necessary the class really is.  But it is very interesting in that we are confronted with the situations that many lawyers find themselves in, and we get to learn how the ethics rules apply.  Mostly though, we get to discuss what is right and wrong.  I assume the basic importance of the class is to help us recognize the situations and make decisions now on how we will react to them in the future.  There are some serious conflicts for lawyers between confidentiality and doing justice to the public.  Somehow I find myself really torn in so many situations on how I would react.  While most of the time, the rules enthrone confidentiality and working only for your client.  I don’t accept those underlying premises and find myself not even on the same page as most of the individuals in the classes.  To me, a lawyers job is to assist clients in receiving help in navigating justice.  In my understanding and heart, my duty is to justice (Plato and Socrates coming out here) and to society at large.  If a client was to confess a murder to me, I would accept his confidentiality and keep it, but I would feel a very heavy burden to anonymously notify somebody with a clue or tip to make sure justice is also met.  Even further, especially if somebody was serving time for a crime for somebody else.  The form of justice and my duty to society would seem to require I tell.  But, this enthroned idea of confidentiality requires a lawyer never to disclose (there are some exceptions, which are pretty rare and difficult to even see if you meet the criteria).

A slight roadbump did come this week.  I don’t know if I mentioned that I was voted in as Vice President of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society this past spring.  In a quick note, I sat too far back and totally was not reading the minds of the people running the meeting.  I thought somebody wanted to not be President so I made a motion to open the floor so he didn’t have to be.  Well, he was nominated and accepted.  Then I thought the secretary didn’t want to be, so I nominated someone else.  That person declined because she had read that the secretary wanted to stay in.  I misread everything.  But my motioning to open the floor for the President made someone else think I wanted to be President and they nominated me for Vice President.  I really wanted to focus only on my studies and had no interest in serving in any club beyond showing up for service or something.  Now I found myself nominated for Vice President.  I was going to decline but the quote from none other than J. Reuben Clark crossed my mind, “In the service of the Lord, it is not where you serve but how. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one takes the place to which one is duly called, which place one neither seeks nor declines.”  While that quote really doesn’t apply outside the church, the thought passed that I should neither seek nor decline.  I certainly didn’t seek it, and now I thought I shouldn’t decline it.

Well, just alike a Gerald Ford sort of situation, the President transferred from OCU to another school.  That left a vacancy with another acting pro temp.  I nominated the person acting pro temp as president and he declined!  Next thing I knew I was nominated and in a dastardly act, I was not given the opportunity to decline.  Not that it had really dawned on me what was happening yet.  The meeting moved on, I was nominated, none else were and a vote came up.  Here I am the new President of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society and I haven’t a clue what I am doing!  What is more, I work for the liaison for attorney division of JRCLS (J Reuben Clark Law Society).  I now sit as a President of an organization officially chartered and ran through BYU, which really rubs me wrong, and somehow I am no longer just following the lead of someone else, I am supposed to lead out!  Yikes.  So much for just paying attention to my studies and avoiding any responsibility in law school.  Add that to Vice President of LDSSA and Ward Mission Leader and my church service has expanded.  Of course, I could just sit back and let it die away, but because it is linked in some way to the church, I honestly feel like I have to really do something.  Any suggestions?  I could really use them.

Anyhow, I have some other interesting things to share, but it is late and this is already too long.  Many things to think about recently.

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Kennedy’s passing

As ironic as it may seem to some, I want to give a few of my regards to Senator Kennedy.  Many of his lines of thinking with regard to politics I did not agree with, but my experience has shown he was a man whose heart was of gold.  When a person passes, it is customary to share of an experience or two as a tribute to the goodness of a person, and to ignore the bad (of which I have had no such experience).

While growing up there were a number of individuals who made it known to me how very much they disagreed with Democrat Principles.  Senator Kennedy’s name was one that somehow usually found its way into the assault on the Democratic Party and their ideals.  Coming from a heavily Republican territory, of which I make no statements for or against, my views were somewhat colored concerning this man.

In 2003, I paid a visit to some friends in Baltimore.  He was working in Senator Kennedy’s office as an intern.  I guess Senator Hatch and Senator Kennedy’s were good friends and had this sort of ‘trade’ program where the two offices would swap an intern for the summer.  My friend, who like me, tended to find myself in middle ground claiming neither Republican nor Democrat territory, relished the opportunity.  It was with him I learned from his first-hand experience with Senator Kennedy.  It was during recess so the Senator was not in town, but I was able to meet many of his other interns and see his office.  A man’s office tends to tell quite a bit about him.  My impression then was of a man that didn’t necessary come down different than the stories I had heard while younger.  All the signed photographs of notable people on the walls seemed to smack more of arrogance than anything.  A picture of him and his brother (maybe brothers) sat on the mantle showing the classic Kennedy smiles with deceased family members well enshrined in our country.

Anyhow, those impressions were quickly dismissed when I met the man himself in 2005.  My first time meeting him was after having just walked through security in the Russell Senate Office Building I waited for an elevator.  A man with a white tuft of hair walked around the corner with his dogs.  I instantly recognized him, how can you not.  Since it was the Senator elevator that opened, I stepped back to allow him on and watched the doors start to close.  He stopped the doors and asked if I wasn’t going up.  I must have showed my reluctance since staff are to give up their elevator to Senators and let them ride alone.  He smiled and said it was okay, he didn’t mind.  I knew he genuinely meant what indicated and we spent our few seconds riding the same elevator.

Now, you can say he was being a nice guy.  But I can tell you that some of the other Senators are not quite as friendly.  My next story actually deals with Senator Kennedy and his kindness in contrast with the rudeness of two other Senators.

I was asked to give a tour to a family from Oregon.  It wasn’t my turn, but for some reason or another they has asked if I could give their tour.  Honestly, I don’t know why, I had never met them before.  The couple had two darling girls, one about 5 or 6 and the other about 8 or 9.  It was only the four of them and since it was not a usual time, I knew we would have a degree of solitude in giving them a tour of the Capitol.  I had taken my time and given a very leisurely tour of the Capitol.  However, as we were about to exit the Capitol we must have caught the flow of traffic from a vote that had just been taken.  Quite a few staff and some Senators were coming out of the elevators and heading to the tram to head back to the Senate Offices.  We were ahead of the traffic and were waiting for our tram to arrive to take us back to the Russell Senate Building.  Just like the elevator, we are to give up our seat on the tram to a Senator.  As my family was about to board the tram, I recognized Senator Kennedy heading our way and stopped boarding to let him on.  He recognized that I had left him the seat to get on.  Rather than getting on the tram, he stopped to shake the hand of both of the little girls.  He asked their names, he asked where they were from, introduced himself, and asked if they wanted to ride with them.  They agreed and Senator Kennedy helped them on the train, sitting one of them on his lap.  The family got on and I told them that I would walk (the tram was full) and meet them on the other end.  I saw the tram take off and watched the Senator beaming at these two little girls.

On a side note, as that tram took off, the other one arrived for the Russell Senate Building.  It was then I was rudely pushed out of the way so another man could pass.  The man beside me responded by saying, “Who is the prick?”  To which I saw a tall man turn back and look, and instantly recognized Senator Kerry.  I thought to myself what a contrast in the two Senators from Massachusetts.

It is about a 5 minute walk to the other end of the tunnel to where the tram stops and there I saw my family still talking with Senator Kennedy in the hallway that leads to the Russell Building.  They were kind enough to wait for me, and Senator Dodd had joined them.  Senator Kennedy said he was going to take them up to see his dogs and office.  We rode in the elevator to the 3rd floor, left Senator Dodd in the elevator, and went to see his office.  He totally treated that family as golden, let them take a couple of pictures, and we were on our way.

My impressions of Senator Kennedy were nothing but respect for a man who obviously treasured people more than prestige.  In my personal interactions with him, I have seen nothing but kindness.  Now I don’t know otherwise, but I was impressed.

We left the office and the family was obviously impressed.  The father’s comments were along the lines of what I was thinking.  “I have been misled about that man.”  Being a staunch Republican from Oregon, he had a paradigm shift.  Too bad as the elevator stopped on the 3rd floor to go up, we were just getting in when another man approached.  I recognized him as Senator Specter.  He entered the elevator and since we were on the inside, I didn’t attempt to get the family with me out of the elevator.  He was alone so I thought it would be okay.  As the doors closed, he stopped them and made it clear we were to leave.  Our little brush with Camelot quickly came to an abrupt close as we realized Kennedy’s kindness didn’t extend to other Senators.

Back on the 4th floor, I lead them to the office and we parted ways.  We were all changed individuals.  Just because I am getting long, I will just mention my profound respect for a man who still recognized the common man and was happy to mingle with them despite his busy schedule.

My only other experience with the man was again in an elevator, this time in the Capitol himself.  Just the two of us, he turned to me and asked a question.  Of course, I was caught completely off guard, and really didn’t have much of an opinion or knowledge about what he just asked me.  I told him I didn’t know enough to answer his question.  We were both getting off on the same floor and I let him lead out.  It was then he turned as if to ask me another question.  The doors closed and I found me face to face with the man.  He said he really wanted my first impressions on the subject.  As an idiot, I rattled off some answer that was not well thought about and tried to give some justification and reasoning for what I thought.  He then asked me a very penetrating question that indicated how very ignorant I was on the subject.  I made a slight comment about how he was probably more informed and I really didn’t know.  To that he patted me on the arm and walked away, but it was with a twinkle in his eye.  I don’t think he did it to show that he was more knowledgeable, but just to get another opinion on something he was thinking about.  Looking back, I made an idiot of myself.  But he didn’t make me feel that way.

I know he is much maligned for many things.  I cannot speak for his morals, his history, or his doctrine.  Ultimately, we all answer to God for that.  But I saw a man who still knew how to connect with people.  Something I saw in very few other Senators.  Since I doubt God respects Senators, I wish Edward Kennedy the best in the realm he now finds himself.  I love the man, and feign to believe the friend, I had a brief acquaintance with here in mortality.

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Cash is for Plunkers

I thought I would take a few moments to write a few thoughts about the latest ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program funding my our tax dollars.  We all know what the program is supposed to do.  Take the old gas guzzling cars off the road and put more efficient, environment-friendly cars on the road.  Additionally, it helps put some extra money into the pockets of those who take advantage of the program (rich or poor).  Even better, it provides some extra funds in the mix for the car makers who are producing these better cars.  Then, as if it cannot get any better, it is helping out the economy by getting cash and finance moving in the system.  How can we beat a program like this?

Well, lets look at the other side of the coin.  Government is classically known for being short-sighted and usually missing the secondary effects (or any real primary effects at all).  Some of which I thought I might share.

I will save the old government bashing lines for later.  I only want to look at the Cash for Clunkers program.  First, there are two pretty simple economic fundamentals that government seems to forget and is being ignored in the overall program.  Economics never, ever encourages waste!  “Wait,” you ask, “What is being wasted?”  All those cars that are being traded in under this program are not being resold, they are not going to some auction for charity, they don’t even go to the kidney foundation.  These cars are having a substance, usually a solvent, poured into the engines and the car is run until it seizes.  That means the car is destroyed, unless you want to put a new engine in it.  (I don’t know if these cars can even be parted out or sent to a junkyard.  They might just be scrapped!)

Good economics always has a good being put to its best use.  Good economics always has a commodity used, recycled, and used over and over.  These cars, some of them perfectly good cars, are being junked because they don’t meet an environmental standard.  No retrofitting, no alternative fuels, nothing.  Junked.  This is pretty much like everyone trading in their old radio for a newer one because the old one uses too much power, has a toxic chemical in its board, and has AM still available (which of course, nobody uses anymore).  But wait, there is more, we have to take the radio, crush it, and put it in the dumpster.  Do we realize how much energy went into creating that radio, do we know how much time, and all the other resources.  A car probably takes 100 times as much power, planning, and expenditures to create though.  What do we get in the end?  We have a car off the road, but what about the multiplication of energy and capital in mining, relocating, and planning the materials for a new one?  What about what those materials might have otherwise been put to use for.  (Classic scarcity and trade-offs)  In the end, we removed a few pounds of carbon from the air due to that one car, but put a few more pounds in the air to produce a new car somewhere else.  I am very willing to bet, the loss of those new resources pulled from other items, and the energy to create each new car is pretty much a wash for the old one it replaced.  Okay, for the sake of argument, there is a plus.  But what about the additional scarcity by the new products?  Oh, and we really cannot forget all the energy and capital (especially human resources) to cover the cost of that free $4,500 dollars they get for trading the car in.  Ouch, that alone probably puts us back into negative territory.

I don’t know how many cars are traded in or disposed of in a month, but I am willing to bet you there isn’t much more than the normal business routine.  Sure, we see a great swell.  But everyone looking at trading in their car for the rest of the year probably jumped the gun.  Who isn’t going to jump it for $4,500 extra dollars?  So what do we have, those who were already looking to trade in a car.  This could be either for necessity or luxury.  Some just want an updated model.  Others to update before their warranty runs out.  Others because they have no other choice, their car is on its last leg.  Here we are giving some money to the poor, the rich, and the middle-class.  Leaving aside the arguments for progressive taxes, we cover the spectrum.  But I am willing to bet most of these cars are for the middle-class and wealthier.  Why?  The poorer tend to have credit issues, especially in today’s market.  Even with the $4,500, how many of the poor do you think can afford a new car?  No, they are out looking for a used car, most of which will not qualify for the program.  Here we have a program that appears to be cleaning up the environment and offers incentives, but only to those who can afford it!  Odd twist isn’t it?

While we are talking about those poor people, of which I happen to be one.  Let’s look how this will effect me in other ways.  I prefer to pay cash for my cars.  I prefer to purchase used and not to finance.  Let’s say 100,000 cars are traded in under the Cash for Clunkers program.  Those cars, the high quality and the legitimate junk ones, are all instantly taken out of commission.  That is 100,000 cars which will no longer be circulating and will certainly not find their way back into the used car market.  A shortage creates a higher cost because of higher demand.  Sure, some of those cards would have been junked, but most of them would have gone on to auctions and other buyers.  So that Lincoln with only 50,000 miles on it, that I may have bought on the second hand market is no longer there.  In fact, NONE of them are in the second-hand market.  The cost of buying a used car will go up.  For how long, who knows.  At least a year, perhaps longer.  To some degree, it will probably never fully recover.  After all, we are taking out of commission quite a few cars.  So I better save up some more for that new used car, or keep my current clunker going for a little longer.  I can afford to maintain and fix my car.  What about those who cannot?  Well, their cars will enter a state of worsening condition and you know what, one of those cars blowing blue smoke does more environmental damage than my whole block’s gas guzzling vehicles could have hoped.  Give it a year or two, I am afraid most of our cars on the block may be blowing blue smoke in a year because we won’t be able to afford a new one or maintain it inevitably.

While the rest of the country is worrying about health-care, the politicians are trumping the success of the Cash for Clunkers.  It really isn’t a success.  Unless of course, you work for Ford, General Motors, or Toyota.  Those of us who cannot afford to trade in our car are paying for someone else to get a new car, on our tab.  Add to that shame, when we can afford a new car, or are required to get a new car, we have to pay more.  Guess I am getting taxed twice.  Oh well, I live in America, it is an honour to pay taxes.  Twice the honour to pay them in two different ways.

While I am thinking about it, I have a radio to go smash and replace.  Please send your $25 to me.  All of you!

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Construction again

Amanda has announced that we have started our next project on the house.  Even before the last one was completed.  As most already know, we had our home broken into the last day of April.  I finally replaced the double doors this past week and a half.  But before I could get the trim put up, Amanda let me know not to put it up because she was going to paint the room.  I am okay with that, just wanted to get the bathroom finished before we started another room.  She hasn’t let me know the color yet, but I started scraping the walls last night of the strange plaster leaf patters found throughout the room. We can start sanding the walls down tonight and hopefully have the patching and priming done on Friday.  Then Amanda and paint her little heart’s content on Saturday and Monday.  This room just happens to be a pain because we had to seal it from the rest of the kitchen, and the little utility closet, and now to cover the refrigerator (have you ever thought of what a strange name that is?  Frigid-cold.  Refrig?  Was it cold before?  rator makes some sense, it seems to denote a motor is involved.  Probably just some marketing name that stuck).

The replacement back patio french doors turned out to be an episode in and of itself.  When I went to Lowe’s, I told them what I wanted and made sure to emphasize I needed it in 60 inch, not the usual 72 inch.  We loaded the doors into the truck and drove home.  A good friend came over and we carried the doors around back (heavy thing!) and I had a 72 inch set of french doors.  Darn it!  We then had to reload them, take them back, go through the whole process of return, and then waiting for them to get the hyster to pull the doors we need off the second tier of shelving.  We made it back home with the much lighter doors.  However, the eave is pretty low on the back so I had to lose the molding off the outside top of the door.  It was a very, very tight fit, but we got the doors in.  It then took us the next 4 hours to get the doors level and to close right.  In the end, I had to have another friend come over that weekend and help level them out some more.  We finally came to the conclusion the door is warped.  I am hoping the door will warp back to where it needs because I most surely am not taking the entire door set back to Lowe’s for a new set to do the whole thing all over again!

I caulked the sides and just need to finish trimming the outside after we get the security people over to install the new sensor (which I broke on the old door).  If it is not one thing, it is another.

We have been getting some estimates on the tiling of the bathroom.  We have some as high as $700 and some as low as $350.  Those are both just for the labour.  I really don’t want to have to rent/buy a saw and go through the chores of the tiling business just to screw it up and start over.  I would like to watch someone do it and then I will venture in the future.  I guess I could always go do the DIY class somewhere, but school starts in a few weeks.  I don’t have time.  I don’t think the supplies will cost more than $300 for our little shower.  We will do it in the next month.

Then starts the dreaded school!  Just thinking about it makes my stomach sick.  The long, long hours of slaving over books doesn’t seem all that exciting.  I do find it very mentally stimulating and exciting learning the new things, but it wears on you after the first month.  Then it is just enduring because you realize nothing else in your life is being accomplished.  Like the at favorite book, wanting to watch a movie, or even just eating out once and a while.  Nope, you are a slave to the law library.  To such a degree that you have to wear your reading glasses by the end of the semester and you cannot seem to get the right words to come out of your mouth.  You are thinking the right word, but a different word emerges.  Hopefully not to anyone’s embarrassment.  I am taking more credits this coming semester than I ever have and I fear that after having the entire summer off.  Some people have kept the pace to some degree over the summer, but I have been completely involved in other pursuits in the evenings.  As long as everyone realizes that I am Mr. Anti-Social during school, and all will be fine.

Probably time to sign out.  I would offer some political advice, but I am so far removed from the political situation now that it was be the same as a sports enthusiast at the television.  One thing is for sure, if I personally spent like the government, I would have lost all credit and probably even thrown in jail.  Funny what government can get away with.  Hopefully all the states will finally stand up and take their position as opposition to the Federal Government.  I don’t care who the President is.  Our current man isn’t any better than the last with fiscal responsibility.  Both are cowards and weak at determining what really is the future of our nation.  It would be great if we could have a California situation with the national government.