In some of the court houses, you are not even allowed to bring your phone, but this one you may, so once they figured out i only carry old church lady stuff with me, wallet and keys and Bible and tissues, they let me in, and directed me to the juror area. The line was out the door.
That line, though, was people who had already been called up to serve trying to check in. Walking around it, i got the attention of a nice lady behind the desk by waving my postcard and i told her what was going on. She took me right into the back and typed the info into her computer. It wouldn't let her in, either. She typed a bit more, and got me on, and had me sitting at her desk, filling out the information.which she printed, just in case.
We needed the just in case. The submit button wouldn't submit it. She fiddled with stuff again, but no luck. She started talking to others in the office, and found out they've been getting calls for a few days now from people who either have timed out and can't get on the site at all, it won't open, or whose potential juror numbers are not letting them log on.
She had me sit down and fill out a paper version, while she used the print version to try to type it all in again, and when i left, she was still on the phone with their tech department, trying to figure out what was going on.
Seems i'm going to be their guinea pig potential juror whose info they will type in over and over as they attempt to correct whatever the problem is.
As i was leaving, another lady was walking in with a security officer, and she said, "Please escort him out of the room," pointing at a young man standing at the desk.
"Him again!" the officer said. "Come on, sir, you have to leave."
"But I need to..." he started, and the lady and the officer both said, "That's not this office, you can't take care of that here, we keep telling you!"
By that time i was out of the door, so i'm not sure if the officer had to physically steer the guy out or not, but i think they need to escort him to the right department, he seemed very befuddled.
The upshot is that i am now properly in their system, and they won't send a subpoena and a sheriff's deputy to come haul me in, which is good.
The ones i feel sorry for are those trying, over and over, to comply, but who cannot get into the broken system that the people in the office didn't even realize was broken.
In other news, i took the foster kittens in, and yes, the little girl still lights up green in a couple of spots, so she is still a ringworm risk, and they have to stay here on medication another week.
Today is
Al-Yaom Al-Watany -- Saudi Arabia (National Day/Founding of the Kingdom)
Augustalia -- Roman Empire (birthday of Caesar Augustus, still the traditional New Year's Day in Constantinople and in the Eastern Orthodox Church)
Autumnal Equinox -- 08:20 UTC, 4:20am EDT; related observances(some today, some tomorrow)
Mabon -- Wicca/Pagan Northern Hemisphere
Ostara -- wicca/Pagan Southern Hemisphere
Alban Elfed -- Celtic Winter Finding
Chuseok -- Korean harvest festival (high point of the festival)
Feast of Carpo -- Greek Horae, goddess of autumn
Kukulcan Snake God Celebration -- Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico (the snake appears at the equinox, a time to honor this Mayan god)
Festival of the Sea Goddess -- Eskimo
Higan -- Japan
Mabon/Fallfest -- Asatru/Norse Pagan (harvest festival, time to make wine and mead for the next winter)
Oenach Carman -- Ancient Celtic Calendar
Sendai Great Tug-of-War -- Sendai, Japan (festival on the equinox that dates back over 400 years)
Svarog's Holiday -- Slavic Pagan Calendar/Asatru (day to drink mead in honor of Svarog, god of fire and the sky)
Black Walnut Festival -- Stockton, MO, US (tours of the world's largest black walnut processing plant, plus parade, crafts, carnival and entertainment; through Saturday)
Bunster Winding -- Fairy Calendar
Checkers Day/Dogs in Politics Day -- thanks to Mr. Nixon; and i'm tempted to further comment, but this one is too easy
Citua -- Ancient Inca Empire (feast to the Moon, and to banish disease, in the month of Coyaraimi, date approximate)
Eid al-Adha -- Islam (Festival of Sacrifice, a three-day commemoration of Abraham's obedience and willingness to sacrifice his son; begins at sunset, local customs of date and official government days off in many places will vary)
El Grito de Lares -- Lares, Puerto Rico (anniversary of the first uprising against Spanish rule in 1868)
Innergize Day -- the day to take time for yourself! always on the day after the equinox, so either the 23rd or 24th, depending on where you live
International Restless Legs Syndrome Awareness Day -- on the birth anniversary of Professor Karl-Axel Ekborn, the neurologist who first described it
National Rehabilitation Day -- US (on the Wednesday of National Rehab Awareness Week)
National White Chocolate Day
Neptune Day -- planet discovered this day in 1846 by Johann Galle of Germany
Petit Jean Fall Antique Auto Swap Meet -- Morrilton, AR, US (swap meet and the Museum of Automobiles; through Saturday)
St. Adamnan's Day (Patron of Donegal, Ireland; Raphoe, Ireland)
St. Padre Pio's Day
Yom Kippur -- Judaism (begins at sundown)
Anniversaries Today:
The University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada, is founded, 1908
Birthdays Today:
Anthony Mackie, 1979
Ani DiFranco, 1970
Elizabeth Pena, 1961
Jason Alexander, 1959
Bruce Springsteen, 1949
Mary Kay Place, 1947
Paul Petersen, 1945
Julio Iglesias, 1943
Tom Lester, 1938
Ray Charles, 1930
John Coltrane, 1926
Mickey Rooney, 1920
Walter Pidgeon, 1897
Friedrich Paulus, 1890
Walter Lippman, 1889
Victoria Woodhull, 1838
William H. McGuffey, 1800
Kublai Khan, 1215
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, BC63
Euripides, BC480
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Marcus Welby, M.D."(TV), 1969
"The Jetsons"(TV), 1962
"Threni: id est Lamentatines Jeremiae Prophetae"(Stravinsky dodecaphonic work), 1958
Today in History:
Concord of Worms, 1122
The first major battle of the Wars of the Roses, at Blore Heath in Staffordshire, 1459
First commencement exercises of Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., 1642
Liechtenstein declares its independence from the German Empire, 1719
John Paul Jones' "Bon Homme Richard" defeats the HMS Serepis, 1779
Lewis and Clark arrive back in St. Louis from their explorations, 1806
The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York, 1845
Neptune is discovered by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams, 1846
Nintendo Koppai, later known as Nintendo Company, Limited, is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi; it produces and markets the playing card game Hanafuda, 1889
The Phantom of the Opera (original title: Le Fantome de l'Opera), a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux, was first published, 1909
The MS Princess of Tasmania, Australia’s first passenger roll-on/roll-off diesel ferry, makes her maiden voyage across Bass Strait, 1959
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announces over television and radio the implementation of martial law, 1972
Juan Perón returns to power in Argentina, 1973
Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United Nations, 1983
Qantas Flight 1 overruns the runway in Bangkok during a storm; some passengers only receive minor injuries, it is still the worst crash in Qantas's history, 1991
The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released, 2002
Hurricane Jeanne strikes Haiti and leaves at least 1,070 dead, 2004
The identification of four genetically different types of breast cancer by researchers is announced, 2012
