77 degrees this morning, walk 34:53 minutes, 73% humidity
Nice walk this morning. In spite of the temperature, there is a light cooling breeze, especially in the dark. I didn’t really notice the breeze during the walk, but notice it while sitting on the patio. No moon.
Called Apple Computer, they advised to change my iPhone battery, and they scheduled an appointment to do so. I don’t have a lot of faith that that is the problem, but I appreciate the fact they are taking some action besides “wipe clean and restore”. We’ll see.
Reading a book on Abraham Lincoln’s “last trial” before he became President. He actually was a relatively well known attorney at the time. What I like about specialized books like this is it gives the author the chance to go into detail on the subject.
For example, I read this trial was one of the first ones that was transcribed “word for word”, so somewhat like the the internet today, the trial and the actual words spoken were are widely disseminated than usual, which actually may have helped Lincoln become President.
When I was in Tennessee, they had a level of Courts called the “Circuit Court”. While I knew this before I started reading this book, it is derived literally from a group of Attorney’s and Judges who would literally “ride the circuit” and hold trials at many small towns. Everything from murder to civil lawsuits were heard, and the same attorneys would be involved, depending on who hired them.
That system gave Lincoln a lot of experience and also a lot of time talking to other attorney’s.
There are a lot of other tidbits in information on some actually very important precedent cases that Lincoln was involved in (such as a City was responsible for accidents from not maintaining the streets!).
While I was always interested in Lincoln, I became a Lincoln (and Civil War) fan in about 2000, when I went to the International City Manager’s Conference and heard Doris Kearns Goodwin speak on “Team of Rivals”, about Lincoln. I became fascinated with it and have read a number of books about and by Lincoln and the Civil War, as well as U.S. Grant.
I was pleased to learn that she will have a new book in September. I decided not to attend the International City Managers Conference this year for a number of reasons, but one reason I wanted to go was she is going to appear again as part of a book tour on her new book.
We actually have seen her several times and always enjoyed her presentation.
At the same conference, we saw Beck Weathers and his presentation promoting his book “Left for Dead” about mountain climbing. I became interested in mountain climbing (I NEVER wanted to do it myself!) and still read a book or watch a program about mountain climibng. It is fascinating why the hard core mountain climbers do it.
Of course, Beck Weathers message was “don’t do as I did”, don’t become so focused on something you miss out on what really is important in life” or words to that effect. At least that is what I heard him say! (He was literally “left for dead”, referred to as “that dead man in the tent” until somehow he survived. He was a surgeon and he lost at least several fingers on his hands).
I enjoyed his book although it has some very sad episodes in it (that were true).
Speaking of technology, I am still embarrassed sometimes by the words “spell check” puts in my mouth (or rather on the screen I guess). Spellcheck changes words to words I would never use and frequently don’t catch because they are so close to what I intended.
I notice it a lot of unintended words on this blog and also on Facebook. So if you note any weird words, I may not be at fault, except I didn’t catch them!
That’s it for now, Wednesday, September 19, 2018.
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