Today I had to get on the road early. I left home at 7:30 and drove up the mountain. I go from about 450 feet at home to about 2500 feet at the Pratt Mountain pass. The valleys were filled with tendrials of fog burning off. Wonderful. Flowering trees in Willits and Ukiah still in bloom. Wonderful. I got a good photo of a lone flowering tree on the Alderpoint road most of the way up, near the rock outcrop where the wild goats used to play.

Tomorrow I'm out the door at 6 a.m. I know you farmers have no compassion for me, but lord have mercy, I'm just a city boy way out here in the freaky country, to paraphrase the poet.

Recommendation for drivers: The Teaching Company series on Great Books of the Western Tradition is excellent. Today it was Faulkner, Brecht, Becket, Camus (long drive, little NPR).

My emails have been full of news from Mendocino County. The Ukiah Journal has strongly endorsed Keith Faulder for DA. They said, in effect, that Meredth Lintott was old news and didn't have Keith's experience (his cv on his website is well done) and that Bert Schlosser was a really nice guy but what does a defense attorney know about prosecution.

I think the DA's are back at work with mediation scheduled to work out their strike issues. I'll know tomorrow when I show up for court at 10 a.m. If there's news I'll bring it back.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying the weather. I wanted to get photos of the wild plums in full bloom, and barely did. You've really only got a day or two to get these shots. Some of the scenes on the Alderpoint road, like a meadow filled with California poppies, are now or never shots. You see 'em, you shoot 'em, because the next time you drive by the magic will be gone. That's the trick with photos, I think. I see great photos all over the place, all the time, but I'm not a photographer, I'm a lawyer so sometimes I have to just drive by and go to court. Besides I can't upload to this site anyway (you know the Mac makes emailing photos so easy....."

I'm staying in the Best Western in Ukiah because the Economy Inn's wireless internet was down (again). I always try to eat at Patrona's in Ukiah, so I asked Mapquest how far it was from the motel. Three-quarters of a mile. Hah! I could walk that in my sleep, so I set out at dinner time. It was still unseaonably warm. My old shoes have new soles and to my joy stayed comforably on my feet even with my thin court socks on (I wear thick white socks when not dressed for court, thin black or brown socks to go with my suits in court.) All the cherry trees were in bloom and I photographed some to send to China. And some redwoods. Met a nice guy while photographing his Schlosser for DA sign. The guy wants to form a local group to fix up people's houses on a volunteer basis. Great plan. Sorry I don't live here to help. I helped Habitat for Humanity remodel a house in San Diego while I was a law student in the 20th century and it was fun. Before I knew it I was at Patrona's. I got the waitress to take my photo so I can send that to China - ED eating at a restaurant with brick walls and a wooden table. Actually the photo looks very much like the Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing. Perhaps it won't seem exotic to my Chinese correspondents. I also figured out that it's Patrona with a "T" rather than Padrona with a "D". Had the sausage pizza, really thin crisp crust. Some Cabernet with it. Heaven. Dessert was poached pear with pistachio icecream. Walked it off coming back to the motel (I wish).

In the Mendocino County DA's race there are 3 candidates. The election is April 3. The only endorsements I've seen earlier are from the prior election. Here's Bill's endorsement of Keith Faulder as I received it by e-mail today. Ex Sheriff Tony Craver has also endorsed Faulder. Patty Berg endorsed Lintott in the 2006 election, and quite possibly still does.

Friends:

I too want to publicly state my endorsement of Keith Faulder for Mendocino County District Attorney. I have worked with Keith on numerous cases over the past several years. He has struck me as intelligent, fair, reasonable, and he conducts himself with integrity. He is an experienced attorney who, from what I can see, has the respect of the deputies in the office. He is open-minded and realistic about cannabis cases. We have spoken on this issue numerous times - in fact Keith has gone out of his way on occasions to seek out my opinions, ask me questions, and/or sought references to more info about medical cannabis law. He has appeared to me to show the most compassion in this area than I've seen from a D.A., except for Terrnece Hallinan. A D.A. must also deal with many non-cannabis related issues. In these areas, I believe Keith's fairness and experience would well serve the residents of Mendocino County. I fear that the addition of a third candidate with split votes and result in the election of Meredith Lintott, who appears to be the least cannabis-friendly of the three candidates. I hope this won't happen and ask the MMJ community to take a serious look at Keith and, most importantly, GET OUT AND VOTE.

Bill Panzer

I drove up from Emeryville this morning. First sign that I was entering Mendocino county was a Lintott for DA sign way far south. Miles later saw my first Faulder sign. Bigger, but falling over. Flowering trees everywhere on the drive, temperatures in the 80s, radio says big worries about the Sierra snowpack melting quickly which will cause the dams to release water now as they prematurely fill, and then leave nothing in reserve as summer drags on. Oddly its the 2008 season's reserves that will be the problem (there won't be any). Trivia fact: It is sunlight, and not temperature that melts the snowpack mainly. So on cloudly days, says the radio, snow melt is greatly reduced.

Strike continues as usual (see SoHum Parlance strike thread for report).

My favorite motel, the Economy Inn (think location, location, location) has no internet so I'm at the Best Western. Location is not good in the real world, but it is a portal to the virtual world where we meet.