Salud and Thanks

All of the positive thoughts, good wishes and luck must have worked because the City Council approved my case and I actually had a rather pleasant time. I have always enjoyed the law and it was very interesting to me to sit in chambers and listen to the six or so cases that were heard ahead of me. Most of us were there for the basic same thing - abatement of charges, zoning changes, and updates on previously assigned dates for upkeep and repairs. It was fun listening to the head of the Council. She was point-on in her assessments and I felt she was quite competent both legally and within the confines of the cases that were scheduled to come before her.

St Paul City Hall is a large, multi-storied building in art-deco style.

There are several chambers used by the Council. I wasn't in

this specific one, but mine was similar in appearance.

One of the best things was that a friend of mine was unexpectedly there. Leanna Shaff, the head of the Fire Inspections Department was a member of the Council. Leanna and I had gotten to know each other when she did fire inspections for my shop many years ago. We clicked right away. She's a straight shooter, as the term goes, and she doesn't mince words. But she also understands that people do the best that they can do. It was really nice to see her again and at the end of the hearing she acknowledged me by name and said how nice it was to see me again. In turn I told her that she should phone me and we'd get together for coffee. I hope she takes me up on it.

I like honest people and Leanna has always been straight with me.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for her.

I also hit stride on my NaNo this morning. I was cruising through the words, unlike yesterday when it felt like pulling teeth to get the words down. The secondary characters who cropped up a few days ago are turning into really interesting characters and good guides for my main historical character. I'm in the beginning of the Rockies now and heading deeper into the mountains tomorrow. I've got 34,000+ words down now and I'm nowhere close to being finished so I know I'll be writing more than 50,000, although I can be a little kinder with my personal schedule once I have reached my initial goal. I'll do the Desktop Meme tomorrow...