The last few hours in BookThree: Flight Log 2016

The party on Thursday was okay. Glad Wife couldn’t go as it would not have been fun for her. The Lawyer Guests were… me (age 32), Ren (age 35), Ran (age 50), Magistrate (age 65), Boss (age 68), Boss’ Brother (age 70), Magistrate’s Brother (age 72), Old ACA (age 74) and Old Magistrate (age 78). And a few spouses were in attendance. So… yeah… average age of the evening by median is 60 years old.

The party had three very specific, very interesting “time frames.” Part I: Hometown Pride… discussing how life in a small town is the best thing ever. Of course, now that most are retired or semi-retired, they were discussing where to go to get a good “Hometown Feeling” in Arizona. Because they all want to move to Arizona. Part II: But How We Really Feel… discussing how Des Moines is the jewel of Iowa. They would never want to drive in it, or live in it, because it is too noisy and too messy; but Des Moines has some of the best things to do in the state. Part III: But What I Really Think… this is when things started getting pretty religious and pretty racist. The discussion turned to politics and how “anyone who sides with the gays needs to find jesus!” but simultaneously saying, “There’s no such thing as inherent bias!”

So the evening started with “Love Your Community” with a hint of “Retire Where It is Warm!” moving to “Des Moines is amazing!” and ending with “Fuck people who are different!” In other words… the evening somewhat mirrored feelings of this place I’ve had. The realization that… small town may have its charm. Then floating into GOD I miss living somewhere that had people and buildings. Then becoming Holy crap the people around here are just… genuinely unwelcoming people who hate anyone that is different.

Then I went home and beat Wife home from work by just a little. But what she had to say when she came in dropped my jaw to the floor! Our temperature announcements. Friday and Saturday, high chance of snow. Saturday Night: Deadly Cold Emergency Warnings. How bad? Air temperature low of -21 F… that is -29 C! But with the wind chill factored in? How is it actually going to feel? -41 F… which is -40 C. According to the news, that kind of temperature requires the warning (and I quote) “15 minutes of exposure will instantly cause Frost Bite.” So… yeah.

Moving us up to today… where it has specifically warmed up a bit just so the Forecast can say “Expected heavy snow storms in the evening.” A bit worried about my wife’s 45 minute commute there. Speaking of worrying about spouses… Cecilia was back in the office today. She is not okay. Like… visibly fighting off crying. They think her husband’s cancer has returned and they believe it is to such a severe extent that he is going to die “in the near future” from it. That sucks. My heart seriously goes out to her. This… stupid fucking year.

But there wasn’t a lot of time to focus on that as Ran came by to check out the office space. We again managed to surprise him with the lack of resources here. Which makes me feel better. As someone who came from West Des Moines and Omaha, I was like “Damn, these people ain’t got shit.” But, I checked myself and thought… Okay, maybe this is a small town thing. But Ran, who lives in a small town now and has even done cases in this county before, was surprised by our ridiculous lack of resources. So… yeah. The County really is that shitty. As evidenced by a conversation being had when Ran asked “How often do you get budget print outs?” The answer: “We don’t. I’ve requested print outs before and the Auditor never sends them. One month, I just demanded a print out and wouldn’t leave until they gave it to me. THEN it all made sense. They’d been “shifting” budget items around to take budgets from some departments and give them to other departments.” WHAT?! This fucking county! Then as I was talking to Ran, he told me that he had a conversation with the HR Rep for the county. The HR Rep acted like it had never even occurred to him to think about Dental or Vision or 401K/Retirement options before. So… the guy telling the Board what kind of benefits should be offered… doesn’t even remember to consider dental… or vision… or that SOME people who work for the county are pre-retirement?! THIS. FUCKING. COUNTY!

That being said though… this county hasn’t had a competent government employee in a few years! (And I include myself in that). Ran may actually be able to come in and fix some things. So… Wife willing (and provided a Des Moines firm doesn’t snatch me up)… I am willing to give Ran 6 months. I know Wife wants to get back to Des Moines ASAP… and in many ways, so would I. But giving up a sufficient income simply because we hate everything about where we live… I’m not that kind of guy. I don’t do well when unemployed.

REST OF THE DAY PLAN:
(1) Phone a Sheriff’s Deputy to request his presence in a court case next week. Beg him to contact the victim as he did not supply me information. Beg him to submit his (damn) police report so I can have the first clue as to what this case is even about!

(2) Paper Chase! Trying to run down some documents that need to be altered. A process that would be made far more simple if we could do it electronically. WHICH Ran is willing to put into effect when he comes here. Because… for Aries’ Sake! This office needs to be “Y2K” compliant as far as… in the year 2000… computers were being used by attorneys! I shouldn’t have to invent Liquid Paper to Electronic Scanner to CPU Storage life hacks just to do one damned thing.

(3) Liquid Paper to Electronic Scanner to CPU Storage life hack; because the file was submitted with the wrong County Name on it but it is my job to fix it.

(4) Plea deal in a case managed to deal with 3 charges but forgot to deal with a 4. Shit. Must fix.

(5) Trial Information/Minutes of Testimony (which should be quick)

(6) Judgment Plea Entry (which also should be quick)

And that should be my day. We’ll see what hiccups, emergencies, and break downs interfere in the meanwhile!