Another Public Service Reminder

If you take a clean, 2-year-old Golden Retriever on a snowshoeing adventure on a trail which has recently been traveled by horses, you should expect to have a gad-awful-smelling Golden Retriever with horse poop rubbed (repeatedly and enthusiastically) into his fur when it's time to load him back into your car. AND, if said Golden Retriever has a microchip identifying him as your dog, then NO, you cannot simply abandon him at the trailhead.

Humility

Today I was called by the AG's office at 11:15 a.m. and informed of an "emergency" hearing at 2:15 p.m. at which the parental rights of one of my clients were at stake, and I was given the opportunity to learn great humility. I marshalled my energies, gathered my ducks to set them firmly in a row, calmed my client and headed into battle.

Whereupon I tanked.

I stammered, I stuttered, my heart raced and I failed to speak clearly about anything. Honestly? I didn't know I could be so ill-spoken. Fortunately, the judge had a less cluttered view of the applicable law than I was presenting, and justice prevailed... in spite of me. I kid you not, the judge himself had to look up the pertinent statute and quote it into the record as part of his ruling because I had so miserably failed to present him anything of value in making his decision.

My client walked away triumphant, and the outcome was right and proper. For this I am enormously grateful.

I am also unimaginably humbled. And I never want to be a lawyer ever again. Wake me when I'm retired, and not one moment before.

Best holiday light display I saw this year:

I'm sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but the point is I SAW THIS IN MY LITTLE TOWN where I never expected to see such a thing... and I was so excited, I snapped the picture with my phone right through the car window... and I don't care that it's a lousy picture, I'm just SO happy that the peace sign, it was REALLY there and I didn't just imagine it.

***cue Imagine by John Lennon***