Summer is fast approaching, and its time to stock up on your rosé.

Last month, I wrote about the problems witnesses pose, for both lawyers and clients. I spoke of the construction manager at Scotts Valley High School whose false testimony forced my client to sue the school district to get paid. In response, a letter writer suggested that my client should not have pursued the debt owed to him, apparently for the sole reason that the debtor was a school. This seems a dicey way for schools to balance their budgets — to refuse to pay their debts. I am curious what our letter writer thinks will happen when the district stops paying Pacific Gas and Electric Co. or fails to issue paychecks to its teachers.

David Gabriel Padilla was born at 2:12 p.m. April 25, 2011, to Laura Angelica Castillo and Jose Alfredo Padilla of Scotts Valley. He weighed 8 pounds at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting my healthy 95-year-old aunt Grace, and then I thought about my 97-year-old neighbor Vic, and it made me realize just how amazing the human body is to keep functioning for so many years. I am awestruck by this body of ours that began with just two microscopic cells coming together and developing into a complex living organism made up of some 75 trillion cells, many of which have specialized to perform amazing functions, making us the incredible beings that we are.

Caeden Sven-Erik Kurz was born at 2:55 p.m. April 13, 2011, to Jennifer and Eric Kurz of the Scotts Valley area. He weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center in Santa Cruz.

Anyone who relies on a car to make ends meet (that is, nearly everyone in the U.S.) knows that gasoline is quickly approaching the $5 mark and may hit $6 a gallon by the end of the summer. With the lack of jobs in Santa Cruz County, especially in San Lorenzo Valley, we simply don’t have many choices other than driving “over the hill” for a paycheck.