Drove out of Alderpoint, nestled on the Eel River at 400' elevation, and over Pratt Mountain very early this morning so I could make an 8:30 Eureka court date. It was dark when I left, and cold. The Volvo's red warning light for freezing road conditions was on almost before I left town and began climbing the 2000' to the pass. As I got closer to the top it began snowing. Light snow flurries falling but somehow never hitting the ground. The road stayed clear of snow, ice, or slush, but the temperature kept dropping and at the higher elevations snow was dusting the trees. Stopped for a shot and if I ever figure out how to post photos I'll let you see it.

I got between Fortuna and Eureka in the late 7ams and early 8ams. There was an incredible strong double rainbow. Stopped for shots. (See above for why you are not seeing it - if I find a blog provider that makes photos easier I'll move there). Nice drive. Tomorrow its off to Willits. More later.

It was a hell of a drive. The rain never let up from Alderpoint to San Raphael. Traffic was heavier than usual as Sunday is the end of the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend, and cars were kicking up so much spray that nothing but tail lights was visible ahead for much of the trip. Stopped for gas in Ukiah - which I had been touting as the lower end of the weather system with nothing but sunshine and joy south of it - and the Shell card didn't work at the pump. To get to the cashier meant crossing 100 feet of unprotected area, with the temperature in the 40s and the wind whipping the rain down hard, and I got wet and cold before the transaction was done. The rain and wind kept up for the rest of the drive. It was a bad time for the heater fan in the '94 Volvo not to work.

Then we met the witnesses, in Oakland. That went well, and we were driving back from Oakland by going up Telegraph Av to do some shopping. One thing led to another and we ended up eating dinner at Shen Hau, an excellent Chinese restaurant on College Av. The crowd was fascinating. Humboldt is mainly working class. The well-off just don't congregate enough to seem like a majority. Marin is mainly upper-middle class with relatively few visible minorities. There is a shopping center near San Rafael which is jam-packed with well dressed, fashionable, upper-middle class people and they are virtually all white people. I went there recently to buy some new court shoes at Nordstroms, and took Montgomery to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, in part to reconfirm this statement. Still true, a few orientals, but mostly well-dressed, well groomed, white people there. Berkeley's college Ave is another UMC haunt, but the customers (and staff) in Shen Hau were from all over the world. Asians, black people, white people, mixed couples. It was a scene unlike any I've been in in recent memory. I miss Berkeley, in some ways. This was one. Perhaps its a false nostalgia, but I'm a big one for one humanity on this one world, and it was wonderful to see it in reality.

The food was excellent also. Its a don't miss if you are going to Berkeley.

Busy day. I have a trial scheduled for Monday in Marin county. You never know for sure if a trial will happen. Many criminal cases are settled on the morning the trial is to begin. I don't think this one will be, and in any event you can't make your plans based on that idea, you have to be ready to go slug it out. So Monty and I spent the afternoon putting together motions and checking out witness statements. Its a tiring way to spend the weekend. But tomorrow we drive south, meet witnesses, confer with clients, and off to the motel. The only bright spot is that the weather forecast for Sohum & north is snow, as low as 1500 feet before the storm passes over entirely, so the local roads will not be any fun for us rural lawyers to travel on our way to court. If the trial goes, I won't be doing that. I'll be snow free, perhaps even storm free, in Marin. That's the bright spot in all this prep.

After spending 3 weeks in China this fall (see prior blogs) I have been corresponding with several people I met there. One is a grad student in law. She just told me she failed the Bar exam and is depressed. Bar exams in the US have a failure rate of over 50% often but I don't suppose that is any consolation to her. Its hard to know how to reach over the language barrier to try and lift spirits. She writes in English, the only language I know, but it not a complex English and I have the feeling that certain basic words are carrying the meaning for quite a few more nuanced words that a native speaker has available to them. I told her about losing a trial (that has happened to me, sad to say. I like to believe the losses are surrounded with wins, rather than the wins sandwiched between losses). I mentioned her good qualities as I see them. I talked about other things. Hope some of it worked.

While it varies, Thanksgiving is almost always a family meal at our house. Back in the 80s and 90s we used to have fairly large meals. But people die, they move away, they become ill, things happen. This time it was strictly family. Fortunately the cooking gene is strong in Mary Alice's family so she, Bruce, and Montgomery all cooked. I lack the gene, but I am happy to eat. So we did, excellent food, a bottle of Briceland bubbly, pumpkin pie with scratch crust. Way good. Way too much eaten, very satisfactory.