The untethered lawyer

Conducting a Character Home Tour Our neighborhood association encourages residents to conduct house tours once a year as a fundraiser. Eager sightseers normally came in couples. So as to not generalize interest between the various genders, I will simply use gender neutral identifiers and name the people interested in the architecture “wives” and those feigning interest in the tour “husbands”. We presently own a historic character home. Apparently, no one ‘has’ a character home due to the permanent nature of such a home and the ephemeral nature of owners. These homes have their own nature and personalities and you ignore them at your peril. My wife searched for a home that would allow us to merge our household and her parents. Her mother was elderly and had arthritis while the father cared for her. The home’s 12 by 2 inch fir joists easily accommodated the weight of four fridges, four washer dryers and three hot water tanks.     I accepted the delegated ta...

The Cycle of Life I went on my first real cycling adventure since turning 60. I really mean that I followed my wife to work on a bike. She has travelled to work like this for a couple of years now and she enjoys the opportunity. I admired her for being a commuting cyclist. She initially bristled at the term, so I explained that commuting demonstrates an admirable lifestyle choice. Commuting by bike seemed more real than merely cycling for pleasure or exercise. Real means to serve a particular purpose. Although exercise serves a purpose to maintain one’s health and fun and happiness becomes an end in itself. I was telecommuting on my laptop one fine sunny June morning when she suggested we both should go biking to her place of work. Now, bike commuting was the exact opposite of what I was trying to accomplish that day, but she threw in the non-negotiable ‘it’s something we could do together’. The request did not appear to be a relationship issue, but the wrong answer could poss...