Yesterday I was in a trial where I had an uphill battle, but I really handled myself well. I got a cop to trip up twice without him really even knowing what had happened. I was polite and cool, and I led him right into it. On the other hand, a week ago I had a case that I won where I was really disappointed with my performance. I was missing an affidavit of service that almost turned out to be important and I fumbled in a few spots. It's weird, but even though I won in the case from a week ago I felt bad about it, and even though I could very well lose in the case from yesterday, I feel pretty good about my own performance.

Today the plan depended on the weather. If it was nice, I was going on a ten mile hike. If it was lousy, I was going to take a long planned journey to Independence Hall In Philadelphia. Well, the tail end of Hurricane Ivan came through this morning, so it was off to the city of brotherly love. The rain was pretty heavy and there were a couple of spots on the highway where a small amount of mud had slid into the road, but no flooding where I was at.

So I went to see Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were written. I'm at this strange period in my life where I can travel wherever I want, and I'm making up for all those trips we never took when I was a child. Talk about a place of power though. Standing in the same room where the two most important documents in our history were signed and then walking next door to see the place there the Congress was for ten years, and where the Supreme Court held session. Very impressive stuff. Relatively small rooms for the importance of what happened there, but neat anyway.

I also saw the Liberty Bell, but I've never quite seen what the big deal about that was. It's supposed to be the symbol of liberty in our country, and it's cracked? Were the founding fathers being intentionally ironic? How can people keep a straight face when they talk it about with reverence?

Oh, well. Two hour tour and then drove back home. Good way to spend the day. Now I'm off for some fun.