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Thankfulness at 100

I thought I would just list some of the stuff that I am thankful for this night.  I responded to an e-mail earlier asking me about a pot pie and I realized how grateful I am for a good pot pie.  It set me to thinking about other things I am grateful.  Here is a quick list.  I want to say I can do 100, but I may do more or less.  These are objects I am grateful for, not a state of mind or generality.  No particular order!  I took all people out.

1. Amanda  2. Pot pies 3. Family  4. Shoe laces  5. Deodorant  6. Health  7. God  8. Family History  9. Friends  10. Home  11. Lasagna  12. Sleep  13. Green grass  14. Home Teaching  15. Prayer  16. Books  17. Showers  18. Blankets  19. Air  20. Life  21. Potatoes  22. Sagebrush  23. Pizza  24. Revelation  25. Pets  26. Water  27. Cars  28. Jesus Christ  29. Light  30. Learning  31. Order  32. Warmth  33. Rain  34. Love  35. Priesthood  36. Neighbors  37. Refrigerators  38. Taste  39. White  40. Stretching  41. Rings  42. Sweat  43. Smell  44. Sauerkraut  45. Mail  46. Sex  47. Spirit  48. Friday  49. Music  50. Purity  51.  Goodness  52. Ironing  53. Touch  54. Computers  55. Airplanes  56. Horses  57. Peanuts  58. Honesty  59. Contrasts  60. Joseph Smith  61. Pavlova  62. Missions  63. Sunshine  64. Bees  65. Leaves  66. Naps  67. Sacrament  68. Comfort  69. Virtue  70. Touch  71. Skin  72. Gates  73. Talking  74. Sunday  75. Eyes  76. Hair  77. Telephones  78. Pictures  79. Dirt  80. Squash (sport)  81. Sight  82. Service  83. Intelligence  84. Robins  85. Forgiveness  86. Understanding  87. Socks  88. Reading  89. Soap  90. Clothes  91. Cleanliness  92. Red  93. Humor  94. Silence  95. Holy Ghost  96. Waterskippers  97. Children  98. Trifle  99. Cuddling  100. Gratitude

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Shout from Idaho

I am writing from sunny and green Idaho.  The amazing thing is another rain-storm is pondering the roll through right now.  The reservoirs are all full and life seems to be looking pretty good here.  The locals say it has been a bit humid for the past few days, but I can handle 20 or 30% humidity with little issue.  Especially after 100+ Oklahoma with a heat index into the cent teens.  I thought I would share a couple of thoughts of our little trip.

This morning found us at the bright and beautiful Twin Falls Temple.  I will have to post some pictures later, but it was a full session.  It was a clear morning and we could not have asked for more.  We ran into my cousin on the session and it was fun to catch up with her.  We took some pictures after we got out as Dad and Jan were going in.  Amanda needed some R&R so we came back and crashed for this afternoon.  We did have lunch with Ms. Felicia Poteet and her cutest daughter, Evie.  I am glad I have friends, that I get to hang out with them, and learn from their life experiences.  Where would we be without family and friends?

The week was busy getting Derek off into the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo.  All went off, pretty much without a hitch, on Wednesday.  His farewell went well, he spoke well, and the family congregated to the Hemsley home in Kaysville.  All enjoyed the food, spent some good quality time with family, and plenty of stories.  I was exhausted after the whole thing and I didn’t even have a role to play in the open house.  There must have been 50-70 people who came through the home during the open house.  We helped Derek pack, finish shopping, fulfill a few last requests, and enter the MTC.  We also had a meeting or two with friends of Amanda’s from high school to catch up on old times.  We stopped to visit Amanda’s Grandpa in Springville, Utah as well.

We drove up to Idaho yesterday but took our time doing it.  We took the old highway from Snowville up through Strevell, Bridge, City of Rocks, Oakley, and home.  Everything was so green from all the rain and it looked good.  We enjoyed the drive.  We took some pictures of the old homes in Elba, Idaho.  Someday we want to design our own home with a design that is both unique but that has some classic designs, one of which is found in the early pioneer homes.

Tonight we head off to a melodrama at the restored Wilson Theatre in Rupert.  Tomorrow morning we have the Scout Breakfast at the Rupert Square and then we will watch the parade.  Tomorrow is also Dad’s birthday.  Jan’s was last week.  We treated them to dinner last night and the show tonight.  I am certainly looking forward to the parade.  Then we drive back down to Kaysville to watch fireworks at fly out Sunday Morning.

Tuesday Derek and I went hiking up Adams Canyon near Kaysville, Fruit Heights, Layton.  We hiked it very quickly and then pretty much jogged all the way down.  I sure did hurt the next day.  I thought I was getting old but Derek felt the same way the next day so it wasn’t just me!  We also got some pictures at the waterfall which I will have to share as well.  Anyhow, no nuggets of truth in this entry.  I don’t do them as often as I used to.  Someday I will be smart and have something to offer…

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Rambling June

Today we did a deposition for several hours.  Very interesting.  This is the second one I have attended and both were so different, yet so much alike.  Somehow getting to ask nearly any question you want that relates to an individual has a strange sort of appeal.  The one today included what would be some very embarrassing questions that I wouldn’t ask some of my closest friends, but we asked them because they really were pertinent to the litigation.  This case continues to proceed closer to trial and I am getting some pretty good in-the-trenches experience.  Who would have thought the summer would turn out this good.

I found another dead bird in my yard.  Somehow they seem to be dropping dead all over the place (literally!).  I wonder if they are eating the fertilizer that was put down or if there is something else going on.  Perhaps a non-transferable form of the Avian flu?  I don’t notice any tale-tell signs of the flu with these birds.  Who knows.  Sadly, all the dead birds are robins, bluejays, and cardinals.  Four dead birds in the past week and they look like the just fell to where they laid.  Not sure.  On a lighter note, Amanda told me the other day of a patient in her chair with her toddler.  A bird landed out the window and the little boy commented something like, “Look mom, a redjay!”  I had a good laugh from that one.  How do you answer that without turning off the inquisitive nature?

We fly out for Salt Lake City on Saturday.  Another lame pit-stop in Denver.  As much as I hate flying, I think the layovers are getting to be even more deplored.  We will be a week in Utah/Idaho for Amanda’s brother’s farewell (technically Mormon-speak should be, “opportunity to speak before leaving on a mission”) and open-house (again Mormon-speak, since open houses are no longer permitted, is family get-together to wish him well on a mission).  Then on Wednesday he enters the MTC for his whopping 21 days before flying off to the heat of summer Atlanta, Georgia.  I am glad they don’t let anyone go into the MTC anymore.  It really is a mini sacrament meeting that was pretty much a farce with the constrained, canned talks in the highly charged atmosphere.  I feel sorry for the poor MTC Mission President who had to give the same talk multiple times a day every week for his whole tenure.  Honestly, I am glad the church did away with the farewell, homecoming, and MTC bits.  But as Mormons float between culture and doctrine/practice we always seem to prefer the happy, feel-good side of culture.  Anyhow, nothing really against missionaries, missions, or family bonds and connections about to be stretched and strengthened for two years just the heed we seem to feel for a tradition and culture that has no foundation in truth or doctrine that somehow becomes more important than the everlasting.  Anyhow, in telling of what we are going to do I got into an expose on something else that has nothing to do with our trip.

Then we make our trip up to Idaho, probably for a day or so.  Dad’s birthday is on the 4th of July so we would like to go up for that.  However, since we fly out Sunday morning, we will spend that evening in Utah so we cannot spend the entire 4th in Idaho.  We will probably go up the day before, go out to dinner, and I would really like to hit the Rupert Parade on Saturday before heading south.  We will see.  Hopefully Amanda will be able to come up.  She seems to be pretty set on the 4th in Kaysville.

Amanda is in the throes of another murder party.  She made me a pair of chaps already since it has a western theme.  You will have to keep your eyes on the look out for the cowboy coming out long after the last time I rode a horse.

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June 09 is here

A quick update for the week.  Cousin Dan Ellis Jonas passed away on the 30th of May.  His service in Denver was on the 5th.  His funeral and burial took place on Saturday in Smithfield, Utah.  He was the son of Ellis and Geri Jonas of Smithfield.  He had liver problems that required a transplant and when the liver didn’t come, he knew it was a matter of time.  He was only 50 years old so I took quite a few of the family by surprise really.  I hope all are doing well.

The attorney I work for decided to take Thursday and Friday off.  Meaning, I ran the office myself on those days.  It was an education to muddle through without him after only a week of really doing any of the work.  I think I did okay though.  Good thing we didn’t have anything serious!

This coming weekend I fly out to Idaho for the Andra Reunion in Lava Hot Springs.  I fly in to SLC on Friday and drive to Richmond that night for a graduation party for some high schoolers.  A good portion of Saturday will be at the Andra Reunion.  Afterward I run to Kaysville to go to the Bountiful Temple with Amanda’s brother, Derek.  I am looking forward to a busy weekend.  Then I fly out Sunday morning back for the craze here in OKC.  It will be a quickly weekend.  Sadly, my skipping the reunion last year means a number have died I didn’t get to see for quite a while.  Hopefully we have a good while before any more go.

Amanda’s birthday was yesterday.  The big 23.  I spoiled her with a 8 gig iPod.  I thought I was buying her a present that I could also reap some gain from.  However, as she uploaded her music and I looked at mine, I found out I have over 10 gig of music on my computer alone.  I guess I will have to get my own since Amanda has over 4 gig of her own.  It is all hers now.  Perhaps she will let me listen on a road trip.  I threw a little party for her on Saturday night with my law buddies.  Holt and Lindy made home made ice cream.  How is that for a party?  We played a number of games, chatted, ate Amanda’s birthday cake, and relaxed away some perfectly good hours.  Today we had dinner with the Curtis family, who also came to the birthday party.  They spoiled us with dinner including lasagna, minestrone soup, and more.  We played a game called Ticket to Ride.  It was actually quite a bit of fun and we enjoyed ourselves.  I recommend it to others.  Ticket to Ride and Axis and Allies are both two games that we will have to purchase at some point in the future.

Time to turn off and go to bed.  On the safari hunts each night killing cockroaches, I have to boast an all time high of 137 in one night.  I may have boasted of this fact in the past.  I am also happy to report the numbers have been quite a bit lesser since.  Tonight was a whopping 38.  Tonight also included a camel cricket, 4 slugs, 1 regular cricket, and 2 spiders.  The number of cockroaches seem to be falling each night.  I hope it continues.  There are less getting into the garage and getting stuck on the sticky bug traps.  May it continue.

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May Gone

Here we are wrapping up the month of May and so much has happened.  On the other side, so little is happening and I am okay with that!

Finals are completed.  There isn’t really anything more to say about that.  Now we wait for grades, they are still a few more weeks out.  I feel like I did very well in Legal Writing and Property.  Contacts I felt good about.  Criminal Law I don’t feel all that great about and Civil Procedure was 105 multiple choice and while I feel okay, you just never really know.  Well, I guess I will know soon enough.  Multiple choice seem so contrived and never fully envelope the whole picture.  Sadly, Prof. Creel’s wife was in the hospital during the final so we did not get to see him.  I hope she has recovered.

I found a summer clerkship with Absolute Legal Services here in Oklahoma City.  Jeff actually graduated in 2008.  My Elder’s Quorum President introduced us, gave me a great recommendation, and here we are.  In fact, Jeff told me that with President Haddock’s recommendation, he was willing to have me before he even met me.  I am very fortunate to have friends who are so good.  Hopefully neither stretched the truth too far!

So far it has been very interesting.  Who would have thought!  Duces Tecum’s, going to Pottawatamie Court for a docket disposition, meeting with potential clients, and even some good learning time with other attorney’s in the office.  I have my own little desk in the corner.  It is all good.  Perhaps some day I will feel like I have a grasp on everything that is happening.

I received my Constitutional Law Textbook for next year in the mail.  Ouch!  1400 pages of what looks to be some very, very heavy reading.  I guess it is better than a 1400 page product manual, oh wait, that is pretty much what it is.  The product manual for the Constitution except it includes some history of why the product was written, how to properly use it, or how to properly ignore it.

Amanda and I purchased tickets to spend June 27 – July 5 in Utah/Idaho.  Derek, Amanda’s brother has an opportunity to speak for the mission in church on the 28th.  He reports to the MTC on the 1st.  Dad’s birthday is on the 4th.  So we will spend the first half of the week in Utah and then the last half of the week it looks like I will be headed to Idaho.  I am looking forward to the trip.  I am also flying out for the Andra Reunion the weekend of the 12th of June.  I hope there is a good turn out.  I need to schedule the tickets for the Jonas Reunion the weekend of the 18th of July.  I have a cousin who has cancer and will not live to see another reunion.  Plus Ellis and Geri are not doing wonderfully, and I would like to see them again just in case.  Plus there are some of the old timers like Mary Jonas who approaches 90 but never appears to be close to stopping.  Things can change quickly at that age.

I pulled out my replica BOM and am hoping to finish it this summer.  Additionally, I would like to finish the biography of Madison and autobiography of Jefferson before starting school in the fall.  I probably should read the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers before school starts to have a good feel for the Constitution before fall starts.  I am looking forward to fall.  Hopefully my memory of undergrad is good!

Last night we found a cricket in the back yard almost 3 inches long!  I don’t know if it was really a cricket, sure looked like one.  I think I may have screamed like a little girl if it had jumped and landed on me.  Amanda was about to do so just at the sight of it.  I have taken a nightly stroll around the property at night (sounds like we live on an estate, well, legally we do!) and squash as many large bugs as possible.  My neighbor assures me that the large bugs we think are cockroaches are simply waterbugs.  They sure look a lot alike but ‘waterbugs’ are much, much larger he assures me.  Either way, any large bugs meet a timely death at the end of my 2X4 each night.  Hopefully this will keep down some of the population and they will not find their way into my home through some hole we have yet to discover.

We are still awaiting news that our burglars have been captured.  Legally, it seems they should be robbers, but I guess I misunderstand the legal meanings of the words, or Oklahoma likes to be different.

Well, I have missionary coordination within an hour so I better go and get ready.  It is so nice to get caught up on a few things and have some time to just relax and sleep in once and a while!

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Burglary and Finals

Since it is early, I cannot sleep, and only contract lists are in my head, I need a diversion.  A quick update is probably in order in light of the events of the week; burglary and finals!  I will rely on Amanda to place photos on the joint blog, if she hasn’t done so already.

Thursday, the last day of April, while studying parol evidence for contracts I received a phone call from our bank in Idaho, Zions Bank.  They asked me about some suspicious activity on a bank account.  I told them I could go online and take a quick look and call them back.  When I went online I noticed that Amanda’s account had been overdrawn by several hundred dollars.  We only use this account to keep some money hidden away just in case of an emergency.  Meaning, we never use it.  She confirmed her card was at home and I knew my card was at home.  Okay, maybe a little identity theft.  There was one nagging problem, these charges were not off in far away Venezuela like the previous problems.  These charges were right here in Oklahoma City!  Something really bothered me about that.  I called some friends, the Elders, and found they were only a few blocks from the house.  They called me back to confirm the back door had been kicked in.  They called 911 and I borrowed a friends car to go home.

After taking a policeman through our mostly untouched home, he began fingerprinting (after determining this was a burglary II.  I thought burglary was during the night!).  These petty thieves knew they were only going for money, credit cards, and some jewelry.  Since our neighborhood has a good number of people who walk around at all hours, anything more probably would have looked very suspicious.  No laptops, computers, books, DVDs, or anything really of value.  Pretty much just what you could fit in your pocket.  The best part is that they took our British Pound Notes and tossed them on top of the dresser.  They didn’t want foreign money they could easily convert!  Just the cards you can easily trace!  They took some of Amanda’s necklaces and rings.  They didn’t take the jewelry that had some modest value but the jewelry that wouldn’t fetch anything at a pawn shop!  These guys were real idiots.  They did leave the lights on throughout the house even out to the garage.

The story gets even better.  Within hours, two of our other banks had called us about suspicious charges and had put holds on our cards.  These thieves were out high living on the hog…at Walmart, Taco Bueno, and 7-11!  Before the cards put on holds or I canceled them, they were able to get almost $3,000 in charges on 7 different cards I had in my desk drawer.  (Mentioning they didn’t take my Omega Watch which is easily worth over $1,000 and was sitting on top of most of the long unused cards.)  These ignoramuses spent most of the money at Walmart!!!!  The store that invests so heavily in surveillance!  They visited over 4 Walmarts before the day was done, enjoyed some lunch, and filled up the car.  I don’t know what they were purchasing but it was rarely over $70 dollars a transaction.  So they must have been making repeat purchases of something because so many of the charges were identical.  I don’t know.

Luckily, Amanda and I both had our cards to one of the accounts so they could not access it.  I never got a card to our account here in OKC, so it is safe as well.  So we have access to funds as I can transfer to the accounts that we still have access to.  But I have to get new cards for all the other accounts and get the money back in them (meaning the accounts are useless until the fraud and investigations are done).  This is not to mention the needed replacement of our back door.  We have a full storage dresser keeping the door closed for the moment.

Anyhow, I should be wrapping up so I can get ready for PEC.  On another note, I discovered this week that about 8 shingles have blown off the one side of the house.  I also appear to have some warping of a board on the back roof of the house making a sort of rippling look on the roof.  Andrew assures me it has to do with moisture and no vents in the back roof.  Plus as I cut some of the branches off that were too close to the roof, I could feel how much the roof gave way under my feet bringing back the HVACer’s comments about the plywood on the roof being too thin.  This probably would explain why the rafters on the very end of the roof are sagging.  I hope to get the shingles fixed, but the DIY roof may be in need of some other serious repairs.  The sticker price I fear will be greater than what we thought would be our greatest expense, namely the plumbing.  I have a professional coming by to give us a bid on fixing the shingles, his opinion on the rest, and the back door.

Time to close.  I awoke this morning thinking of the acronymn we put together to remember interpretation of contracts.  You may find it humerous.  We found it highly usable in remembering interpretation.  LQSS2PPHVWGRR  Those are the generally available interpretation canons for a contract.  To remember the acronynm, “My LQSS 2 the Pied Piper Hitler, in his Volks Wagen, in the Great Rally Race.  We lost in the race.  To who?  Hitler, who was a pied piper, in his mass produced vehicle, the Volkswagen.  What do the letters mean.  Without explanation the list is as follows: Lists, Qualifying terms, Specification, Series, 2 Meanings in favor of non-drafter, Public Policy, Public Interest, Handwritten over printed and printed over form, Validity over invalidity, Whole document, Grammar, Redundancy, and Reasonable interpretation.  Guess I am somewhat prepared for my contracts final tomorrow.  Off to dress for a PEC where I report and nobody does anything on the information!

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A week or two before finals and all through the school…

I just have to take a break from my reading.  Well, I have struggled even starting.  Since I haven’t written for a long time, I thought I would send out an update!

Yesterday, I skipped all my classes!  I stayed home and decided to review, study, read, and take a nap for lunch.  It was one of the best days ever.  I did spend about 4 hours studying contracts, about 1 hour on criminal law, and about 1 hour on property.  I am feeling better about a few things.  I am amazed at how much I did learn and disappointed how many things I have forgotten.  (Forgot or forgotten?  Seraphs or Seraphim?  Broke or Broken?  I don’t know the grammatical law governing this situation!)  I also worked in the yard a little.  Cleaned up some branches, watered the front and side, and even cleaned out the heat pump.  However, the highlight of the day was the visit by the plumber and HVAC dude (is he a HVACer?  His name was Paul, I knew he was cool!)  Ultimately, I skipped school to be there for them to install our new/old bathtub and get a quote on fixing our ventilation.

The story of the HVAC turned out to be true of the rest of the home.  Whoever fixed up this house, the ultimate DIYers, didn’t do think in the proper way.  Like the bathroom, the yard, and even the sheetrock, we now have a few new items to add to the list.  Walking on top of the house, Paul mentioned that the roof moves an awful lot while walking on it wondering if there was only a single layer of plywood.  If so, we would have insulation problems.  Upon inspection inside, he confirmed we only have one layer meaning heat and cold easily travel through.  He said it wasn’t a huge concern, but just not the best way to do things.  But he openly laughed when first viewing the duct work of the home.  He first made a question like, “Is that room is the hottest when heating and the coldest when cooling?”  I assumed him it was.  He then asked about other rooms and was correct on all accounts.  He then explained to me the theories behind air movement which anyone who had taken physics would already know.  It was interesting to hear the application to duct work.  So let me do a quick explanation, but with plumbing.  If when plumbing a house we brought the water main in and then put a plug on the line.  Then we put in a line and took it to the kitchen sink.  Then one for the refrigerator feed.  Then one for the bathroom sink.  Then one for the toilet.  Then one for the bathtub and on through the house.  But we took every pipe from the same location.  It is a terrible waste of pipe to run every pipe clear back to the starting point.  Plus, we would have an issue with water pressure and possible line freezing.  Additionally, with all those pipes running to every individual thing we have that many more potential leak problems.  Well, that is what was done with the duct work for our ventilation system.  Every single hole in our ceiling for heating and air condition has its own hose that runs all the way to the fan/blower.  By the time we get to the plenum (a new vocabulary word for me, the part where the fan blows in to) we have 11 separate ducts going into the plenum!  Plumbing though, we have a pretty good idea when there is a leak.  Ductwork, people are less inclined to care if there is a lead.  Well, the kind showing of my HVACer showed the signs of leaks in every single duct both at the plenum and the exit location!  We are doing more heating and air conditioning of our attic than we are the actual house!  Oh wait, it gets better!  Every single room has the same size of ductwork!  So the big rooms are getting the same amount of air as the little rooms.  Add some physics to that, the farther rooms, regardless of size, are getting less than the closer rooms.  Hence, our bedroom and the main bath are always the best heated and cooled, and the back room is the worst (That hose actually leaves the attic, goes under the home, and then reemerges in the floor of the back room.  Anyhow, Paul suggested a complete replacement of the duct system and plenum for $1700!  Then due to the lack of plywood and tar paper on the roof, he suggests no less than a foot of insulation (which is now about 1 inch).

So, another job to be done before we insulate the attic.  Electrical work is next.  Oh, Paul the HVACer, also told me there is not enough power running to the Heat Pump and that is why when it kicks on every light in the house goes dim for a second or two.  Yea for DIYers who don’t do their homework first!

Anyhow, on to the real topic of issue.  Our bathtub is now in place and plumbed.  Amanda can now shave her legs in complete luxury!  Well, kinda.  While the faucet, spout, and shower head are all plumbed, they are still just pipes sticking out of the wall.  While she could technically get water at the tub, the pipes are just screwed in and may leak inside the wall.  We are waiting for the tile to be installed before we will put on the goodies.  So technically, all of Amanda’s luxury will be getting a bucket from the sink to shave her legs.  But at least she can drain her filty, hairy, leg water down the new drain and if she uses enough water, the new overflow!  This is a deep tub though, so she would have to do a lot of leg shavin’ to get to that point!  Our friend, Andrew Curtis, told his wife he was jealous of our new bathtub.  His wife insisted that was one of the strangest things she had heard from him (at least that week).  Next is tiling, then finish the cosmetic plumbing, then the shower-rod, then the new door & frame, and the new baseboards, and our little bathroom will be completely finished!  How is that for excitement?  Hopefully we can have the tile done by June.

School continues to go well.  I don’t want to mention much of it since I have enough of it in my life already.  Next semester I have signed up for Income Tax Law as an elective.  I have all the required classes like Constitutional Law, Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Legal Ethics.  So many people are migrating towards Corporations.  I need a four credit class to get my licensed legal intern so Income Tax sounded interesting.  Not really, but I need it for family law and property law.  Might as well wipe it out now.  Plus, Corporations I will have to take, so might as well delay the inevitable!

This semester has been going well.  I have slacked off a little bit.  But I have learned much.  I just slacked off on the outline side of the business.  I joined with somebody else to do it and he has been pulling more of the weight than he probably should.  In fact, most of the weight.  It will bite me in the end, I am sure.  He did better than me last semester and he will surely do much better this semester.  Just if I can ride on his coat-tails to a C+ or B- I will be happy.  I just got to be average!!!  I actually think I did well enough in Legal Writing to pull a B+ or A- so here is for hoping!  That will help my GPA as long as I don’t totally flub a class.  Property is such a comprehensive class.  Some of the finals will be over like 500 pages of material.  Property is well over 1000 pages so I have a formidable task before me.

Well, I need to get back to reading about Summary Judgment and Motions for Judgment as a Matter of Law.

Oh, it looks like I have two potential internships for the summer.  I will probably do 5 weeks in Burley, Idaho for one internship and another 5 weeks in Salt Lake City, Utah for the other 5 weeks.  I don’t want to share details until they are firm.  Time to sign off, sneeze (allergies now going on 4 months!), and get back to sleep-reading.

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Screwed up Family!

I know I need to give some type of an update.  But, I will have to do that later.  Until then, how about this messed up family!!

On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head.  The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency).  As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly.  Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this.

The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife.  They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun.  He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus.

When confronted with this charge, the old man was adamant that he did not know that the shotgun was loaded.  The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun.  He had no intention to kill her.  That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident.  It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.

There was an exquisite twist.  Further investigation revealed that the son had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s death.  This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun through the ninth-story window.

The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

Story told at the 1994 annual awards dinner of the American Association for Forensic Science, Don Harper Mills, President of the Association.