The good news is my new tires are in. I’m going to try and have them installed this afternoon (you can’t set up an appointment–you just show up and hope to get in). The bad news is I shall be skipping a class to do that, and I’ll still be driving in the rain to get there. The Costco is on my way home, however, so I thought this a good idea. It should be the start of the worst of the storms, so hopefully I can get there, get them on, and get home before things get too bad.

Hopefully. I am more than a little concerned about the storm. There is a difference in how the fluffy weather bunnies and weather dudes are handling this one. It’s sort of like they don’t know how to be serious. They certainly don’t know what to do when there is a tornado warning. Yesterday, when that happened, it took them until the warning was almost over before they even ran a correct crawl about it on most of the local stations.

Anyway, I don’t like to skip class, but it may be a two-fer this week. I may skip Trusts & Estates tomorrow if the weather is as bad as they are predicting (as I told John & Sammy yesterday, if I got killed driving to that class it would be far too ironic–ha!). I have a presentation to prepare for and plenty of reading to do, however, so it’s not like I’ll be out partying.

Except that I will have time in a Costco. Woot! (ahem) If I hadn’t just spent a bundle on tires, I’d be tempted to pick up a telephoto lens for the Rebel, to take pics of the storm better, but that so is not going to happen after Michelins.

I would like to officially apologize to the citizens of California for thinking they were a bunch of wussies ten years ago or so, during the last El Niño. This is friggin’ crazy weather. We, back east, were wrong. It’s not “just rain.”

The big storm of the week starts later today and goes through Friday morning. Wish us all luck out here.

I just ordered new tires from Costco. Seems that no one keeps Miata-sized tires in stock, except the one tire store that will never, ever get a penny from me (Express Tire), so ordering them was going to happen pretty much anywhere. At least with Costco, you get the built-in road hazard warranty plus lifetime balancing and rotations. Most other places wanted another $50 or more for that, sometimes a lot more. Turns out that several of my friends on Facebook said they bought from Costco and have been very happy with their purchase and service. So, I bit the bullet and ordered them.

I got Michelins, and even with a sale ($70 off a set), they still cost enough, thank you very much. After all the research I did, they got the best ratings both in handling for the zippy Miata and for wet traction. And wear. The experts and general consumers all seemed to like ‘em, so I decided to go for the expensive beasts. They are not all-season tires, though, but I don’t plan on driving in snow any time soon so that’s okay. Supposed to be not noisy either, which I noticed was an issue for many of the less expensive tires. Top-down, tire noise can be really annoying.

Unfortunately, since I had to order them, that means I won’t have them before the deluge that is to arrive tomorrow. They are predicting 5-8 inches of rain at the coast over the next 5-6 days (15-25″ on the coast-side of the mountains!). That’s going to cause flooding out here which will also mean mudslides, and with the expected wind, we’ll have downed trees, etc., too. If the news starts getting bored with Haiti, expect to see video from out here if the storms are anything like they are predicting. 40-60mph winds (60+ in the mountains) and that much rain should make for photo ops.

I am not looking forward to school this week because of it. Just the commute… ugh. Luckily, there is a “back way” to school that avoids the freeways, but that can still be a bit treacherous in the little car because there are so many huge SUVs and trucks out here. And there are a couple of places that have been known to pond a bit. But it’s infinitely better than the freeway in the rain.

So, the new tires will be welcome. If not for this storm, for the next one and my trip this summer. Wish I had gotten off my butt and ordered them earlier, but after the new roof, I thought I’d put off the tires. Then I decided that was silly–if I need ‘em I need ‘em. Ah well, live and learn.

This term I’m taking the following courses:

Entertainment Law
Trusts & Estates
Constitutional Law 2
Remedies
Practicing Law, Successful Strategies

The first and last are really electives, although the last also fulfills a requirement (a “practicum” course). I’m taking both because they should apply to my life after law school. Entertainment Law will cover all sorts of contractual issues that are closely related to those my clients face, including licensing rights and exploiting IP. PL/SS is a practical course that is supposed to teach us what we need to know to run our own small or solo firms–the business of being a lawyer, so to speak.

Ent. Law is taught by an adjunct who was with William Morris “forever” as he put it. Older gent, but with that almost timeless LA look that is either a function of a really good plastic surgeon or just his perfectly tailored suits and casually confident attitude. Or both.

He says he’s got lots of “war stories” and I’d love to hear ‘em all but I don’t think he’ll be sharing many since most of the other students are too ignorant to know who people like William Holden and James Arness were. Sad, that.

PL/SS is taught by a man who went to high school here in San Diego. He used to ride the school bus with Frank Zappa and Rachel Welch went to school with him. Stories like this happen all the time out here, but I’m still impressed. Yeah, I’m a yokel like that.

Anyway, the other three courses are all “bar courses” as they say. While technically not required, they are heavily tested on the bar so everyone (just about) takes ‘em.

Trusts & Estates is about wills and trusts and the laws regarding succession of property. Even the prof says that it’s boring stuff and, well, the reading so far has proved him right. But it is important stuff, including for my clients who mostly don’t take care of themselves as they should.

Actually, it’s not as boring as the prof said, although it is rather nit-picky. I like learning odd historical bits like about laughing heirs, so at this early point, I don’t mind the class.

Constitutional Law 2 is the course I’m fearing. ConLaw 1 was painful, but it was taught by a different prof and the material was deadly dull (commerce clauses, states rights, blah, blah). This course is about personal liberties so that should help. And I like the prof at least as a person. He was one of the profs of Summer Enrichment when I first started school and I had a drink & convo with him when our class did a bar night one night. Smart, nice, and geeky–I tend to like folk like that. Here’s hoping he keeps that attitude in class.

Remedies is a course about all the other courses in a way. It’s about what you can ask for/get when you are harmed–that is, when you sue someone and win. So, for example, when your car is parked on the street and gets totaled, you can’t get replacement value and how much you loved the car doesn’t count–you get fair market value (FMV) and that’s it. That’s all the law allows. We’re also learning how that value is (usually) calculated and the theory behind why you get FMV and not replacement.

I like the prof for Remedies–a younger woman who, I am told, is as organized and explicit as she already had appeared to me. She just has her ducks in a row and I like that.

Lots of reading, as always and the schedule isn’t the best. I have three classes on Monday and Wednesday and my bag again weighs about 40 pounds on those days. Tuesday I have an 8am and then nothing until 4:05. Thursday I only have a 4:05, and I have no classes on Friday (woot!).

Speaking of reading, I need to get to it. I like to get all my reading done over the weekend. I do second, refresher reads before each class, but this way I’m at least always minimally prepared.

I still don’t know how people get through law school without doing the readings. I hear some kids say that they don’t read, every term. Hmm. Me, I learn a lot in the readings, then the lectures usually fill in the blanks so that after class I (again, usually) feel like I have at least a grasp of the material.

Anyway, on to it…