Jury Duty, Strange Weather, and Flu

It's been a week that's been a real doozy, to say the very least! Monday morning, I reported to the county courthouse to perform my civic responsibility of jury duty. I wasn't really certain how this would all play out--I was hoping my number wouldn't be called--and I found myself among many, many other folks there to fulfill their same civic duty. After a couple of hours of culling the herd, the judge and lawyers came down to the last group of four (the rest of the panel accepted).

I had a good feeling at this point that I would remain in the general pool and free to go once these remaining four prospective jurors--up there in the jury box--were questioned and accepted. But there were two of these who were excused, meaning the clerk would reach into her magic pile of numbers and pull out a replacement for each. As I always figured it would be, my number was called and I made my way to the jury box to face the same questions I'd heard for the past two hours. As it turned out, I was now part of the final group to make up the jury of twelve and ready to begin the trial that afternoon. The trial wrapped up the next afternoon.

Not to belabor the point any more, and without going into the details of the trial, I can only say that it was a most interesting and educational experience. I ACTUALLY ENJOYED THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE! Once again, I learn that I shouldn't be so quick to pre-judge (jury, get it?) before the thing happens. In fact, I would even welcome serving some other time down the road.

The week moved along in record high temperatures (80°) and I was all set to enjoy getting to so many garage chores and other things that would have me outside. Unfortunately, I became very sick on Wednesday night and have been suffering from some type of intestinal flu or other such malady. That put a damper on my vigorous activities for the week. Feeling better today as I write this, but I'm still a long way from feeling quite right. I'll not go into any further details, but suffice it to say that I'm most thankful for flush toilets!