A Few Pictures, Some Thoughts, and A Ramble or Two

Early fall temperatures and relatively calm seas bring tuna within 30 miles of our coastline. Fishermen will go out for a week or two and fill up their boats with tuna. Tons of tuna equal great prices for us. We bought fresh albacore tuna for about $2 per pound straight from the dude who reeled it in. We grilled a couple pounds of it after soaking it in a secret soy/teriyaki sauce of my own creation, wrapping it in bacon, and skewering the tuna and pineapple chunks together. 

A couple of weeks ago, Justine and I made the drive down the coast to the little village of Mendocino. The first half of the drive weaves through the redwoods and the second half of the drive is along the coast. The drive is pretty amazing. Vistas like this are pretty much the norm. We're getting spoiled with all of the scenery around here.

Last week we made the drive up to Eugene to catch an Xavier Rudd show. We stayed at a little hostel and enjoyed some great food and beer. Eugene is a great mid-size town. It's the home of University of Oregon and the Eugene City Brewery. The town is clean and people were on bikes everywhere. The show was spectacular, we were front and center. Xavier Rudd was rocking out a couple of feet in front of us. 

Here's a random picture from the Humboldt County Fair. Justine talked me into riding some crazy Ferris wheel type ride that spun you around and upside down. I almost lost my corn dog.

Thoughts and Rambles

I was forced to spend the past few mornings at the courthouse performing my civic duty of serving on a jury. I would guess that I'm allowed to talk about it now, since I am no longer on the jury or rather I never even made it into the jury box. The past three mornings (almost 12 hours total) I sat in a courtroom along with 60 other citizens and watched a jury get chosen for a DUI case. It was interesting to see the system working, but disheartening to see how dysfunctional/wasteful the system is. It took 3 mornings to pick a jury for something as minor as a DUI case, I'm pretty sure the whole process shouldn't have taken longer than one morning and needed to include maybe 30 people at maximum. It seems like courtrooms and DMV offices attract a similar ilk of people, meaning scruffy weirdos come out of the woodworks. The first morning I got there 20 minutes early, wearing my Sunday best. Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb and calling myself out as a rookie jurist. During the first break I snuck across the street at picked up a couple surfing magazines to keep myself occupied for the remainder of the mornings.

I never made it into the jury box and I'm pretty sure that the District Attorney would have used a 'peremptory challenge' on me. I don't think a bartender is the type of juror a prosecutor would want in the box on a DUI case. Especially a bartender who thinks that our Fourth Amendment rights are being eroded away at an alarmingly high rate. I get the feeling that the defendant was taking the case to trial because she was contesting the results of the Blood Alcohol Level analysis tests. The defense kept asking prospective jurors about their opinions/experiences with computer testing equipment. I gather from the questions that the lady took several different blood alcohol tests and they all came back with different responses. A quick Google search of 'BAC testing' will spit out tons of websites dedicated to espousing the problems with most BAC tests. I don't want to get conspiratorial about the whole issue because people do die in drunk driving accidents, but it does seem like certain people profit from stricter enforcement and whatnot. In the NY Times a few days ago there was an article about how the law enforcement union (31,000 members in CA alone) was trying to recall Arnold the 'Governator'. A quick Google search of them will also yield reams of information about how they are trying to increase the penalties for all kinds of crimes...I mean doesn't that seem a little fishy, the people that profit from the prison system are lobbying for harsher penalties for all kinds of crimes, most of them victimless. But I digress...

Have you guys been following Presidential Election? Silly question...If the GOP wants my vote, they are going to have to tell Sarah Palin to come up with some new material. I mean, I get it-You got rid of the governor's chef and your kids were pissed, you gave yourself a pay-cut and your husband was pissed, and you sold the jet on EBAY (it really sold at a private auction for a loss). She just doesn't seem like someone I would want representing our country. I mean look where electing a good ol' boy got us...Do we really want a good ol' girl stepping in the office next?

Purdue lost this weekend. Two overtimes and they still couldn't get things done. It's ironic because a week prior to the game I was up in Eugene and I was thinking that the University of Oregon looked like a pretty nice college. If I would have known they were going to pay back my kindness and tourist dollars with such an insult, I would have littered more and maybe left a steaming dump on the steps of their stadium.

That's all for now. Keep on keeping on.