Adventures in Good Sunburning (with G. Spinach)

G. Spinach got himself some color this weekend...

On Saturday, the local Kiwanians worked to paint an apartment for a new subsidized housing project being created not too far away. I regret not having taken before-and-after shots of the rooms I slathered with a color called "Biscuit."

On Sunday, I went to the local arts fair and picked up some goody-gifts for wedding helpers (they just haven't been asked yet), and then walked over to see the gran finale of the 2006 Tour de Georgia.

Congrats to Floyd Landis, who took the Tour gold despite a late-race flat tire, and all the volunteers who turned out to see a great race (my boss among them, truth be told).

All of which left me with a bright red visage with which to start the work week. Goodbye Spinach--hello Aloe Vera....(okay, I've been waiting a while to use that line.

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Quick war tale:

I get a call today from a general practitioner who's referred us some stuff in the past, and he starts in on how I'd done such a great job on the project and this and that, and then pops me with a question straight out of a T&E practice exam:

Suppose a client dies after having signed and sealed a settlement agreement agreeing to a divorce, but without having gotten a decree from the judge approving it...is the divorce contract enforceable by the estate against the not-quite-ex-wife? Does the not-quite-ex-wife count as an heir-at-law? Turns out that the guy had no kids, no living parents, no siblings, and no aunts or uncles or cousins. What then, ki-mo-sa-be?

My hunch is that Judi Dench's line from "Shakespeare In Love" applies: The bonds of marriage are such that no mere queen can put them asunder, and without the Judge's ink on a divorce decree, the "matrimonii vincula" still apply. So now you've got a nearly-divorced wife with a windfall...unless the guy has a Will that cuts her out, right? because she's the sole heir-at-law...and so she gets the house, the Jeep, AND the bass boat. Man, it sucks to be the dead guy in that one.

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Faithful readers may have noticed a moderate drought of political rhetoric here.

Not due to a lack of interest, but perhaps a lack of enthusiasm for any particular issue. I'm weary of throwing tirades against the foolishness I see in Washington these days, and frustrated with the lack of cohesiveness among Democrats to present a party platform...so if Jodie Foster is right in "Contact" that "The World is what you Make of It." here is G. Spinach's first draft of a new 'contract with America.'

1) Our environment is the only one we've got. We've got to prevent exploitation of natural resources to satisfy self-perpetuated demands for energy.

2) Demand resources for education that matters...not just the reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the curricula that develop passions and cravings to learn...science fairs, and art shows, and musical performances.

3) Reinvigorate the Bill of Rights. All Ten Amendments, and not just the Second. Freedom of press, assembly, and religion would be good places to start. From there, let's talk about protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. BTW, why have we stopped screaming about unauthorized domestic wiretapping?

[to be continued]