Still smokey and hazy and everything else. Feeling more and more like I want to cough up a lung. Work is starting to take a hit too, with the courts being closed for the third “holiday” in a row. I met with a client on Sunday to get signatures on some filings; they’re all copied and collated and sitting in my briefcase waiting for the day the El Cajon branch reopens. Word right now is the law library will reopen today, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Way beyond the immediate costs in life and property, this is going to take a massive economic toll on San Diego. Lots of hourly employees simply haven’t worked yet this week (on top of the hundreds of grocery workers in the third week of their strike/lock out). Many retailers have stayed closed. Income loss on top of unplanned expenses for property loss and damage this close to the Christmas retail season in an already depressed economy can’t be good.

I voted in the recall based in large part on my answer to the simple question ‘are you better off than you were ___ years ago?’ Reagan used this question to devastating effect to clobber Carter in 1980. My personal answer eliminated any chance of supporting Gray Davis’ continued presence in electoral office. I’ve talked with a few different people in recent months about how I think President Bush could be very vulnerable to this same attack by a competent Democrat (not a guarantee given the current pool, but a possibility). The fifth largest economy in the world has just taken a horrible hit and someone needs to step up to the plate quickly.

For a while this morning I thought the smoke was dissipating. It’s back now, though. Three days and counting. Brown haze you can cut with a knife getting on and in everything. It reminds me of the harmattan in Togo, but even more so. This is even darker and thicker. Unfortunately that memory reminds me that I caught bronchitis during my second (and last) harmattan season and don’t really want to add a new disease to my other problems right now. So I stay inside, drink lots of fluids, and try to do some work. Hopefully government offices start reopening soon. I don’t do much litigation, but of course I was planning on doing a court filing and a large research project at the county law library on Monday. That’s just the way things work out. But it has left me parked in front of the computer playing with iTunes way too much. Not a total loss.

It’s wierd looking out over the Tecolote Canyon (aka my backyard) and knowing that what would normally be just morning fog is actually smoke. One wiff and I’m sure though. Ash on the car, ash on the furniture, burning in the eyes…yep, it’s smoke. I wonder what the ash is doing to the pool filters. Pongo’s definitely been a bit edgy. Not sure if it’s the strange scent or if the smoke is burning his eyes like it’s burning mine.

I swear it’s even darker now than it was when Pongo and I did our walk at 6:00 a.m. The sky just keeps getting darker and everything’s lit by an orange haze. The ash burns the eyes and the whole thing’s getting pretty annoying. But at least it’s still a So.Cal autumn. Less than one week until November, and still no need to be wearing long pants or shoes.

In addition to this being the day I have to adjust the clocks, and then explain to little Pongo that I don’t care what his internal clocks say, we woke up today to find the neighborhood covered with a fine layer of ash. More is dropping every minute. Nice white flakes, kinda like snow, but the temperature is already in the 70s and on light surfaces you can see that a lot of it is grey too. Somehow Mother Nature found just the right combination of brush fire and wind speed to trash this part of San Diego. At least I’m not one of those people who spent a lot of time keeping their cars clean; then I’d feel really pissed.

Before the implants I tried to get ahead on my work so that I could do my convalescence right: Passions, chocolates, meds and naps. Instead the realities of solo practice kicked in: there was little work to be done until a couple of days before the procedure, and then fires-to-be-put-out started cropping up everywhere. Business deals to be concluded, litigation deadlines getting moved around, and people needing advice and answers now. I’m not complaining, just commenting. Despite the unfortunate timing, I’m just happy to be getting business in this economy. One of my initial worries when I found out back in July that I’d need cancer treatment was that I’d lose my practice. Lost time and lost revenues were both big fears. Both have been realized to some extent, and although delegation and time management have definitely become much more critical, the business is definitely surviving. Those clients that know my medical problems have been accomodating and supportive. For better or worse some of the clients haven’t even noticed. Not sure if that’s a vote of confidence that they believe their matters are getting handled properly or they’re just used to me being drowsy at after-lunch meetings, but either way I’m happy with the results.

Taking a break from work I spent some time pondering Pongo last night. Just watching him sleep and studying the complexity of his spots. Especially around his eyes, which are definitely looking greyer as he ages (8-1/2 years old). What looks like shades at a distance is just different combinations of black and white hairs up close. Sometimes I wonder what he dreams about. Watching his face and his eyes as he sleeps I know something’s going on in that mind of his. Frolicking on the beach? Some golden retriever? Only the Pongo knows, and he’s not telling me.

Pusztai believed that the marriage of the Internet and Viagra was ideal. Men wanted to improve their sexual performance but were embarrassed to broach the topic with their doctors. His Web site, Norfolk Men’s Clinic, offered them anonymity. They could order the little blue pills after filling out a short medical questionnaire, and no one would ever know — “not their wives, not their mistresses, local doctors, nor the local pharmacy,” Pusztai said.

For a time it appeared the couple was lucky in love and in business. On Yates’s birthday, Pusztai gave her an engagement ring. Meanwhile, requests for Viagra were starting to pour in, first 40 a day, then 100, then more.

. . .

In August 2000, a grand jury returned a 31-page indictment charging Pusztai and Yates with violating federal law by selling medicine over the Internet without valid prescriptions. According to the indictment, Norfolk Men’s Clinic created phony prescriptions bearing the names of doctors in Australia and Romania, billed customers for nonexistent medical consultations and inflated the number of pills customers requested to boost the company’s inventory of Viagra.

In 2002, a federal jury in Montgomery, Ala., convicted Pusztai and Yates on all 23 counts against them. Pusztai was sentenced to 15 years, eight months. Yates received 6 1/2 years.

Yay!!! Hope they rot in jail for many, many years.
(more…)

Been playing with the new iTunes for Windows since yesterday. Loving it. Makes me miss my old Mac. The Mac served me well in Togo (as my personal machine) and through my first year of law school until the hard drive started grinding something and work-type software requirements made me leave the better machine for a machine that could run the software people said I needed. It’s been over six years but I still miss that machine sometimes.

Took a break from the fun this afternoon to catch a matinee of Quentin Tarantino’s new film Kill Bill: Volume 1 with a friend this afternoon. Great escape if you don’t mind the violence, which I certainly didn’t.

And now for something completely different…

SUVA, Fiji — Residents of a remote village in the Pacific island nation of Fiji are apologizing — again — for their cannibal ancestors’ decision to eat a British missionary.

The villagers want to break a curse they say dates back to July 1867, when their cannibal forefathers dined on the Reverend Thomas Baker, a Methodist missionary from England. All that remained of Baker were his leather boots, which the cannibals also tried to eat, thinking they were part of the missionary.

. . .

The last time they apologized was in 1993, when villagers presented the Methodist Church of Fiji with Baker’s overcooked and slightly chewed boots.

That reminds me…I need to stop at the grocery store on the way home from the office this afternoon.

Off vicodin now
and the pain has abated.
Life feels good today.