This morning you hear from me. I'm up a little late this morning, as it's only a bit after 6:00 a.m. I've enjoyed the postings here, especially the photos (and yesterday a motion picture featuring grandkids and a slide!). Do you remember there was a slide originally? We tore it out because it was dangerous. There was a broken piece of metal that we wouldn't fix and you kids could get cut, so we yanked it out. It wasn't a pretty colored slide like the new one, just dull metal.
You may remember the Public Defender, Phyllis Morris, came to see me about a month ago and informed me (and others) that we were losing our deputy five status, which meant a pay cut of about $500.00 a month. My deputy five status was for subject matter expertise in immigration law. I told them I would continue to assist in the area in spite of the pay loss, for a number of reasons, and I have done so. But now, I'm not losing it: that decision was recently rescinded. People tell me it was announced in our budget meeting when Phyllis and Steve (the accounting guy) came down a couple weeks ago to chat with us. I was present at that meeting, but don't remember her saying that. It went right over my head.
Your mother built a table out of scrap wood. It's solid, it's ugly (it's odd pieces of scrap wood after all), and it's amazing. It fits under her work bench in the garage. A garage has never been this organized for us. Very nice.
Nick is feeling, and behaving, very humbly the past few days. You guessed it. Mom took him down the hill and had his nails trimmed, his beak trimmed, and his flight wings clipped. He even let the sister missionaries hold him, and one of them was able to scratch his head. Funny how his attitude improves with a little wing clipping. Although, if you think about it, the same may be true for us. We "get our wings clipped back" a bit, we get a little more humble, our attitudes improve. I'm not going to develop that thought any further but leave it for you to think about. I will point you in a direction, though. Read Elder Hugh B. Brown's address about when he was passed over for promotion in the British service, and the currant bush. You can find it by going to the church website, http://www.lds.org. It's an article entitled "The Currant Bush," and it's in the January 1973 New Era. I encourage you to read it, to print it and keep it around in your homes. I encourage you to think and pray about it.
First of all I want to say
ReplyDeleteI TOLD YOU SO!!!!
A month into this blog being formed you said you give up and you weren't going to use this blasted thing anymore...
Now, eight months later, you enjoy this blog. I am satisfied.
Beyond that, I enjoyed the update. Tim and I will look up the article today, thank you for the recommendation.
Also, is that the Phyllis who helped with Mock Trial? I can't even remember if that was her name...I must have blocked it from memory.
Nope. Phyllis Morris is the BIG BOSS, THE CHIEF, LA JEFE.
ReplyDeleteI always love reading your posts dad, you have a very elegant way of writing that I really enjoy reading!
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear that the pay deduction was reversed, I know mom was saying that it was making things a little stressful.
OOOOOOOHH, Ok, that's why the name is familiar, you have spoke of her often, and she isn't an evil DA. Ok.
ReplyDeleteHahaha the evil member of The Dark Army was Kris
ReplyDeleteYes. Kris. Tim would remember her. How could he forget? By the way, something else just occurred. I arrived at work Tuesday morning and logged onto my computer. I saw a letter from the State Bar. That is typically bad news: some client has complained, and now you have to defend yourself, explaining what you did and why. It's very time consuming as you have to dig out the file, review it, write a response. However, this letter thanked me for accepting a speaking assignment. Huh? Nobody had asked me, I hadn't said yes to anybody. But there was the letter. I've been asked to speak on immigration consequences at the annual California State Bar Convention in Long Beach this September. I have spoken with the folks at the State Bar, and arrangements are being made. My co-panelist is an attorney with the United States Department of Justice in San Diego. She prosecutes persons for the crime of illegal re-entry. Anyway, I'm really quite excited. The two of us will be able to speak from different perspectives. I've a PowerPoint presentation I'll use, she doesn't. There are thousands of attorneys in California, and lots go to the convention. However, I expect somewhere between 50 to 150 to attend my session, which is Friday the sixteenth, early in the afternoon, the second day of the convention. There are about 150 courses offered over four days, and ours will be one of them. I'm jazzed that I've been asked to do this, out of all the lawyers in the state, there's only about 200 who speak. The Bar site reports that there are over 200,000 attorneys eligible to practice in California at this time. The DOJ lawyer and I will have an hour and a half between us, and the subject is, of course, the consequences of criminal convictions on the noncitizen.
ReplyDeleteOne last thing. The I-Pad 2 has been issued to us, and I'm coming to grips with it. It does not replace our Windows based laptops in our offices, but will replace all the paper client files we currently deal with. I'm excited. They are having us establish our I-Tunes account (through which we will work our cases) privately rather than through the county website because (1) the county would be too restrictive about content (our boss wants us to take these things everywhere so we'll be more productive, able to work a file anywhere, anytime, so she's allowing us to download our own books and music, and even some games; and (2) the county has really small limits for our files, and with digital .pdf files for our clients, we would exceed those limits quickly. I'll keep you posted.
Love, Dad
And yes, Allie, you got me. Dang.