Pauses and clauses....

The first 25 hours of this workweek were brutal. From 9 Monday morning to 10 Tuesday morning, I had six scheduled hearings in three different places in two different cities; one was postponed without appearance (but not to the day I'd "confirmed" ahead of time and told the client it would be), two were little more than useless after long delays getting before each judge, and two went, more or less, as planned. That leaves one more: the first one off the tee on Tuesday morning, which sliced hard to the left, went into the woods, bounced into the water hazard, and got eaten by a bear before getting anywhere close to the fairway. (That is probably the first AND last golf metaphor you will ever see here.)   "Reamed" was the word the client used to describe his performance at the hearing afterward, and that would be putting it kindly.  The good news is, there's nothing that can't be fixed, and we have over a month to do it.  I have now resolved to treat all clients as if they were in kindergarten, using activity sheets with checkmarks and multiple colors to get them do bring the relatively few things they need to navigate the system and actually read the papers they're signing under oath, and possibly resorting to sheets of gold stars when they're good and raps on the knuckles with a ruler when they're not.

After Tuesday morning, things broke a bit for the better.  The Rude Opponent I mentioned last week, who waited until the last possible day to file papers for a hearing this Thursday, forced me into a back-from-court Monday afternoon of finalizing, filing and paying the filing fee for a response- also on the last possible day, but hey, not my idea:P  Just before bringing in copies of the papers to the judge, word came: the court was putting everything off three weeks because of the almost-late filings. So no court today at 10, yay!  I still had things to travel to Rochester for again today, but we'll get to that.

It was still an exhausting couple of days by the time I finally got home late Tuesday afternoon, and I turned in plenty early- missing the opportunity I usually take on July 23rd to remember my late sister's birthday. And this was a big one: Sandy would have turned 80 this year.  I sent a brief note to one of my nieces about it, and found she was a little behind in her recollections as well. Yet in some ways, while we always have the significant days of remembrance- birthdays, anniversaries (hers in which I played a part and ours in which she did), and of course the upcoming 31st of her loss in October- maybe the better measure of remembrance is how often we think of her and honor her memory in everyday life. I can certainly say, as I'm sure her kids do, that rarely a day goes by without some bit of Sandy coming back to us. Whether it's my near-daily admonition to the dog to "go play in traffic" (letting her into the back yard, not actual traffic;), or thinking of her anytime a Simon and/or Garfunkel song comes on, as this one did on my drive today-
 

"Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones" (Watch on YouTube)

she is here. She is now.

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Yesterday was blissfully free of commitments, other than an open-ended one to file papers in downtown Buffalo.  I decided to take a little extra time in the morning to decompress the stress a bit; I marched the overpriced parts estimate from Strurm und Drang Automotive over to my real mechanic- who happens to be two blocks from the dog park. How could I not take Pepper with me? Gorgeous morning, plenty of new pups to see (me) and sniff (her), plus one of our favorites from Sunday morning on his daily walkabout:) The rest of the workday went so much more smoothly just from the peacefulness.  On a sadderish note, I also got out early- but not through plans of my own. There was a bomb scare in the downtown courts, and a co-worker who'd been near them reported when he got back that they still had buildings barricaded- so I called off my filing trip and just left early for a workout and some more hang-with-dog time at home.

I tried duplicating the Mental Health Hour today, with not quite as much success.  Although court was called off (and not by a bomb), I'd made plans earlier in the week to meet a client at his office, which is very close to the Lake Ontario shoreline north of the city of Rochester.  Usually, I just take the dull but speedy path that is the 90, but there's a state parkway that runs near, and in some places in sight of, the Ontario shoreline from north of Batavia all the way to Rochester's northern limits.  By cruising some back roads, I got up there, and was pleased to find that the state had finally repaved the thing; it had been a Bosnia-like path of mortar-shelled asphalt the last time I drove it a few years ago to visit a rather crazed then-client.  I even thought of her as I passed the exit to where she lived at the time.  Bad move; because by day's end, Facebook had identified the one mutual friend we had (out of 300-plus of mine and 3,000-plus of his) and suggested that I friend her.  Erm, no.  If anything, I'm afraid I'm one utterance away from a Beetlejuice experience:P

After that, things went okay today, but with lots of paper-cutlike annoyances. Checks that were supposed to be delivered, weren't. Two different cases of mine got jury assignments despite my not asking for them; I'd rather drink bleach than waste five times as much court time explaining my dull-as-dishwater cases to six citizens who were simply too stupid to get out of serving. And for some reason, my final hour in the office back here, after the dull-but-speedy trip on the Thruway, was jam packed with calls and coworkers sticking heads in.  It was just too exhausting to go anywhere else when I finally got home; I'd hoped to go to a Shakespeare performance tonight (not the high-falutin' professional Shakespeare in the Park, but a far more whimsical one called Shakespeare in the Parking Lot).  Another chance at it tomorrow night, after what looks to be a quieter day than any so far this week.

Instead, I did a little mowing, a little tree-trimming, and, of course, a little blogging.  And now, until next time, a pause....

ETA: actually, a moment of silence. Claudine the Spider flew the coop the other day, leaving some webbing and the remnants of her brood behind. We're wondering if the spider across the hall is actually the deadbeat dad and if we should move him in there....