Thanks to Mapquest I got to the MCLE in the interesting looking Administration Building in Fairfield. And right on the corner was a Starbucks. I had never been in a Starbucks before, because I don't drink coffee. But it was break time, I was groggy from getting in late and up early, so I went in to see about a Thai tea. The young woman behind the counter said "What's a Thai tea?" A tea with lots of milk in it, I said. "Oh, a Chai tea latte with vanilla" she said. She was kind of right. It'll do in a pinch.

The lectures ended a 4:45 and it was rush hour Friday so I didn't dare go south to 37 to cross over to 101 North. I had to get home to put my show together to get to KMUD in the morning at 9:30. So I went up the back way. North to 505, to 16 at the Esparta exit and up the Cache Creek canyon. It was beautiful. All the farm land is green and looking like Disney's Happy Valley. The canyon entrance is impressive rock massifs, and then the red bud is in bloom everywhere, along with a more pink frilly bush blooming in the creek beds. It was every bit as wonderful as I recalled. Its short lasting, however. Some of the rosebud are already showing leaf.

I'm in Fairfield tonight getting ready to attend an all-day session of Continuting Legal Education tomorrow. Its all about trials, which I haven't done one of for months. On the way down got word that one which I was setting a month aside for may be about to settle. Its ok, I need the credits.

Stopped at Patrona for a glass of wine ($9) and a bowl of sausage soup ($5). Both delicious but something about the prices seems reversed. Did I mention that Ukiah has a great booksstore, open at night, on the street behind the courthouse. That's where I got my copy of the Iliad and the Odyssey, new, for $2.50 each. Dover Thrift Editions

The Best Western in Fairfield doesn't open the door for people signing in at night. They deal with you through a small security window, just like the low class chains in the tough neighborhoods. Fairfield doesn't look so tough, but its nighttime and I'm only seeing the area of the freeway exit. Still, it was a surprise. I thought Best Western was more classy than that.

Well faithful readers will know that about 21 hours ago I arrived at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) for a routine flight to Arcata. I'm still here. Horizon cancelled the delayed flight at 10:20 last night. They gave us a Hilton Hotel pass, and then just to be sure we spent as much time as possible in the airport rather than the hotel, said we had to pick up our bags because they can't keep them overnight. Of course the bags were not ready when we got to the baggage claim. A few minutes later and we were dragging our luggage across the street to the shuttle for the hotel. There were a lot of us and we all jammed on the shuttle. Our arrival at the Hilton seems to have been a surprise to the Hilton. No doubt Horizon called them to say we were coming, right? There was no one working the reception desk so we formed a long line and waited. After 10 or 15 minutes a young woman came out with a clipboard, asked us what was going on, and organized check-in clerks. I would say it didn't take more than 1/2 hour to get checked in to what proports to be a luxury hotel. No wonder people struggle so hard to get rich.

The room was comfortable, the beds nice, the bath water hot in the morning. We had received a $8 breakfast coupon so I packed and went down to the buffet. Surprise, the buffet is $18.95 at the Hilton. It was possible to sit at a table and for about $9 get a bowl of cold cereal, but I passed on that and hopped the shuttle again. After that things went very well. Now I knew the ropes so I went directly to Horizon baggage check -in, they updated my boarding pass, I knew the odd route to take my bag to the X-ray machine (you hand it through a barrier belt - there is no actual entrance), and had my belt off well before I got to the security screener.

Almost everyone's bag has wheels now. The halls of this wing of the airport are tiled with what look like 8" square tiles and when the wheels of the bags run across the tiles they make a sound like a railroad engine. How I wish I were on the train.

Flew from Arcata to LA last night for a case - my only case south of SF in my career -and lucked out. I got a Horizon flight direct to LA which avoids having to layover in SF and change planes. Luckier than I expected I was sitting in the Arcata airport restaurant having a sandwich (BLT- and not bad) because Horizon may fly at mealtime but they do not feed you - when I heard that United flights were delayed due to conditions in SF where the storms and their aftereffects were keeping the planes on the ground that needed to fly to Arcata and pick up passengers. No problem for me. My plane arrived, and as we took off I was expecting a bumpy flight. No such thing, we were behind the storm line and it was smooth sailing to LA. Then my ride found me right away, and the baggage was in the same building as the arrival lounge (unlike United which has passengers go to an adjacent building for their baggage).

Spent several interesting hours talking with Dr. Courtney and co-counsel Bill McPike about all sorts of medical marijuana legal facts and theories, and so to bed. Probably you need to be a mmj lawyer to have the kind of fun I had, but if you are one you should've been there.

Court was short. We put things off. The sky was blue, the air was clear, and the Van Nuys courthouse has a glass front. From the 6th floor outside the courtroom we had a great view of the mountains. I phoned home to find that it was snowing (I'm writing on March 27) and there was snow on the ground - that's rare at the 10 Springs Ranch because we're at about 500' elevation. Did we get any photos of it (not that I could show you). Probably not, it seemed that all the camera batteries were dead. I'll just have to believe they weren't kidding me. On the other hand I didn't bring my camera so everyone'll have to believe me that I was in LA on a day with no smog.

Got to the airport before lunch. That's good, and bad. Good because I was early. Bad because the only Horizon flight to Arcata leaves about 7:10pm. Bad, too, because they won't accept luggage for the flight until 4 hours prior to takeoff which means I had to drag the suitcase as well as the rolling law case all over the airport.

I went to the International Terminal because they have a great food court - lots of international cuisine, naturally, and lots of international passengers wandering around speaking a myriad of languages. I noticed some oriental appearing people eating at the Japanese stand, so I had pork on noodles there working by analogy on the principle of eat where the truckers eat. It was great. Also a can of green tea. I didn't know such things existed. I was a nice thick, sturdy can which felt good in the hand. It also felt like it wasn't empty after it was. Contents are by volume, not weight.

Just looking at the departure display makes me want to go somewhere. Fortunately my passport is at home so all I can do is dream. It doesn't help that Viking River Cruises sent me an e-mail which I just read offering 1/2 off on cruises of France, the Rhine, and the Danube. My sweetie wants to return to Budapest, and Vienna - and to go to France. Sigh. Even my aversion to the aftereffects of long flights isn't enough to overcome my desire to be places seeing things.

But, after all, tonight I sleep in Eureka and tomorrow the town is mine in my free time. Perhaps that will settle my travel bug for now. Do ya think?

I am sitting in Schat's Bakery and Deli in Ukiah, across the street from the courthouse. They have a wireless network and I'm on it, as is the guy sitting next to me. The sun is shining outside, I just finished a scone and am working on a cold tea. I've been here about an hour, working and thinking. I booked a flight to LA for a court appearance next Tuesday, got some dates together to look at marijuana the police have seized, spoke with my office, read my e-mails - and still have 24% of my battery. A class of high-schoolers was doing a field trip to the Bakery this morning, and I heard part of the presentation (respect your employees, and require respect from them). Nearby is a man in a beret, looking intense and intellectual in a way I fear I don't. (Yesterday a woman asked me if I was a professor, so perhaps I'm post-intellectual). I hear a couple speaking a language that sounds like Russian. All I need is to see someone playing chess to complete the picture that I've carried in my mind for all these years.

From my student years in Berkeley in the early '60s, I have aspired to being an intellectual sitting in a coffeehouse in the morning, enjoying a treat and thinking about life. Then the locus of my aspirations was the Med, a major coffeehouse on Telegraph Avenue. For a time I considered getting an apartment near it so I could go there every morning while preparing for classes. In actuality I was only able to spend a few morning there - reading the Berkeley Barb, I hope. Leisure enjoyment has never been a major part of my lifestyle - that's probably why I aspire to it. I get too restless and too many other possibilities come up.

How am I able to be at my leisure now? Well, I'm pinned down. I have a court hearing at 1:30 so I can't really go home. The wireless computer internet lets me do quite a bit which would otherwise be just idle thoughts passing through my mind as I worked out major philosophic issues which have plagued humanity for all these eons. Now I can do that and deal with e-mail. To quote the Fugs, "Technology will set you free. Its the mother and father of so many things."