Life Turns- But Rarely Signals Beforehand.

The judge has been broadsided by some life events, which taken separately, would be involving enough. Synchronous events, however, have a way taking attention away from everyday activities such as deep thought and meticulous crafting of word pictures. Eating, sleeping and regular bathing sometimes are brought into question as well.
The newish job has become all consuming. The judge is very skilled at data wrangling, planning and execution, not so much at people wrangling- people execution, however, is still a forte.
This job was taken to develop that very skill. One learns some things by degrees, and this position is no exception. It has turned up the degrees to an uncomfortable level. The judge is learning an entire new corporate vocabulary, of which English is only a distant relation. Example: A staff member is put into a form of job performance correction called "coaching". The judge formulates a plan to coach- to review and train with the goal of increasing certain skills in said staff member. Judge is told by his peers and superior that there is no coaching involved, it is merely a way station on the path to a more formal process of correction, one ending in termination.
Judge is perturbed the proverbial spade (a shovel) is not called a spade in this organization. More examples abound, but you get the picture.
Judge's mater, being 76 years old and having smoked for 60 of them, is beginning to fail in her pulmonary system- still hospitalized as of this writing. The sisters and judge are prepared for this eventuality. Judge often sits down with them (they being 360 miles away) lately, and watches as they smoke and worry about their mother's emphysema. Absurdity is not lost on them, nor on the judge.
Judge's favourite nephew and ex-fiance' got married, and Judge was obliged to attend- happily. The new Mrs. Nephew was his ex-fiance' when he joined the service. FN did a 180 degree about-face in the personal growth and responsibility sector in a 16-month period- 8 of them in the service. This is something the ex-fiance' was waiting for, though she didn't know it. He came home for leave, she said "I still have some of your things, shall I bring them to you?" and the rest was preordained.
She did with good humor remind him that he really should inform the girl he had been dating. This was not a serious situation, and he did so with all due speed.
Seven weeks later, we present Mr. and Mrs. Nephew, which happened to be 1 week after the transfer orders to Iraq came through, effective in 12 weeks. This was not unexpected, but universally feared. All tensions were held at bay until they went to his post, but spilled over afterward. The judge knew this was coming, and had taken a week off to spend time with his sister for her breakdown. The brother-in-law, knowing his wife well, also planned a vacation far away to give her something to work on.
Judge's former Mrs. Judge is perennially short on cash, and Judge speaks often with her on this matter. The IRS was very interested for a short while in Judge's tax returns, but beamed with acceptance when all proper documentation was supplied them. This allowed the judge to send some cash to her to help alleviate a nagging grinding sound in her car's brakes, mere months after a supercharger need to be rebuilt due to a lack of lubrication (no oil) in the engine for what may have been weeks. This is a friendly, though sometimes distant, relationship. You would be interested in details? A later post perhaps.
Many 360 mile drives, phone calls, appointments with government officials of all stripes, and the occaisional accountant later- the Judge is a tired jurist.
There is, of course, no rest for the wicked- a tired jurist is no exception. Judge has been asked to help out a local artist's cooperative with advice on How to Run a Business, which was once the judge's stock in trade. All Judge wanted to do was paint some pictures. Things get involved when reasonable suggestions are made, and more suggestions are asked for when the first set appear to be good ideas.
There will be rest some day in the future, since it is the Judge's opinion that after all this foofaraw not much else could happen co-incidentally. The snickering in the back of the courtroom will cease immediately.
So decreed.