We're getting ready to hit the road tomorrow, I hope, for a private tour of Alaska - by private I mean I booked it all on my little computer, no cruise line, no travel agent, no prepackaged list of sights. If all goes well we'll drive to Seattle, shuttle bus to Bellingham, take the Alaska Marine Highway ferry to Juneau (sleeping in our chairs, since no berths were available), then spend several days there mostly attending Celebration 2008, a festival of the Northwestern Indian Tribes which happens every 2 years, then off to Glacier bay by ferry for a several day stay at the Lodge, a tour of the glaciers, a whale watching dinner - you know, the usual stuff. Then, alas, we fly back to Seattle, and drive home. Why not fly from Arcata? The schedules are too weird and if you miss a connection there is a cascade of missed connections.

Here's a couple of shots. This one from Eureka last week, which I took while walking from the Townhouse to the Ritz



This one is a sign on the Alderpoint road. It was very foggy the day I took it.



News from the Alaska trip as I have the opportunity to post it.

Utah Phillips, the greatest and last of the wobbly singers has died. I'm fond of cause songs anyway, but Utah made them something special. I think it was the combination of his rough voice and commentary which brought the music and the movement to life for the time that he was on the stage. I have a copy of an excellent album he cut in Canada while singing for some striking workers (Telecom I think) some decades back.

I suppose too that I enjoyed his singing because I can sing like that - or so it seems to me while I'm passing the miles by in my car. The verse I know the best is this one:

"The long haired preachers come out every night,
to tell you what's wrong and what's right,
but if you ask them for something to eat,
They will tell you in voices so sweet...

You will eat by and by
In that glorious land in the sky,
way up high,
work and pray,
live on hay,
you'll get pie in the sky when you die (that's a lie)"

I guess he felt he just had to put in that part in parenthesis, just in case someone missed the point.

I saw Utah sing several times - once in Canada, once in Garberville - and it was clear that his wobbyness was real, not a persona for the stage. He spoke of going to old folks homes and cheap boardinghouses to find the last of the wobblies, so he could learn their stories and, I suppose, let them know that he was carrying on for them. It was for him like the modern blues players going to find the pioneers of the music - a way to connect with the tradition.

And I remember his line "Of course, when you sing like I do, you've got to be able to leave with considerable alacrity. I keep a Greyhouse bus ticket in my pocket at all times." Hearing his voice you wondered at first if he was refering to the response to his music, or his politics, but now that I can duplicate his voice for short spells, I'm sure it was his politics.

Perhaps you've heard his story about gardening? He was away from home touring during the spring planting season, and worried about how his partner was going to get the garden in. He heard Bella Abzug talk about her phone being tapped, and he got an idea. So he called home and said "For God's sake don't go digging in the back yard, that's where the guns are buried." The national guard rolled up and dug up the entire back yard, just in time for the planting.

I don't know if that story is true, but it ought to be. Another great folk musician, fighter for the rights of the oppressed and downtrodden, and good person, is gone. We will not be able to replace him.

Busy, busy. Start with an early morning hearing in Eureka - which means I overnighted at the Townhouse and had dinner at the Ritz. I keep thinking I won't have katsu don, and I keep being wrong. I've been there so often they almost automatically bring me a glass of syrah now when I arrive. Tried to take some pix on the walk to the Ritz but not much luck.

After the morning, couple of afternoon things. One motion which I have been trying to get granted for months and months has such a confused history by now (since I started the judge has changed, and the DA assigned to the court has changed) that the confusion itself prevented a hearing because we didn't have time in court to sort it all out. Next time I appear on that motion it will be granted I hope - its a run of the mill motion and these repetative appearances that fail to get it granted take on the feeling of a nightmare where nothing works like you expect.

But, off to my Redway office to change clothes and work on the Preliminary Hearing that I'll do the next morning. Then dinner at the Mateel where they tempt me with a glass of Briceland Pinot Noir which was wonderful, and I have an Intrigue salad with it, which is a fave of mine. I get to KMUD in time for my talk show (7-8pm 4th Thursdays).

It's on Measure B in Mendocino County. I have gotten No on B to commit to call at 7:15 but no response from Yes on B. One minute prior to air time, Yes on B calls and they're ready to go. I have them hang on and give background until 7:15. No call from No on B. So I put Yes on B on air and we have an interesting (to me) discussion of the merits of this initative to overthrow Measure G and reduce presumptive limits on medical marijuana cultivation and possession. No on B calls in at 7:59 and gets the last minute.

Next morning I find that a court ruling the day of my show has mooted Measure G and B by saying that the only limit on medical patient cultivation and possession is the patient's medical needs and all legislative limits are out the window. If only I had known the night before it would have been a really interesting show.

Out the door at 8pm and ready to go to Santa Rosa. No such luck. I have a headlight out. So up the mountain to meet my sweetie with the other car. So I'm leaving Garberville at 9pm for the drive to Santa Rosa. I only have to pull over and catch 40 winks once, and by midnight I'm pulling into the Best Western Garden Inn at Santa Rosa. Nice place, but it has wi-fi and instead of sleep I get the new court ruling and spend some time determining what this means for the next morning's Preliminary Hearing - it's a marijuana case of course (most of my cases are). So bed at 2 up at 7, bit more work, and dash off to court.

The DA and I decide not to do the Preliminary Hearing because the DA wants to check out the medical claims with a eye towards a possible dismissal of charges. OK with me. I don't mind putting things off, each time I get ready I see another aspect of the defense. A new client comes to meet with me, then I'm off for Ukiah to file some papers and see another new client. Finally I go to the Ukiah hospital to see a neighbor who broke a leg. My neighbor is happy, and going home the next day, so I go to Garberville.

My sweetie is down with a heavy cold, so I pick up dinner at Calico's deli in Garberville, The clam chowder was really good, as was the salmon fetticcini. Watch some Tivo'd news, put my Saturday morning radio show together and, as Samuel Pepys said, and "so to bed."

I travel quite a bit in this defense lawyer biz. I go to many distant and exotic parts of California, or so it seems to me. But my sweetie has declined to accompany me so far - up until my trip to Crescent City. Now we persons in the legal game have certain associations with Del Norte (pronounced "Nort" not "Nor-tay") county's seat. Pelican bay prison, for instance, which doesn't bring up travellers' excitement usually. But for my sweetie, Crescent City is a very long and beautiful beach. We are in the midst of a heat wave, so perhaps it would even be sunny. We took off at 7 a.m. so I could make a 10:30 a.m. arraignment.

It was a beautiful drive. The roadside is forested most of the way, and by the edge of the road there were flowers blooming everywhere. Hillsides and some entire fields of purple lilacs, cinothus (Apple can't spell it either), scotch broom, rhodedendrons, California poppies, and a myriad of small nameless flowers.

The arraignment went well - if you call a client being charged with felonies "going well." It went well in that the judge called me first, a courtesy often extended to private counsel, especially those from out of town, so we got the business done fairly quickly. My friend Richard is holding down the law library there part time, and we arrived at the right part, so I had somewhere to work. Got a discovery request in for some photos and audio recordings, asked the court clerk for the search warrant and - and it was in the other building and would take some time to retrieve. I decided to eat lunch while I was waiting. My sweetie wanted sea food so we ate at the Apple Peddler which advertised and supplied fresh fish (I had a BLT), went back and retrieved the warrant and were ready for a frolic and detour when the cell phone rang. Another Crescent City client was so happy I was there he wondered if I would drop in of his civil attorney and discuss some aspects of the case. Sure. By now, however, time was a-wastin. It's always fun to visit another defense attorney, and my client's civil attorney has a general practice. Good chat, he offered to make special appearances for me in Crescent City if I need them (which will save me a 6 hour drive). Happy, I went off to the beach with Mary Alice.

This is not me or her but climate aficionados will recognise that the figure nearest us is a) in sunlight, b) not wearing a wet suit, and c) in Crescent City.



I changed clothes in the car, using a technique I have perfected over the years, and by the time I was ready for the beach, my sweetheart was finished with it. So we decided to stop at Lady Bird Johnson grove on the drive back. We got there with 30 minutes to spend, and spend it we did. Here's a picture some passing hikers took for us. I'm the one on the right.



We picked our truck up at Sandera's in Fortuna just about 4:30. Might be time to get the lawnmower back from Those Guys in Redway. I called and asked them if they would hang out a bit after 5. No problem. Meanwhile my sweetie drove off in the truck. "I'll catch her," I thought. Wrong. I got to Those Guys, paid for the mower repair, and awaited the sight of the little red truck. Those Guys gradually closed down and after awhile I was all alone. No one to help lift the mower into the truck. Not good the DR mower is heavy. She should have been just 5-10 minutes behind me and I had been here at least 30. Maybe she went shopping in Fortuna. I pulled out the computer and worked on my Saturday show. I went and got a sandwich at Damatos. A client called and wanted to see me toute suite. He came. We listened to KMUD news and the lead headline was a firey accident which had closed 101 at Shively Road - between Fortuna and Redway - so I decided she was sitting in a long line of vehicles waiting for the road to reopen. Kids kept coming by and looking at me, sitting in the car with the motor running (and the A/C) working on my computer. Finally she called me from home -she had seen the fire and taken the back roads home. She got the ramps, came to Those Guys, and in no time flat we loaded the mower and went off to the Mateel Cafe. She had the duck salad, which I poached bits of, and I had a nice glass of Syrah. Then we all drove home and all was well. Just another day in the life of a defense lawyer in Southern Humboldt.

Here's a flower I saw in Lady Bird Johnson Grove

Afternoon hearing in Eureka, then drive to Ukiah to catch some sleep for tomorrow morning's marathon of pot cases at 8:30 a.m. I had dinner with my investigator at Walters. That's not a promissing name for a good restaurant, but Walters is a good restaurant. Its on the west side of State Street just north of Low Gap Road (you know, the road to the jail).

Its got a Japanese menu, lots of sushi, and an Italian menu. I got a pork loin stuffed with Italian sausage. Yum. Really good. I had a glass of Syrah too - the bottle had been open just a bit too long I fear. Next time I'll just buy a bottle and see the cork pulled, then hope there are enough of us to drink it all. I doubt that i could get a doggie bottle to take the remainder home.

I recommend giving Walters a try.

No pix yet.