Quilt unveiling, men's breakfast

I broke from my routine work and play and did a couple of out of the ordinary things this weekend:

-Friday night I went to the annual Victim's Memorial Quilt Unveiling, sponsored by my office, and held at the Visalia Convention Center. Every year families of recent victims of violent crime are given the opportunity to remember their loved one in a special way. Each family gets a quilt square on which to put pictures, thoughts, or prayers. The quilt is then put together by a local volunteer, and the unveiling ceremony is a chance for the community to pull together and bear one another's burden. Violent crime can splinter a community, but a function like this can work to overcome that tendency and turn a tragedy into something that unites. There was a surprising amount of songs, words, and prayers during the program about God, faith, and hope. It seems even the government tends to disregard separation of church and state in times of intense loss. (Remember on 9-11 when members of Congress spontaneously sang God Bless America and, as I recall, Amazing Grace, on the steps of the Capitol?). For me, it was a great opportunity to mourn with those who mourn, something I don't often experience. I saved the lapel ribbon from the event- it says "Justice For Victims, Justice For All"- and stuck it on my door so I'm reminded why I do what I do when I leave my apartment for work each day.

-Saturday morning I attended another annual event, the Iron Men's Breakfast sponsored by a local church. The speaker was an ex-con who cheated lots of people out of lots of money and did prison time before Christ transformed his life. His testimony was inspiring, and it was encouraging to be part of such a large group of like minded men (over 500 in attendance). Assistant DA Bill Yoshimoto did a great job recruiting prosecutors from our office, and we ended up with like 30 DA's there.

On another note, my friend Matthew uploaded some additional pictures from last weekend's climb of Mt. Silliman on his blog. Interestingly, his blog has more pictures of me, and mine has more including him. We should probably just swap cameras before the next trip =). Anyway, if you want to see a few more, including some spectacular sunset shots, check out his blog at http://thatlooksspicy.blogspot.com/ or additional pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/SMRVultures/MountSilliman2008 .

Mt. Silliman

Last weekend I joined two friends from SMR for an overnight trek up Mt. Silliman, in the national park. We were blessed with fantastic weather- the Valley was hit with the season's first heat wave (95 degrees!), but temps at 11 thousand feet were very mild. It dropped below freezing overnight, but was probably around 60 during the day.

I love playing, hiking, and camping in the snow!

Breakfast was instant oatmeal and cream of wheat. About 6:30 Sunday morning.

The ultraviolet exposure and solar radiation at altitude is reflected (and seemingly magnified) by the snow. I hydrate like crazy, wear a full brimmed hat, sunglasses, and sun-block, and still get chapped lips and burn. And the funny thing is you can burn in odd places, like the undersides of your arms, chin, and nose, from the reflection off the snow.

Mathew in the foreground, Tony following. Knowing how to self-arrest allows you to stop yourself in the event of a fall so the rocks at the bottom of the slope don't =).

Another handy bit of knowledge: approaching an edge like this, you want to be fairly certain that the snow is not actually a cornice- jutting out with nothing supporting it underneath. I've come a long way since my extreme fear of heights as a kid, but I still get queasy around 1000' verticals like this.
I don't know why I keep doing the arm-raise thing. It's like a universal summit pose or something...

We dug a pretty cool snow cave. I'm not sure how deep the snow was where we camped just over 10,000 feet, because we never actually hit bottom.

Gretel- the proper introduction

While I'm normally fairly well grounded in reality, I happen to be a firm believer in the myriad of benefits attributable to naming your cars based on their personality. Now that I think about it, there really aren't a myriad of benefits. No tangible benefit at all actually- it's just fun. My Subaru was Fiona, as in the princess from the movie Shrek. The Escort station wagon didn't really deserve a name. It was always just an in-between car. I've been tossing around a few different possibilities for the new VW. I even went so far as to do a Google search which turned up the Top 25 German Baby Names for girls.

The finalists were Freda, Gretchen, and Gretel. I got some input from friends last night and the winner is Gretel. I'm surprised at the number of reasons justifying this choice that came to light with just a little thought:

The car's a GTI. This incorporates several of the letters of the name Gretel. The name conjures up images of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. I find that charming. My last car's name was also from a fairy tale, so I sort of have a theme going here. Plus, my memory of Gretel (in the story) is that of a an energetic and spunky youth with a thirst for adventure/exploring, and who has a penchant for getting into trouble. Same with my car.

Plus, Hansel is the dude in the story, and I'm the dude in the car. And Hansel sounds kind of like Handsome Eddie, which is an old nickname of mine. So it's quite obvious, I'm sure you'll agree, that the name is exceptionally fitting! =)

GTI, Park Boundary run, kiddie court

I bought a new car! Well, new for me anyway. It's an '05 GTI VR6. My fondness for Veedubs stems from childhood memories of road trips with 6 people and 2 dogs in a VW Rabbitt, watching/helping Dad replace the glow plugs or do other engine work, being able to hear the distinctive diesel rumble coming home from half a mile away, riding shotgun and being allowed to shift and steer on country roads while Mom worked only the pedals. We owned a number of Volkswagons growing up, and they were all good cars- practical, fun to drive, and economical to purchase, fuel, and maintain.

My new car falls only partially within that description: fun to drive? Oh yeah =). We're talking six speed manual, just over 200 ponies, and no turbo lag in a compact hatchback. Economical to purchase, fuel, and maintain? Not so much. Granted I got it for significantly less than blue book value. But it was still more than I've ever spent on anything, and it only took one trip to the VW service center to learn that with these new cars you can hardly do anything on them yourself, and the people who do work on them are anything but cheap. Everything's a trade off, I guess. I like the car, and the way I see it- a lawyer with no girlfriend oughta be able to afford a "poor man's BMW," right?

I added a Thule rack system with kayak haulers over the weekend.

Now I'll be able to throw 2 or 3 or 4 boats on the roof.

sorry about the blur. That's what happens with no-flash and no tripod. If you can't see it, the speedo goes all the way up to 160. I'm sensing a trip back to Death Valley to see how close to that the car can actually get. A few other luxurious features I'm still getting used to are heated seats and mirrors, speed sensitive volume on the stereo system, and leather. Love the leather!

Enough about the car. Whitewater still consumes as much time as I can manage to spare from work. Saturday I hit the Park Boundary run on the Kaweah river. Which means that I've now paddled all of the Kaweah from inside Sequoia National Park all the way to the terminus reservoir. I'm in the market for a second boat- one with more volume and stability as I progress to more challenging water. Plus with a second set of gear I'll be able to take out friends and family who have an interest in the sport.

This particular run has 15 rapids in half a mile. Boredom not likely!

"The Chute." Gateway run, Kaweah River. Right side up and looking good!

Not so good =). My stern is up out of the water in this picture because I'm bouncing off a rock with my head. Thank God for helmets!

Kayaking buddies Evan and Gene on Brush Creek. When I tried the same thing I somehow managed to fall into the crack we were portaging. Other than a bruised elbow, I was unhurt (much to the amazement of Evan and Gene).

Work is intense but rewarding. I won my second jury trial recently. Getting guilty verdicts on all counts was probably more satisfying because I lost my first trial. (No blog post about that because I was seriously bummed out for about a month =). I have one more week in my current assignment, and then I'm getting transferred to our Juvenile Division, which should prove interesting. Kiddie Court is serious biz- I'll be getting my first exposure to felonies of all types and degrees. Local gangs doing drive-by's often give the gun to a 16 or 17 yr old because they know the consequences if caught will be less severe for a juvie. Probably the biggest difference between juvenile and adult criminal law is that juvie proceedings are all confidential. No juries, no trials, no convictions- only "jurisdictional hearings" and "adjudications." California believes strongly in rehabilitating young offenders and giving them every chance to improve/succeed.

This pic pretty much sums up what I've been doing primarily the last few months.

In other news:
-Over four weekends in March I completed an 80 hour search and rescue academy put on by the sheriff's office. It's required in order to respond to out-of-county call outs. (With my current work schedule that's not likely to happen, but it was still good instruction and useful for local SAR ops too.)

-I've made some new friends at a new weekly Bible study.

-I'm still rejoicing with my brother in his miraculous answer to prayer. If you haven't heard the story, check it out on his blog at http://printscharmingphotography.com/blog/.

-I ran into a former client at the supermarket tonight. His case is still ongoing, and he wasn't happy when I told him I switched jobs.

-I haven't played Ultimate in a while and that makes me sad.

-I'm going to Oklahoma next month to visit family, and that makes me very happy.

-My 6 month LASIK checkup is coming up. I don't think I blogged about that. Long story short- I had the procedure done in October, my vision is much improved, and I love not having to wear contacts or glasses anymore.

All the stuff I can forget about, at least until I hit 40 and need reading glasses.

Shortly after the procedure. And in case you're wondering. No, it doesn't really hurt, but you are conscious, and they do use metal tools to pry your eyelids open way past normal, and they do stick powerful suction cups on your eyeballs...

-The springtime weather has been beautiful lately. Honestly, I haven't touched my thermostat in months.

On the drive to the Kaweah, the town of Three Rivers, and Sequoia National Park

A common springtime view in agricultural Tulare County.