As penance for having taken so long to post anything recently, I’ve put up a full family update, with photos, spell-checking, and all those newfangled features the kids these days like so much. Read about it here: Summer Comes Round Again.

Lately I’ve not been posting too many entries here. Part of the reason for that is that I’ve been pouring a lot of time and effort into starting a new software and consulting company called Saguaro Studios. Today is a bit of a coming-out party for the company, as I’ve just sent out the press release announcing Oratorio, a package designed to make projecting lyrics for church music quick and easy. We’ve been using it at Three Rivers Church for a couple of months now, during which time I’ve been adding to and refining it weekly.

Though it’s sucking up a lot of extra time right now, the idea eventually is to be able to use the business to balance the demands of home life and income generation a bit more easily and to provide the flexibility that a regular 9 to 5 job lacks. However, that’s for the long term, and for now it’s exciting just to have the first product out in the public eye.

I spent this past Monday through Wednesday serving on a jury at the Hays
County Justice Center here in town. Though most people are usually eager
to avoid jury duty, I had never been on a jury before, and was
interested to see how the whole process works and how it differs from
courtroom television. It turns out that a real trial is to CourtTV as
CSPAN is to Schoolhouse Rock — much more drawn out and less actively
entertaining, but with a rigor one hopes for when deciding matters of
some import.

The case was a civil one, which means that no-one is being tried for
breaking the law, but instead the plaintiff is seeking damages from the
defendant. The people being sued in this case were a family who’s young
boy was riding an ATV on their property in the country and had a
collision with a passing motorist. The boy was miraculously unhurt,
aside from a few scratches, even though he was flipped off the ATV which
spun away into some nearby trees. The woman driving the car didn’t end up
going to the hospital, but was seeking reimbursement for her subsequent
and future medical care, plus twice that sum for pain and suffering.

The decision ended up being a surprisingly difficult one for us. Though
the plaintiff’s previous medical history seemed to indicate that much of
what she’d been treated for was due to previous accidents, I felt
strongly that this incident was pretty much the little boy’s fault, since
it was evident that he’d been in the habit of riding into the street to
turn around, which is illegal to do on an ATV. Several of the other
jurors, however, felt that the driver of the car was at fault, since she
had been in a spate of other accidents, and admitted to being a bit over
the center of the unmarked caliche roadway when the collision occurred.

Though we only had 3 questions to answer, we deliberated from 3:30pm
until a bit after 9:00pm. I got to be the jury foreman, which mostly
meant that I got to ask people not to interrupt each other as we
discussed the issues in question. We were all more than ready to go home
by the time we reached a decision, which was that liability for the
accident was to be shared among the boy, his father (who had evidently
not tried to keep his son off the street), and the driver of the car. We
awarded the plaintiff a sum equal to a month of her medical care, since
that seemed consistent with the severity of the injuries she had
suffered as a result of the accident. Several of the jurors were
reluctant to do even that, since her care had been principally
chiropractic, with only an X-Ray to diagnose a claimed injury to her
soft tissues (which wouldn’t show up on an X-Ray).

Though I’m not anxious to repeat the experience again soon, it was
intriguing to get that kind of a glimpse into the workings of the
judicial system. It’s remarkable to see the sheer number of resources
that are mobilized to deal with these disputes, and by extension, what a
high value our form of government places on seeing justice done. At the
risk of sounding trite, it makes me a bit prouder to be an American.

I was drafted last week to provide an update for the public Ultima Online website on the progress our team has been making. If you’re really hard up for reading material, you can see it here. Whee! I’m published! I think next time I’ll try to do it as a sonnet.

We celebrated Emily’s 9th birthday this past weekend in an atypically low-key manner. We were all still pretty well worn out from Kathy’s folks’ visit, the work on the garage, and the marathon sightseeing escapades. (“Behold, the Alamo!”) A few of Emily’s friends and family assembled on Sunday after church for a good long swim, chicken fajitas, and general relaxed fun-having.

Kathy found Emily a bike at a garage sale, which she and Abby heavily customized with colored spoke covers and nail polish to patch the nicks in the paint. It was one of those things that, looking at it, I knew Emily would either be crazy about or completely abhor. Fortunately, she very much liked her unique bike, and has been having a good deal of fun with it.

I’ve been avidly following Tad Williams’ Otherland saga since its start, and enjoying it immensely. Today I found the last volume of the series at Barnes & Noble, quickly grabbed it and made for the checkout as fast as I could. I’m looking forward to finally seeing many of the mysteries and questions that have been set up in this series resolved. But with a 1,000 page book to which I’ve been looking forward for quite a while now under my arm, don’t expect to hear much out of me for a week or two!

Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its varied spinoffs, the Dirk Gently novels, and a fair bit of other good stuff died on Friday at age 49 of a heart attack. Tributes are here.

Kathy’s folks and Martha left for home this morning after a week-long, too-short stay at our home. They had driven down from Grand Island, New York, a neat community that sits on an island 26 miles in circumference (which Kathy has circumnavigated on a Jet Ski). Their house looks out over the Niagara river, upstream a few miles from the falls. They were surprised at how hot it was down here already, though I’m sure part of that was due to the fact that Kathy’s dad, an electrical contractor and handyman extraordinaire, spend the majority of his time down here helping to finish out our garage, which we’re turning into a guest room and mother-in-law suite. It looks fantastic, so I’d definitely recommend Russell Kuusisto and American Electric if you need any electrical work done in or around Buffalo, New York.

The highlights of the trip included a trip to Lookout Mountain, where we enjoyed Joe Day’s eco-tour of their plot of the hill country and Barbara’s delicious cuisine in the company of hummingbirds, goldfinches, and white-tailed deer. We also went down to the Riverwalk for dinner one night, dining at a nice Italian place just across the river from Jim Collum’s Landing, a great Jazz club in the bottom of the Hyatt from which occasional blue note escaped to float across to us. When our waitress brought us our meal, she had to set the serving tray into the flow of pedestrian traffic momentarily. A blonde haired college student who looked like he might have had a few too many ambled up to the serving tray and was completely stymied, coming to a halt with his cigarette hanging over our meal. After he stood there for 10 seconds, showing no intention of moving, Kathy got up, grabbed our plates, and said “Would you mind not smoking over our food?” Continuing to display remarkable mental agility, our friend said “I didn’t know it was your food!” before shuffling off down the river.

Though Texas autumns don’t compare with those of New England, its springs are nonpareil. Lady Bird Johnson spearheaded a massive sowing of wildflower seeds along the state highways, the fruits of which we still enjoy. Earlier in the season there are a spectacular few days when the Bradford Pears have blossomed when you’re startled by snowy white trees around every corner. And for about 3 weeks, I was frequently surprised while walking outside by a blast Mountain Laurel scent.

As the weather warms, many of the early bloomers are fading. One notable exception is the prickly pear cacti, which have been sprouting new spring green lobes for the last month or two, and which are now busting into extravagant bloom. I took this shot about 3 blocks from our house, in the middle of a whole field of these magnificent plants. There were several different colors of blossom, ranging from orange to pink to yellow, but this shot showed off the blooms the best.

Last Thursday, I plotted a surprise date for Kathy and I. The destination was a place I knew only from its website: Lookout Mountain, just outside of Wimberley. As we followed the map out into the hill country, we were a bit surprised at just how isolated the site was. We passed ranches, crossed cattle guards, and traversed many an unnamed country road, eventually climbing the hill to what looked, not like a restauranct, but like someone’s home.

Which, as it turns out, is just what it was. Joe and Barbara Day, who greeted us warmly at the door, have been opening their home three or four times a week since April 1998 to serve up their unique combination of good cooking, prize-winning pies, Texan hospitality, and a wealth of knowledge of their beloved hill country and its flora and fauna. Joe has done a tremendous amount of work on their property to bring it back to as natural a condition as possible, efforts that are evidently much appreciated by the veritable menagerie that keeps the Days company on their homestead.

As we stood on the back porch before dinner, we watched the group of 8 white tailed deer just down the hill eating the corn the days had provided while Joe told us about his “Texas Guppies” (Japanese Koi), the oldest of which had been with them for 19 years. There were a tremendous number of birds come to feed at their seed, thistle, and hummingbird feeders, as well, and I was able to get some very useful information on how to best attract the wee flyers. (I have fond memories of my growing-up years when Mom McMains kept a hummingbird feeder above the hammock. I had few better times than adjourning out back with a good book to enjoy the pleasure of fine writing punctuated by the buzzing hum of the feeding avians.)

We then adjourned to the Day’s glassed in porch to enjoy a dinner that showed off Barbara’s talents as a cook to good advantage. Kathy enjoyed a filet mignon stronganoff, and I a tuna salad baguette sandwich made with tuna steak rather than the usual canned tuna. Both were excellent, but paled in comparison to Barbara’s Peachy King Upside Down Cobbler, a chemically addictive combination of peaches, toasted almonds, carmelized brown sugar, and vanilla ice cream. Zowie.

And did I mention the view? The hilltop home boasts a phenomenal 300 degree view of the surrounding countryside, encompassing several local landmarks such as the Twin Sisters and the Devil’s backbone. Though it was overcast on Thursday, the sunsets are reportedly spectacular as well. The Days thoughtfully provide a pair of binoculars for each table as well, allowing closer inspection of the surrounding countryside.

Rounding off the fun is a gift shop featuring not only a selection of bird feeding supplies, books, and other ecological tidbits, but also the work of several local artists, including ceramics, photography, and some spectacular cut paper scenes. Wimberley is well-known for its community of artists, who make a good showing here.

Between the good food, excellent company, abundant wildlife, and spectacular views, the trip to Lookout Mountain is one that’s definitely worth making. We’ve already made reservations for when Kathy’s folks come down to visit next month.