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Rollin' rollin' rollin' that odometer....
Jan. 3rd, 2020 12:09 pmThree days into 2020, which is so far proving to be much the same as 2019. We've already had our first deaths of several sports figures, probably most notable that of the NBA's longtime commissioner, who was very involved in the ABA merger I've been reading about; I've lined up my first three bankruptcies of the year to file today; I've read about the latest disgraced judge to come tumbling down (more about that below); and I'm still dealing with the Best Care Anywhere in the Murkin health care system-
New Year's Morning, while walking the dog, I got a text about a scrip refill. I'd gotten it over the previous days but wasn't close to being out of it. Soon as I hit reply this time, I knew I should've filled it before the end of the year, just because of The New Paperwork that comes with The New Company. (I'd been perfectly happy with Old Company, but they messed with my plan so I couldn't use it with our Health Savings Account anymore, and thus the switch.) Sure enough, the order bounced, and my previous $8 fill would be almost $40 without insurance. I called the pharmacy, ready to give them my new card information, which is in teeny type that only someone with perfect 20/20 vision could make out. They were asking for a "bin number," which was perfectly obvious on the Blue card but not on the Red one. Finally, yesterday I brought it over before hitting the road for the day, and they pointed it right out, hidden in a sea of blinding black type on the back of the card. The $40 charge went back down to just over $8, and I was good to go....
to read the news that another Rochester area judge has been removed, and this one we know why. He actually stepped down and turned in his law license two years earlier, but I hadn't heard about it at the time. He'd been elected as a town justice, the lowest rung of the state court system where judges don't have to give up their private practices (and don't even have to be lawyers). So he kept on practicing, and those practices included defalcating over $400,000 from real estate clients on a number of deals.
I never appeared in court before him, but I've known him for years. He was a year behind me in law school, but came in as an older student who commuted to and from Rochester at least part of the time. I'm pretty sure he went into a Monroe County legal aid position out of law school until he wound up in private practice not far from my current office there. He always seemed like a good guy, and I'd only heard positives from other lawyers who had court appearances with him on traffic and eviction matters. The temptation of the trust account can be strong; I don't do real estate, so I rarely have above low four figures in my account, but I'll wring myself out over a 40 cent discrepancy, much less setting out to steal 4 million times that much. As it now works, the court system has the right to monitor and audit these accounts, but there's rarely a chance for them to do it until something bad has already happened. I fully expect that before we roll the 2020's odometer into the 30s, the courts will have completely taken over our trust accounting, requiring countersignatures on (a) anything over a certain amount, (b) anything withdrawn from the account payable to the lawyer, or (c) anything and everything. Knowing how things go around here, my money (or rather, not my money) is on the third.
----
Over the past two nights, we watched the video of one of oldest-favorite DVDs. A Canadian film from the year of our marriage, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, covers some of the same ground, in a different era, of the art world that is touched on in Little Women. It was the debut of writer-director Patricia Kozema, and somebody mentioned her later film Mansfield Park as seeming to be an influence on Greta Gerwig's recent work, so I'm picking that up from the library shortly.
I've also an additional binge alternating with the Lost in Space episodes. Emily and Cameron got a Disney+ sub on the family plan, so we have the whole Mouse catalog as well, including Marvel and Star Wars. Their new series, set just after the 1977-83 trilogy and before the current round of films, is called The Mandalorian, who is your typical superhero in an Iron Man suit, but the clear star of the series is the one referred to in the script as The Child but by everyone else in the universe as, what else?-
-Baby Yoda. Oddly, earlier yesterday I'd stopped at my favorite record shop and parked right behind someone who usually levitates Toy Yodas rather than driving them-
It's like they always say- Archive go the place Record to The is!
----
Speaking of odometers, and the kids:
It was a Friday much like this, 28 years ago today just down the road from that record shop, that we welcomed a new life into the world that we'd made from spare parts found around the house;) Emily has grown into a talented, caring and amazingly well-rounded young woman. We miss having her near, but we will always be close:)
New Year's Morning, while walking the dog, I got a text about a scrip refill. I'd gotten it over the previous days but wasn't close to being out of it. Soon as I hit reply this time, I knew I should've filled it before the end of the year, just because of The New Paperwork that comes with The New Company. (I'd been perfectly happy with Old Company, but they messed with my plan so I couldn't use it with our Health Savings Account anymore, and thus the switch.) Sure enough, the order bounced, and my previous $8 fill would be almost $40 without insurance. I called the pharmacy, ready to give them my new card information, which is in teeny type that only someone with perfect 20/20 vision could make out. They were asking for a "bin number," which was perfectly obvious on the Blue card but not on the Red one. Finally, yesterday I brought it over before hitting the road for the day, and they pointed it right out, hidden in a sea of blinding black type on the back of the card. The $40 charge went back down to just over $8, and I was good to go....
to read the news that another Rochester area judge has been removed, and this one we know why. He actually stepped down and turned in his law license two years earlier, but I hadn't heard about it at the time. He'd been elected as a town justice, the lowest rung of the state court system where judges don't have to give up their private practices (and don't even have to be lawyers). So he kept on practicing, and those practices included defalcating over $400,000 from real estate clients on a number of deals.
I never appeared in court before him, but I've known him for years. He was a year behind me in law school, but came in as an older student who commuted to and from Rochester at least part of the time. I'm pretty sure he went into a Monroe County legal aid position out of law school until he wound up in private practice not far from my current office there. He always seemed like a good guy, and I'd only heard positives from other lawyers who had court appearances with him on traffic and eviction matters. The temptation of the trust account can be strong; I don't do real estate, so I rarely have above low four figures in my account, but I'll wring myself out over a 40 cent discrepancy, much less setting out to steal 4 million times that much. As it now works, the court system has the right to monitor and audit these accounts, but there's rarely a chance for them to do it until something bad has already happened. I fully expect that before we roll the 2020's odometer into the 30s, the courts will have completely taken over our trust accounting, requiring countersignatures on (a) anything over a certain amount, (b) anything withdrawn from the account payable to the lawyer, or (c) anything and everything. Knowing how things go around here, my money (or rather, not my money) is on the third.
----
Over the past two nights, we watched the video of one of oldest-favorite DVDs. A Canadian film from the year of our marriage, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, covers some of the same ground, in a different era, of the art world that is touched on in Little Women. It was the debut of writer-director Patricia Kozema, and somebody mentioned her later film Mansfield Park as seeming to be an influence on Greta Gerwig's recent work, so I'm picking that up from the library shortly.
I've also an additional binge alternating with the Lost in Space episodes. Emily and Cameron got a Disney+ sub on the family plan, so we have the whole Mouse catalog as well, including Marvel and Star Wars. Their new series, set just after the 1977-83 trilogy and before the current round of films, is called The Mandalorian, who is your typical superhero in an Iron Man suit, but the clear star of the series is the one referred to in the script as The Child but by everyone else in the universe as, what else?-
-Baby Yoda. Oddly, earlier yesterday I'd stopped at my favorite record shop and parked right behind someone who usually levitates Toy Yodas rather than driving them-
It's like they always say- Archive go the place Record to The is!
----
Speaking of odometers, and the kids:
It was a Friday much like this, 28 years ago today just down the road from that record shop, that we welcomed a new life into the world that we'd made from spare parts found around the house;) Emily has grown into a talented, caring and amazingly well-rounded young woman. We miss having her near, but we will always be close:)