Sweet Vindication

Back on Jan. 14 I wrote about a day in court at the Kansas Court of Appeals. After you have your day in court, you wait. And wait. And then finally a decision is announced. Today was a good day for the good guys. The opinion is posted here. If anybody’s curious about what I do for a living, that’ll show you a little about it. The opinion hasn’t arrived in the mail yet, but I’ve been watching the Appellate Courts website. The other side will, no doubt, file a motion for reconsideration, and then a motion for rehearing in the Supreme Court, but it won’t change anything. This was actually a pretty significant case. It doesn’t set any new precedent or anything, but it reaffirms and clarifies some basic principles about real estate titles. In view of the decision that was made by the district judge, these principles were apparently in need of some reaffirming.

Webmasters and Poets

As some people may recall, one of my website projects was Hanrott & Horsley, who are authors in Washington, D.C. Martha Horsley is one of Jeffrey’s piano students. They’ve published a book entitled “Telling Tales”, and a children’s audio CD entitled “Foxtails”. One of the sections of their site is devoted to “Light Verse”, and they invite submissions by visitors. So, I submitted my epic masterpiece, Two O’Clock in the Morning, and now I’m a published poet. Woo-hoo!

As long as I’m pointing out my website projects, Hanrott & Horsley was followed by Douglas County Bar Association. This website features a forum, using phpBB software. Unfortunately, the members of the DCBA rarely visit their website, much less post anything on the forum.

The latest project is the Steve and Kathie Wedding Website, still a work in progress but coming along. It features a style switcher that lets visitors change the “look” of the website with a single click.

Them’s the Brakes

So that grinding noise came back last week and stayed and I knew I was going to have to replace the brake pads on the rear wheels, after all. But I was finding it impossible to get psyched up to do it. Stopped at my ol’ buddy Jimmy Vantuyl’s used car lot on the way to the office this morning to see if he knew anybody who did brakes and, sure enough, he did. After work we drove to his buddy Andy’s shop. Soon as Andy raised the whole car off the floor with the hydraulic lift I knew I’d made the right decision. Andy had the rear pads out in about ten minutes and, amazingly, they were in fine shape. I wanted to go ahead and put in the new pads, since I already had them. Well, it turned out I’ve been carrying the wrong pads around for four years. So, Jimmy and I took the “new” four year old wrong pads to the parts store across the street, where another of his buddies works. He was willing to exchange them for a correct set, even though I didn’t have a receipt, and even gave me $10 back, since the right pads were cheaper. Amazing. Back to the shop and, after putting the rear wheels back together, Andy decided to pull off a front wheel, even though I was sure they were good, having replaced the pads just four years ago. Well, not so, as he found them worn down to metal. Apparently, the grinding noise was communicating along the frame and sounded like it was in the back when it was really the front. As we’re standing there shaking our heads and realizing I’m going to have go back to the parts store, we noticed the pads looked very similar to the wrong ones we just exchanged for the rear wheels. Back to the parts store and, sure enough, they were the wrong pads for the back but the right pads for the front. The guy sold them back to us for $20, since they were four years old and it’d save him having to re-label and re-stock them. So I ended up with new pads all around, plus Andy “turned” the rotors to true them up and take off the shine. For old times’ sake, or maybe cuz he still owes me some legal fees, Jimmy put everything on his tab, no doubt heavily discounted by his pal Andy; but I still gave Andy a $20 tip. It was great to meet somebody who was not only competent but willing to actually do a good job. And, yes, the grinding noise is gone.