On the campaign trail

Last night I went to the Civil Air Patrol's Open House, and to a Grand Opening at Lofy Pursuits for their new gaming section, and to the American Legion. All the events were interesting, the recently received plane at the Civil Air Patrol, the new games at Lofty Pursuits (I tried to play one, it was fun, but I was terrible) and the dancing at the American Legion. I remember the people the best, though. I met the McPhersons at the Civil Air Patrol. Like me, they had just dropped in for the Open House. He spent 22 years in the Air Force, and then another 10 in the Navy. He was a jet mechanic, so we had a nice time talking about our duty time over in Jacksonville, he was at Cecil Field when I was at NAS Jax. He was born and raised here, but his wife is from Mississippi, a part ravaged last year by Hurricane Katrina. I also ran into Debbie Abrams, who used to work as a pediatrician for CHP, and was the first doctor I ever had to take a barfing kid to. That brought back some memories of my early days as a step-parent. I also talked to Marc Depuis, a native of Montreal, Quebec, who was cooking burgers.

At Lofty Pursuits, I of course talked to my long time friend and the owner, Greg Cohen, about his business, which has now been around for nearly 20 years. I talked with David Gilmore, who is a local private investigator, and his wife Andrea. I saw John Lyons, who reminded me that although his parents, uncles and sister were all lawyers, they couldn't so much as send an e-mail without him, since he does all their web hosting.

Actually, being out and about and talking with people, I feel much more like myself, and often forget I've been practicing law for 15 years. One woman said to me, "I've never even met a judge." That was true for me, too, before I went to law school.

Last I went to the American Legion, where they were having a fundraiser for a local veteran who is dying. Cocooned in State Government, you forget how hard long term illness is on families with limited insurance. There I talked to a couple in their seventies who had been married seven months. They met dancing, and were there to dance. I met another man who told me this was his first time out dancing in two years. I said that was a long time not to dance. He said his wife had been ill for some time, and then she died last May, and he hadn't really felt like dancing. He said that they had sung in the church choir together, and that he hadn't been able to go back since she died. He just couldn't sing.

I resolved to spend more time dancing with my husband. I went home at 9 o'clock, to discover that James was not in bed. Heads rolled. More tomorrow.