Monthly Archives: March 2013

DAY 22 – ST. PATRICK’S DAY 2003

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March 31, 2013

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St. Patrick’s Day 2003

They say that if you don’t like the weather in Colorado, just wait an hour and it will change. How could anyone not like our weather?

From 1993 until 2005, our family lived in the mountains Northwest of Idaho Springs. On Sunday evening, March 16, 2003, we watched the TV weather report. Dave Fraser, the weatherman on Channel 2, said a storm was approaching and the mountains could expect 3-4 feet of snow, with more in some areas. I scoffed at the forecast and remarked that the sensationalism of television journalism had even affected the weatherman. Before we went to bed that night, I checked outside and found it cloudy, but there was no precipitation. Nevertheless, we moved one of our cars to the top of the driveway in case our road became blocked.

When we awoke there was more than a foot of snow on our deck and it was still falling. Continue reading →

DAY 21 – A SPECIAL KIND OF LUCK

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March 30, 2013

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A Special Kind of Luck

“March Madness” usually returns to normalcy long before the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is finished. During the first few days of the tournament, productivity declines in offices across the country as employees fill in their brackets and follow the opening games on the internet. It does not take long, though, for an upset or two to “bust” most of the brackets, damping the interest in the remaining games and bringing the business world back toward normalcy.

The odds against predicting even the majority of the games correctly are daunting. Still, I always feel a twinge of regret when the team I chose to win it all is eliminated in the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight round. Although I do not follow college basketball, it seems that I should nevertheless be lucky. Simply because I am “special” (everyone thinks he or she is “special”), the Universe should conspire to have the games played according to my predictions.

So far, the Universe has not cooperated. After the twinge of regret passes, I lose interest in the tournament – and I remember that there have been lucky times throughout my life. Continue reading →

DAY 20 – MEETINGS

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March 29, 2013

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Meetings

How much of a person’s life is wasted at meetings?

Many meetings are productive and result in ideas or resolutions to problems coming from a collective mind that is more creative and knowledgeable than could be expected of any one of its participants.  Other meetings consist of excessive discussion to reach what was a foregone conclusion.  Sometimes you can tell in advance how productive a meeting is going to be; often you can’t.

It would be depressing to actually try to figure how much of my life has been spent in meetings – which would be the first step toward answering the question of how much time was wasted.  Let me simply say that I accept meetings as an inevitable part of life.

I won’t discuss meetings that have been required of me at work.  However, even my free time, after work or before work, is filled with meetings, and I will mention a very few of those.

For several years, I was a member of the board of directors of KBDI-TV, Channel 12, a public television station in the Denver area.  There were some great people on that board with me, and much of what we did during our meetings was productive.  If they were only a bit shorter and less frequent . . . . . Continue reading →

DAY 19 – PRESCHOOL CONFERENCES

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March 28, 2013

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Preschool Conferences

When Suzanne was three years old and had only recently begun preschool, Cathy and I attended a parent-teacher conference at which the teacher told us what a wonderful child Suzanne was and how quickly she learned things.  The teacher showed us a paper in Suzanne’s folder which contained answers she had given to questions asked by the teacher.  The teacher had transcribed the answers, of course, because Suzanne had not learned to write.

She was asked what her parents did and on the paper was written, “Mommy does dishes and Daddy plays bells.”  The teacher looked at me as if I might want to explain that. Continue reading →

DAY 18 – LEONARD COHEN

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March 27, 2013

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 Leonard Cohen

I first heard the music of Leonard Cohen on Judy Collins’ incredible album In My Life, which was released in 1967.  She sang wonderful versions of “Dress Rehearsal Rag” and especially “Suzanne.”  I did not know at the time that Cohen was an award winning Canadian poet and novelist, though  I recognized that his songs showed a maturity and perspective that was missing from the popular music of the time.  When his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, came out the following year, I bought a copy and played it over and over, memorizing the words and sharing it with all my friends.

Cohen’s second album, Songs from a Room, was released in the Fall of 1969.  Continue reading →

DAY 17 – RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH GIANTS

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March 26, 2013

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Rubbing Shoulders with Giants

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” is a quotation usually attributed to Isaac Newton.  Newton did write something like that in a letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, but the phrase and the concept were very old and well known, even by the 17th Century.  Similar language is found, for instance, in a 12th Century manuscript by a philosopher known as John of Salisbury, and he attributed the saying to an even earlier time.

It is fitting that Newton should have borrowed the phrase for he was stating that the advances he made in the scientific world were possible only because he could build on the many hundreds of years of thoughts and writings of great men who had preceded him.  That is true for all of us, though our accomplishments may not be as illustrious as Newton’s.

The recognition that Newton was “standing on the shoulders of giants” does not imply that he was merely a dwarf seeing the world from a good vantage point.  Isaac Newton was certainly one of the towering giants of human intellect, and most of the scientific advances of the past 300 years have been made by someone “standing on his shoulders.”

Giant and creative intellects remain among us today, and I feel privileged to have known some of them.  Continue reading →

DAY 16 – COFFEE

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March 25, 2013

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Coffee

There are folks who say they can’t sleep when they drink coffee.  I am just the opposite – I can’t drink coffee when I sleep.

Actually, I don’t drink coffee any time.  My wife thinks that is very strange and suggested that I write this to explain my idiosyncrasy.  The question, then, is why don’t I like coffee. Continue reading →

DAY 15 – THE POETRY MAN

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March 24, 2013

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The Poetry Man

This is the beginning of my third week of writing something about my life each day.  I am remembering just how difficult is the work of turning thoughts into words.  Writing is an art and a craft.  It takes practice to build the skills necessary to say anything in such a way that a reader may garner useful information or some meaningful insight.  For several years, from my late teens until my early 30s, I tried to develop those skills.  I would usually have a notebook or a legal pad handy so I could write down thoughts, observations or interesting phrases as they came to me.  I was convinced that poetry is the most precise use of language, and would have aspired to become a poet if I had thought I could support myself that way. Continue reading →

DAY 14 – COMMUNICATION 101

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March 23, 2013

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Communication 101

“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
–Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The practice of law is to a great extent the practice of communications.  It may be oral, such as questioning a witness, making legal arguments to a judge, discussing the law with a client or negotiating a resolution to a dispute.  It may be written, such as writing a contract, drafting a pleading, preparing a brief or filling in the blank spaces in a deed.  To some extent, communications skills are tempered through law school training and honed in an attorney’s daily practice.  They are formed much earlier in life, though.  It seems almost miraculous that some of us – including me –are able to communicate at all. Continue reading →

DAY 13 – A TALE OF THREE CITIES

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March 22, 2013

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A Tale of Three Cities

My first job out of law school was as an associate attorney in the office of Carroll, Bradley & Ciancio, P.C.  Counting me, there were four lawyers in the firm – the three partners and one lowly associate.  John Carroll was very active in politics and municipal law and he (and the firm) was the attorney for the City of Northglenn, Colorado.  My first really important assignment was to assist John in litigation to determine who owned the water system serving the citizens of Northglenn.

The water system had been installed in the mid-1950s as subdivisions were developed in what was then an unincorporated area of Adams County.  The City of Thornton acquired ownership of the system and used it to supply water to its residents as well as to homes and businesses in the still unincorporated areas.  The City of Northglenn incorporated in 1969 and soon claimed the system to the extent that it served residents and businesses within its boundaries.  The two cities were unable to negotiate a solution, so litigation was begun.  Continue reading →