The Saga of Juror 83

Well, it wasn't exactly a saga, but it sure sounds better than the title How My Jury Duty Went This Week.

Around here, you know you are about to be called up because they send you a form to fill out, asking you if you are a resident who speaks, reads, and writes English, are under age 70, and asking if you have anything wrong with you that would keep you from being able to serve.

Once you've mailed that back, it's only a matter of time.  My time came last year, and Sweetie had just lost his job, i had just been hired for the holiday season at the bakery, and i begged to be delayed.

The delay put me right in the middle of the Mother's Day rush at the bakery, so i was delayed again.

This time, there would be no delay and i knew my fate.  Or at least, i thought i did.

Once there this past Monday, they told us we had drawn a great week.  Tuesday, being November 1, was the All Saints' Day holiday, and the court would be closed!  No, it's not a federal holiday, but this is Catholic territory and it's been a local day off for many people since time immemorial (or at least since the early 1700s) and they aren't going to give it up if they can help it.  The judges are especially not going to give it up.

Next was assignment to judges, and i was assigned to a judge who wasn't going to be ready for potential juror interviews until Wednesday, so i was free to go until then.  Thus i was able to still do Ms. S's house, albeit late, and then do Ms. C's house on Tuesday as usual.

Wednesday morning, i went to the cat shelter and got as much done as i could until it was time to go to court.  At the courthouse, one set of jurors were let go because the defendant went ahead and pled guilty.  The rest of us waited, and waited, and waited.  They showed a movie, and those of us who didn't want to watch the movie went in the reading room, and we waited.

By 11:45, i was starting to wonder if the judge i'd been assigned to had gotten them to settle their case.  We were allowed to go to lunch until 1pm.  Most of us decamped to either the greasy cafe in the building or to one of the local eateries.

At 1pm, it was another hurry back to wait.  Then, finally, at 1:25, they came in and said one of the cases had settled, and started calling numbers of those who could leave.  Bingo!  My number came up, and i was gone.

Thursday and Friday i was able to do my normal routines.

The score for the week is two days of jury service, in which i didn't even have to be interviewed as a potential juror and for which i will be paid the princely sum of $12/day plus milage.  This means i didn't miss any work (my Wednesday lady is out of town, so i wouldn't have had work that day anyway) and, best of all, they cannot call me back for 2 whole years!



Today is:

Children's Day -- Malaysia

Conmemoracion Patriotica en la Ciudad de Colon -- Panama

Day of the First Shout for Independence -- El Salvador

Digital Scrapbooking Day -- it certainly takes up less room than the other kinds!

Egyptian Day -- Medieval Europe day of bad forturne (common saying on this day was, "Notwithstanding, I will trust the Lord.")

Fall Country Jamboree -- Barberville, FL, US (celebration of pioneer life, with music, crafts, historic displays, Native and Cracker camps, and more; through tomorrow)

Festival of Amun -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Guy Fawkes' Day -- Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador; New Zealand; UK; a/k/a Gunpowder Day, bonfires celebrate that Guy Fawkes plot did not succeed; related famous celebrations
     Burning of the Tar Barrels -- Ottery St. Mary, Devon, UK (17 barrels soaked in tar are lit outside 17 taverns and carried through the town)
     Guy Fawkes Carnival -- Bridgwater, Somerset, UK (a festival that traces its origins to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605)
     Lewes Bonfire Night -- Lewes, East Sussex, UK
     Turning the Devil's Stone -- Shebbear, Devon, UK (erratic stone, possibly from an Ice Age deposit, turned every year on this day to assure good forturne)

Kalamazoo Russian Festival -- Kalamazoo, MI, US

Lovington Fall Arts and Crafts Festival -- Lovington, NM, US (over 100 local and regional crafters; through tomorrow)

National Doughnut Day -- well, it's better than buy a donut day, that one's too obvious

Nones of November -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Peddler's Village Apple Festival -- Lahaska, PA, US (fun for all, through tomorrow)

Popes Day -- US name for the remembrance of Guy Fawkes' Day

Sadie Hawkins Day -- US (on the Saturday nearest Nov. 9, and based on the Li'l Abner comic, a day for women to ask out the man of their choice; also widely observed on Feb. 29 because of a law passed by Parliament of Scotland in 1288)

Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens -- Pine Mountain, GA, US (a six-race steeplechase)

St. Elizabeth's Day and St. Zechariah's Day -- parents of John the Baptist (Elizabeth is Patron of pregnant women)

Texas Book Festival -- Austin, TX, US (one of the nation's most prestigious literary festivals, especially celebrating renowned Texas authors; through tomorrow)

Unique 150 Hands-On Mystery Object Event -- Logic Puzzle Museum, Burlington, WI, US (come join the fun and use your brain puzzling out what these 298 mystery objects, many of them antique, are or used to do; through Nov. 20)

Verboort Sausage and Kraut Dinner -- Forest Grove, OR, US (beer and their famous sausage, as well as home-baked goods and fun)

Wet Wellington Day -- Fairy Calendar (Imps and Gremlins; they really love it when this falls on a Wednesday)

Wuwuchim Fire Ceremonies begin -- Hopi Native American (dating approximate, as these ceremonies are now mostly closed to outsiders, a celebration of Masaw, god of death, and Spider Woman, the earth mother; a 16 day festival and manhood ceremony for adolescent boys)


Anniversary Today:

George W. Bush marries Laura Welch, 1977


Birthdays Today:

Kevin Jonas, 1987
Corin Nemec, 1971
Judy Reyes, 1967
Tatum O'Neal, 1963
Tilda Swinton, 1960
Bryan Adams, 1959
Bill Walton, 1952
Peter Noone, 1947
Sam Shepard, 1943
Art Garfunkel, 1941
Elke Sommer, 1940
Geoffrey Wolff, 1937
Ike Turner, 1931
Vivien Leigh, 1913
Roy Rogers, 1911
Joel McCrea, 1905
Strom Thurmond, 1902
Raymond Loewy, 1893
Will Durant, 1885
Ida M. Tarbell, 1857
Eugene Debs, 1855


Debuting/Premiering Today

"Into the Woods"(Sondheim musical), 1987
"Fifth of July"(Wilson play), 1980
"The Nat King Cole Show, 1956
The New York Weekly Journal(first edition), 1733


Today in History:

Wu MeKuan, a collection of 48 Zen koans, compiled in China, 1228
Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier (Brittany); it is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary, 1499
St. Felix's Flood ravages the Dutch coast and destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands, 1530
The Gunpowder Plot, in which Catholics were trying to blow up the English Parliament, is foiled, 1605
The first post office in the Colonies is opened in the home of Richard Fairbanks, 1639
Susan B. Anthony is arrested for trying to vote in Rochester, NY, 1871
The first US patent for a gasoline driven motor car is granted to George B. Selden, 1895
Calbraith Rodgers arrives in Pasadena from Sheepshead Bay, NY, completing the first transcontinental plane flight, in 49 days, 1911
Colombia joins the United Nations, 1945
USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China — the first US Naval visit to China since 1949, 1986
André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada, but is thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife locks the door, 1995
Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial, 2006
China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1 goes into orbit around the Moon, 2007
The Fundão Dam in Brazil collapses, killing 23 and causing a second dam to fail, which releases a massive flood of mud down the Rio Dulce, 2015