August 10, 2004
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I’m about ready to drive to work, only I’ll be there for two hours instead of four, because the trial phase of Court is over, and we, the Jury are finally deliberating, so we have to be in Court at 8:30am this morning. A lot of the jurors were shocked at this, but I remember from my experience on a Jury in 2001. In that trial, we deliberated for over a week, and it got a little hot and heavy, since the Jury was split right down the middle. This is a civil trial this time, and we have to agree about how much money to give the plaintiff, if any. There was lots of discussion yesterday, and I feel we’ll be in there for most of the day, but hopefully we’ll come up with a viable number, and this will be the final day of the trial. (I hope
) I’m not even taking my book into Court today, because I won’t be able to read anything.
I could make a decision not even to go into work, but I have at least one quote I didn’t make yesterday, so know there is “unfinished business”. It isn’t that “busy” so I have been able to “keep up”. So far. When deliberations stretched out past three or four days the last time, my boss and CEO got a little perturbed, as if I could do something about it. That’s one great thing about a Jury, it’s like a microcosm of society, and you really can’t predict what’s going to happen. I should have volunteered for the Foreman position, which they call “Presiding Juror”, because the gentleman we picked isn’t too good at maintaining order, which is already upsetting some of the people.
I’ll be glad when it’s over. I didn’t even feel like going on the computer yesterday. I do have some poems on which to comment on my ElectricPoetry Group, I did comment on one poem before writing this post, and will attempt to finish before going in to work, but there are only so many minutes in a day. Last night I “partied” with my roommate. Meaning I drank too much beer, and watched TV programs in which I didn’t have an interest, while conversing with Joel. Finally got to bed at about 9pm, and I’m a bit tired this morning. I still could make the decision not to go into work, and just sleep an extra hour or so prior to going in to Court, but I’m already dressed and ready to go.
The little kids in the “project” were on roller skates and scooters yesterday when I backed into the driveway, and I had to tell two of them to stay away from the car. Right after I washed it on Sunday morning, it got little had prints on it yesterday morning, so I was quite upset when they didn’t move out of the way, and then skated right up to the car with me standing there getting out. I said “Please don’t touch the car” about three times. There haven’t been any scratches lately, but since I take off in the early morning, it’s still dark, and then I will see if there is any more damage when the sun comes out. I wish the kids would find somewhere else to play which isn’t around my car. One of the little tykes, who is so young he doesn’t understand what is being said to him, has given up riding his bicycle without grips on the handlebars (Perhaps his mom figured out he was scratching the car with his bike, although I never saw him do it) but now he is fumbling around on skates, and uses the car to maintain his balance. I wish I could figure out a good way to stop this from happening all the time, but the “ringleader” of their little group is back, and he is at that age (around 6th grade) when he’s precocious and love’s to talk back. If anything really bad happens to my car (and that might just be paranoia on my part, but it is warranted paranoia, I believe) this one kid will probably be at fault. At least nobody has let the air out of my tires in a while. And I do have a convertible, and know that if someone really wanted to do some damage, they could cut the top.
Well, I’ve decided to go into work. As usual. Nobody at my company has even thanked me for the fact I come in every morning, open the place up, attack all my emails, keep on top of the quotes and testing, and still manage to show up at Court on time. Sometimes I think nobody realizes when someone is doing things “above and beyond the call of duty”. But everyone realizes and notices when something goes wrong.
Human nature, I suppose.
Comments (2)
I was on a jury once, long ago… it was a pornography trial and our foreman was Mark Gastineau’s aunt. she took us all to lunch too!
I don’t know how you would handle complaints in a project concerning children and a car. I certainly wouldn’t want mine scratched up and it’s a piece of junk at this point. Maybe, think about putting something kind of sticky on it you know will clean off and yet not hurt the finish or paint on the car. Something they might find offensive if they got into it. That might just do the trick.
A quote from your blog “Sometimes I think nobody realizes when someone is doing things “above and beyond the call of duty”. But everyone realizes and notices when something goes wrong.”, you got that one right.