Mets Day 202 - Halloween in Norfolk

Court was cancelled on Monday while the storm blew through.  Yesterday morning everything was back to normal.  The Norfolk area appeared to be spared major damage, but I have not gone out to look around, instead just walking to court and back each day.  The parties finished putting in evidence today.  Closing arguments will be tomorrow, followed by deliberations.  Hopefully, the jury will decide quickly.  I'm tired of everything associated with this trial, and ready to go home. 

The power went out at home on Sunday afternoon, and everyone was expecting it to be out for days.  Much to their and my surprise, power was restored by mid-day Monday.  I guess the derecho in June knocked down most of the limbs and weaker trees.  Jennifer said we lost only one other of the big oaks on our property, fortunately, far away from the house. [Edit:  over the weekend I walked our property and found that 8 big oaks had been knocked down.]  She also said that the basement sprang a leak underneath the outside portion of the main floor outside deck, but it could be worse -- we could be in New York or along the Jersey shore and have been flooded out.  I'll deal with that later. 

Spencer found a combination of mobile mechanics who came out to the house to work on the Explorer; once came out and removed the front axle differential, then discovered that the one Spencer and Jennifer got from the junkyard was the wrong type.  It took them three trips to the junkyard to finally get the right one.  By that time, the original mechanic had gone to Georgia, and two others flaked out.  He finally found a fourth one to come out and install the replacement differential.  The Explorer is once again road worthy, for now anyway.  Spencer is happy to be mobile again, and I am happy that I don't have to figure out how to finish that job.  Now we just need to figure out what to do with the wrecked Neon sitting in the garage, but there's no urgency with that.  

Kirsten is working on her college applications.  She's applying to about 10 different schools in Virginia, California, and Utah.  It will be interesting to see to where she is accepted, and her ultimate decision of where to go.  In my view, the least important criteria for choosing a school is the actual course offerings, since virtually all colleges have similar course content.  The thing that matters most to me is the size of the campus (and the classes), the motivations of the students, and how well she will fit into the campus.  There is a good chance that she will meet the person that she eventually marries in college, so her college choice can have a much broader effect than merely obtaining a degree.  I don't know how she (or anyone) can make a fully-informed decision about the "right" college to attend.  But she's been going about it the right way, and I'm proud that she is doing all of the work herself, and owning the decision.