Sounds, Sights and Feels

Preface: This post began whilst waiting for music two nights ago. Intervening events intervened that will not be mentioned below, but they will. Oh yes, they will....

Downtown, Friday 7:30 p.m. My first ticketed concert in a very long time. Not much of a crowd yet, because there wasn’t even publicity that 10,000 Maniacs were playing here tonight, but they are on the sign-



- and they are on the way. It’s a fundraiser for a cancer-research exhibition that's been running here for a number of years, so even if I catch only a couple of their songs, I’ll have contributed to a good cause.

Been a pretty good week workwise. I settled a case on Monday that is one of the few collection cases I’ve even managed to get in the last almost 2 years. If it comes through as promised next week, it will be a very good November right from the beginning. My other office also finally got some of my billing cleared up, which is mainly why I can spend time at a concert now and then.

I have two stories about two clients, one from each of my two offices, just to give you a little sign of how my life goes at work.The one from Rochester ended today, less than successfully, but with a bit of inspiration. A few weeks ago, a new client there asked me to review some documents related to an underlying dispute. Before I could get them in to sign for any paperwork, they wound up settling the underlying dispute without me. I did not know this until after I had worked on it for a couple of hours. So I billed them for the time I put in.

They were not amused. They didn’t want to pay a dime. Finally, they suggested an unrealistically low number.

That’s when inspiration struck.

Name your favorite charity.

Of course it's a church.  I say, No, I don't do God, Allah, Phil, or any of them. Something secular. They choose the Alzheimers Association.

I double the amount of their offer: Write them a check for [their number times two] and we're done. Just tell me you did it when you do it. I don't need the receipt or want the tax writeoff.

Thank you.

Closer to home, I also just found out about a similar situation of a matter resolved without me. A friend referred a couple who'd found out they had a weird 15 year old mortgage still stuck on the property that they had never paid on. The statute of limitations for such things is six years (not "sexy yours," which is what Siri thought I said). I wrote to the company and told them, Your mortgage is unenforceable, so would you kindly sign a one page document to make it go away?

No reply.

I proceeded to sue them under the state law provision designed for such problems, and again they didn’t reply. Many hours later, including at least one virtual court appearance with STILL no reply, I got an order making the thing disappear. But when I went to check to see if that order already been entered in county land records (courts use a different system), I found that it wasn’t…

But that the lender had recorded the easy peasy one page document- the very one I had asked them to send me months before- back in the middle of June. Without telling me.

It wound up not costing the client any more, and I don’t think THEY are going to asked me to work for free because they got this unexpected benefit, but it gets to be rather frustrating when you ask someone to do something, work your ass off because they didn’t, and then find out that they did.

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The dictation continued as the crowd continued to filter in....

Then there are sights, connected with the various crazy animals around the house. I forgot to post last weekend that we’re getting the band back together with our Sunday morning dog walk. Pepper turned out to be the last dog standing, as our occasional spaniel friend Maddie just crossed the bridge not long after Ursula did. But we now have a new pup in the mix, so I got together with the dog and the furmommies last Sunday to get our trail legs back (the n00b is still in training):


 

Wednesday  was National Black Cat Day. I'd hoped to get a picture of the two we still have, but it wasn’t necessary. This came up as a memory from a year ago to the day Thursday:
 

Watch on YouTube

Oh look. A band.

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Finishing this entry Sunday morning, after remaining events of Friday night below and some Saturday things that are still percolating....

I could only stay for about 45 minutes of the Maniacs' set, because J's memorial service was set to begin streaming at 9 p.m. our time. Frontwoman Mary Ramsey and the guys took the stage at just about 8 and went right into "Stockton Gala Days." In all, I made it through nine songs, a mix of Natalie-era, one from John (Lombardo) and Mary's own debut Victory Garden, her own take on Natalie's cover of "Because the Night," one possibly new one I didn't recognize, two others from their first Nataless CD Love Among the Ruins, and a very special instrumental without her up front.

Just shares and immense feels from two of those: first, this clip of Mary doing the chorus of "Shining Light," my all-time favorite from her era as lead singer-

Watch on YouTube

-and then this, which is even more than "More Than This" (which they also played):



Original Maniac Steven Gustafson (second from right) took the mic: during the pandemic, cleaning house, he came upon a circa 2000 cassette labeled “Song Ideas” from their passed-too-soon guitarist Rob Buck. Steve found a band member who still had a cassette player, and from the memories Rob left behind there, they jammed out one of the songs for us; no lyrics, but that distinct sound of Dennis's keyboards and Jerry's beatdowns and Steve and John's strings that are distinctly Maniacal.  I hope words will find the chords of “Rob’s Song,” because it led into a continued night of music and missed musicians for me ❤️

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That continued when I got home and J's Vimeo service was already on:



A musician and music teacher memorialized with music. The original hit recording of "Morning Has Broken." "Lord of the Dance." A bagpiped "Amazing Grace."  And that near-full orchestra playing her favourite.

Words were plenty and meaningful, but J's memory will always play on.

Among those words were a speaker mentioning that she always sought out to do "one scary thing a month," just to keep life from getting too mundane.  Well, stay tuned, because I'm working on one. Words that need to be said, and relationships that need to be mended before, as with her, we suddenly find out that it's too late:(