XDA

I was talking to a new friend the other day. She was born and raised Catholic (I just RCIAed) and our conversation touched briefly on the new Pope and she, for a bit, couldn't remember his name. Nor could I. Much too much later I remembered and wish I had said then: "The Pope's name is Francis the Red"

Oh, well. Life is short, and then you die and go to Hell.

Labels: personal history, Slow Bon Mot Reaction Time

My youngest daughter drove off Thursday to a new job in Boise, Idaho. I watched with mixed emotions--I'm proud of her getting a job in her field of study but I miss her and will miss her it seems for months and years to come. Boise is a very full day's travel away. I wish her nothing but success. Like every father, I worry about her though.

My wife, Kit, and I have had a relationship over the past fifteen years marked by a sine wave pattern of break-ups and reconciliations; and we're either entering the low part of that wave or, more likely, ending the pattern with a break-up without the possibility of reconciliation.

The total failure of my second marriage, 20 years after my first divorce from the mother of my children, Sue, is an attention hound. It takes effort not to think about it non-stop, and by effort I mean distraction.

It also demands a lot of introspection which I'm doing. The trouble is I know my faults and limitations and one of them is that I seem unable not to do the things I know are faults and limitations. So I'm just running through a catalog of personal failures over and over. It's much more interesting to me to try to see what is motivating Kit because I'm not getting a complete picture there. I mean I know what she says but I remain in the dark about what is actually causing her to act as she does. The only thing I can come up with, and it's pretty lame pop psychology, is she is one of those unfortunate people who only want what they do not have and do not want what they have. That's not so good.

Of course it's a very real possibility that my faults and limitations have caused her to fall out of love with me. That's kind of an Occam's Razor sort of explanation. Probably true, too. I don't seem actually to fall out of love with people whom I have loved, but there are things that can cause me to decide not to be with the object of my affection and desire, which is functionally the same as falling out of love but does not accurately reflect my heart.

The one good thing we are doing is getting a Catholic divorce, a legal separation, so that we'll have to go through the bother and expense of going back to court in the future if either of us is stupid enough to want to get married yet again. It's good to have a backstop.

Labels: personal history

I played golf on Saturday with Austin and Andrew and we walked and it was rough in the heat but everything was OK through 4:00 am on Sunday; and then at 6:00 am it felt as if someone was stabbing me in the back, just below the inside end of the shoulder blade. It was a 6/10 on the pain scale and there was nothing I could do to position my body to make the pain less. I took over the counter pain medication and then took the real stuff as well as a muscle relaxer. There was a little tingling and numbness down my left arm and into the two little fingers. There was a lot of weakness there too. After the pain medication took effect, the only thing bugging me was the weakness, tingling and numbness in the arm and hand. It's still the same today but now the left arm hurts as well.

I interpreted the pain numbness and tingling in the left arm to be along the ulnar nerve distribution pattern. And I guess that I slept in a bad position and caused a rhomboid muscle to spasm and the spasm caused a temporary (I hope) nerve problem down my arm.

I'll keep you updated.

Labels: personal history, ulnar arm pain

I have to admit that I'm feeling pretty good, in an angel of death looked at the mark on the door frame and left sort of way. The evil Spock goatee is driving me nuts, though. Three weeks or less and it's gone. I guess it's because I'm insulated, sort of, from whatever is coming so I'm kind of an above it all, disinterested observer. Also, future brother in law Gary and I took first in Geeks who Drink trivia on the doorstep of the University of Denver. Take that, undergrads. We were literally the old guys (the smart old guys, that is).

Labels: personal history

I'm in the mountains near Aspen. It's like 100 in Denver today. Enough said.

Labels: Colorado Rockies, personal history

Labels: personal history

I got up very early Saturday to drive though a Spring blizzard over Berthoud Pass to the shooting range near Hot Sulpher Springs up past where you can walk across the Mighty Colorado River and not get your feet wet. So no blogging.

At the range I did well (consistent, not accurate) with the Ruger 10/22 in 22 mag. I also did well, accurate OK tight grouping, with the Remington in 300 Weatherby magnum. But the beautiful gun, the thousand dollar plus Colt Saur in 300 Winchester magnum, continues to be mystery to me. I won't accuse it of a wandering zero, but it was 8 inches low at the start and the accurate group at the end at 200 yards could not have been covered with a dollar bill. I would say that's OK but for my hunting buddy Gary who gets near quarter covered groups with his 150 dollar Savage in 30.06 and with his Safari grade 2 BAR in 7 mm magnum.

Since we're reloading our ammo, we can't blame it (I can't) without damning my reloading ability.

Also, I'm heeling my pistol shooting. It might be that the Glock 19 has a trigger pull weight I'm not used to. In any event, my shooting skills are rusty at best and I need much more range time.

Labels: personal history

Got up at 4:30 to drive my father to the hospital for a knee replacement; watched the series of humiliations he had to undergo to get ready for the surgery. Left the hospital at 7:30 as they wheeled him into the surgery. Drove over to work and did some, like probably kissing off a settlement I guess I only thought I made.

Then we walked over to the Capitol to meet with the State Senate Majority Leader, Ken Gordon, my state senator, to try to get some much needed but minor changes in the law; and he was helpful but we felt we may be butting our heads against the figurative wall. Received a call from the surgeon saying it went well and my father was in the recovery room. Then went to a settlement conference where my client, faced with a low settlement or most likely nothing, chose nothing. I'm nothing if not client control.

Then I visited my dad in the hospital and he seems great, glad it's over, in no pain. Sounds good to me. Of course the hard part is coming. As I left I spotted and waived to the Governor, ex DA friend Bill Ritter, who waived back and called out my name. Good to be on good terms with the Governor.

When I got home I read the paper including a very unfair article about law school buddy Carol Chambers, who is married to ex DA friend Nate, and is the current DA of Arapahoe County, et al. The article quoted the Public Defender and another guy opposed to the death penalty as the only support for the stories lead that Carol is seeking the death penalty for political reasons (a very scurrilous charge and false, absolutely false) and not because the guys deserve the death penalty. Below are the thumbnail sketches from the article of the alleged murders for which she's seeking the death penalty. Tell me if you think she's being too harsh.

• Sir Mario Owens and Robert Keith Ray: Charged with killing Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe in June 2005. Marshall-Fields was set to testify against Owens and Ray in the murder of Gregory Vann.

• David Bueno and Alejandro Perez: Charged with the stabbing death of fellow inmate Jeffrey Heird at the Limon Correctional Facility.

• Edward Montour: Sentenced to death in 2002 for killing prison guard Eric Autobee while serving a life sentence for the murder of his daughter. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the district court this year for a new sentencing hearing, saying a jury - not the judge - should have sentenced him to death.

• Jose Luis Rubi-Nava: Charged with the 2006 dragging death of his girlfriend, 49-year-old Luz Maria Franco Fierros.

Carol is doing 6 of the 7 curently pending death penalty cases. Sounds to me like she's doing her job. You go, woman.

Labels: personal history

Labels: local warming, personal history

Usually a three day weekend would be a good time to read some and post some, but I've been tiling the dog's room and kitchen--in colored slate. I've spent more time on my knees lately than an ugly Colfax Avenue whore. Floors look pretty good though.

Labels: personal history

Back, and a little tired. Drove 2035 miles in the Coupe d' Hog and saw but very little of the South until the trees all went away in West Texas, just east of Abilene. I have to admit I like flying better.

Labels: cross country driving, personal history

Sitting here with the movers all around taking away all the furniture. Then I get to drive the big cadillac to Denver. Think I'll go the southern route. I'm pretty sick of Kansas.

Labels: personal history, y

I'm off to Florida to retreive my somewhat aged parents and bring them home to live with me. Hope to be back by Thursday. Take it away Mark and Diomedes.

Labels: personal history