I watch my doggie
He's sleeping
His right fore-foot twitches
He's dreaming
"Hmmph, hmmph," he barks in his sleep
His breathing increases
His eyelids flutter
All four feet are moving, chasing
His heart is racing
"Hmmph, hmph, hmf"
He's panting
There's a jack-rabbit running ahead of him
My doggie races through the tall grass of his dreams
Unimpeded
He sees the ears of the rabbit zig-zagging ahead through his sleep
He's in pursuit
He's young again
Forward he goes
Chasing... running
"Hmmph!"
He is so happy
Blessed Oblivion!
He sinks further into sleep
His feet stop moving
His breathing slows
Is he still dreaming?
Did he catch him?
Is he still carefree and wild?
He snorts and looks up at me
Something woke him
He struggles to his feet
My baby!
How I wish you could be in that world forever!
Young again
And free
Such is growing old
Such is life
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Updating
Final Update:
Back into English! I'm done with tweaking!!
Another update:
Portuguese?!
An Update:
My months suddenly seem to be back in English, so that's a plus...
Original Post:
So, I've updated my lay-out a bit, so I can use this "click and drag" feature as advertized with the "new blogger." It doesn't seem to me any better, as they don't even have the old template fonts, meaning you still have to mess with the code even if you want to put it back the way it was in the first place. Furthermore, my archives mysteriously ended up with the months of the year in Spanish, for what reason, I haven't got a clue. Maybe I'll just take out the archives altogether and not worry about them being in Spanish. I'll continue with the tweaking, rather than doing what I'm supposed to be doing today.
Back into English! I'm done with tweaking!!
Another update:
Portuguese?!
An Update:
My months suddenly seem to be back in English, so that's a plus...
Original Post:
So, I've updated my lay-out a bit, so I can use this "click and drag" feature as advertized with the "new blogger." It doesn't seem to me any better, as they don't even have the old template fonts, meaning you still have to mess with the code even if you want to put it back the way it was in the first place. Furthermore, my archives mysteriously ended up with the months of the year in Spanish, for what reason, I haven't got a clue. Maybe I'll just take out the archives altogether and not worry about them being in Spanish. I'll continue with the tweaking, rather than doing what I'm supposed to be doing today.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Good News, Bad News
How about the good news first? The good news is that last week, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded my client's felony DWI conviction. They agreed with me that yes, the State must subpoena the lab technician who tested my client's blood to testify in person, regardless of the inconvenience of making him drive half-way across the state. The bad news is that the case is unpublished, and therefore, we will probably have to appeal several similar cases before the judges all get the point. Also, my client will probably opt to keep the conviction, rather than go to trial, as he has now served all his time and probation. (He got a pretty good plea deal). The good news is that it gives one a pretty good feeling to say, "I told you so," to a judge who is so convinced all my clients are guilty, and who likes to by-pass all "technicalities" of the constitution in order to efficiently convict them.
More bad news: My trial on Thursday was a complete disaster. The charge was child abuse, and the facts to support it were that my client was drunk in the vicinity of her 18-month-old child. You know it's a bad sign when the Judge politely informs you prior to trial that it would be the best thing for your client if the jury convicts her! The only good thing that happened all day was that the judge excluded my client's "prior bad acts" that the State wanted to use to show that she is a drunk. The judge had at least three grounds on which he should have granted a mistrial, including the officer "accidentally" saying that my client had been to prison, the State saying in closing that since the child was not crying, he was obviously familiar with this situation, and that the jurors had a responsibility to "break the cycle" of something, I'm not even sure what! Oh, the best part was that all of a sudden at trial the child was lying and crawling around on broken glass. I still am not sure where that came from, other than the officer took a picture of the alley this happened in on Monday, and there was glass in the picture. (Of course, since the incident occurred 9 months before the picture was taken, the judge should never have allowed the picture in, but that's life in the big city.) Oh well. Can you say "cumulative error"?!
More bad news: My trial on Thursday was a complete disaster. The charge was child abuse, and the facts to support it were that my client was drunk in the vicinity of her 18-month-old child. You know it's a bad sign when the Judge politely informs you prior to trial that it would be the best thing for your client if the jury convicts her! The only good thing that happened all day was that the judge excluded my client's "prior bad acts" that the State wanted to use to show that she is a drunk. The judge had at least three grounds on which he should have granted a mistrial, including the officer "accidentally" saying that my client had been to prison, the State saying in closing that since the child was not crying, he was obviously familiar with this situation, and that the jurors had a responsibility to "break the cycle" of something, I'm not even sure what! Oh, the best part was that all of a sudden at trial the child was lying and crawling around on broken glass. I still am not sure where that came from, other than the officer took a picture of the alley this happened in on Monday, and there was glass in the picture. (Of course, since the incident occurred 9 months before the picture was taken, the judge should never have allowed the picture in, but that's life in the big city.) Oh well. Can you say "cumulative error"?!
Friday, May 25, 2007
One!
One brightly-colored, springy, fluffy, made-all-by-myself sock! (Ha, ha, ha.)
It actually didn't turn out too badly, for a first attempt. (I had a couple of visible errors while getting used to dealing with the two circular needles, and I had never "grafted" before. By the time I got the hang of that, I was nearly done with it.) I was so proud of it, I had to wear it around the office today, even though it doesn't have a match yet. (No court today.) I finished it while listening to a client's rantings. Incidentally, they were the same rantings he had yesterday, and the day before, and the day before... My sock is surprisingly comfy, too. I was concerned that it might feel scratchy or lumpy or something. But it really doesn't. When I got it home, I washed it, and blocked it, and it's drying in the picture. My knitting buddies have decided to all knit what I've been calling "tandem socks." You knit both socks of a pair simultaneously on two circular needles. The directions looked complicated, but after having knit one sock on two circular needles, and spending a great deal of time trying to figure out how it works by myself before learning that there is a very good book on this subject, I think I understand how the two socks are supposed to work. So, we will be all knitting tandem-socks in tandem.
I still haven't figured out which yarn I want to use from my pair of "tandem socks," though. There's this really pretty self-striping yarn I found on the internet that's treated with herbal oils. (Softens hands while you do knitting, apparently.) They say it won't feel greasy, but I'm not sure I trust it without touching it. I also am not sure how I feel about spending 18 bucks on one ball of yarn! (I did comparison shop, too, and that's the cheapest I found it for.) Additionally, I still have one more sock to do of my pair, and I'm almost finished with another sweater I started, and I bought a ball of this gorgeous yarn to do a pretty lacy scarf which will probably be a Christmas present for someone (I'm not sure who yet, so quit guessing, you guys!)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
My Forray into the World of Socks
So, it seems to be spring now, and I'm growing bored of knitting big, poufy sweaters. So, I thought I would try my hand at socks! I like to wear them, so I figured I would see if it was fun to knit them. So far, so good!
On Tragedy
One of the problems with blogging about a job like this in a town this small, is that there are some times when you can't write about what you want to. I'm semi-anonymous, meaning select people know who I am, but the general public does not. And I would prefer it to remain that way. For example, I'm not thrilled with the idea of someone at the local newspaper finding my blog, and linking it to me. (They haven't, yet). I figured you all deserve an explanation about why I haven't blogged much in the past few months.
It's mainly because what I really wanted to write about was a certain (quite serious) case that had been ongoing for over a year, and that is now finished. (Caveat: I'm not divulging confidences, this is all public record and most of it was in the paper.) The whole situation is immensely tragic. The original charge was an "open" count of murder, meaning the state could file for the death penalty. My client had stabbed a girl upwards of 30 times with a steak-knife and then shot her with a composite bow and arrow. She had been my client's best friend's girlfriend. They were to be married. She had a 3-month-old baby, who saw the whole thing.
My client had been released less than a week before this from a mental health hospital, in a town far from his home, with no money, no transportation, and his prescriptions. Not the actual meds, just prescriptions on pieces of paper for his anti-psychotic medications. He had begged them not to discharge him, he was afraid he would hurt someone. They discharged him anyway.
His hope for the outcome of all this was to be sent to the State mental health hospital forever, so this would never happen again. He was extremely remorseful, and initially wanted to receive the death penalty. The only way to get him to the mental hospital would have been to have the judge find him incompetent to stand trial and dangerous. However, by the time the competency evaluation took place, he had been stabilized and was competent.
Ultimately, he pled to second degree murder and tampering with evidence, and was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He absolutely did not want to put the victim's family through a trial, even though he had a viable insanity defense.
The sentencing hearing was gut-wrenching. Ten of the victim's family members spoke. I have never sat through a longer, more difficult hearing in my life. The most tragic part of this whole thing is that all of this could have been prevented. One life was extinguished, another destroyed, and innumerable lives were changed forever. All the result of the lack of proper mental health care.
It's mainly because what I really wanted to write about was a certain (quite serious) case that had been ongoing for over a year, and that is now finished. (Caveat: I'm not divulging confidences, this is all public record and most of it was in the paper.) The whole situation is immensely tragic. The original charge was an "open" count of murder, meaning the state could file for the death penalty. My client had stabbed a girl upwards of 30 times with a steak-knife and then shot her with a composite bow and arrow. She had been my client's best friend's girlfriend. They were to be married. She had a 3-month-old baby, who saw the whole thing.
My client had been released less than a week before this from a mental health hospital, in a town far from his home, with no money, no transportation, and his prescriptions. Not the actual meds, just prescriptions on pieces of paper for his anti-psychotic medications. He had begged them not to discharge him, he was afraid he would hurt someone. They discharged him anyway.
His hope for the outcome of all this was to be sent to the State mental health hospital forever, so this would never happen again. He was extremely remorseful, and initially wanted to receive the death penalty. The only way to get him to the mental hospital would have been to have the judge find him incompetent to stand trial and dangerous. However, by the time the competency evaluation took place, he had been stabilized and was competent.
Ultimately, he pled to second degree murder and tampering with evidence, and was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He absolutely did not want to put the victim's family through a trial, even though he had a viable insanity defense.
The sentencing hearing was gut-wrenching. Ten of the victim's family members spoke. I have never sat through a longer, more difficult hearing in my life. The most tragic part of this whole thing is that all of this could have been prevented. One life was extinguished, another destroyed, and innumerable lives were changed forever. All the result of the lack of proper mental health care.
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