Looking Back II: Jury Duty

Back in November I had my annual jury duty summons.

I had rescheduled from when I'd originally gotten my summons. That had fallen on the weeks that I had for vacation. I wasn't paying close attention, and almost missed the week it was. Turned out to be the week of Veteran's day, so of course the courts weren't open on Monday. On my first call in day, I was told not to come in. Same for the next two, and I figured that I'd end up skating since it was a short week. No dice, I had to go in on Friday.

For a change, it was at a different courthouse than I usually get assigned to. I usually look forward to jury duty because there's much photogenic in downtown. Not so at this one!!! The one main thing nearby was this giant chair. I know I've seen it before, but I'm not sure if I've gotten a shot of it before.

There's the courthouse in the background of the third shot...

There was still a bit of good architecture around the area for the photographing...

I'm pretty sure that just a block up from there is where I caught a shot of Fred Flintstone, but it was almost to the time we were told to be back by. I think I spent more time looking for the post with that picture than anything else for this post so far...

From a distance, the Ritz Carlton where we'd had a work Christmas party a few years back.

One nice thing, the parking was on site. Two levels down, there's a pigeon!!! What are you doing down here???

...And a shot on the wing!!!

One of my favorite shots, the train in the rear view!!!

The rest of the shots are from the drive home. Another nice thing, the weather was pretty good for taking pictures!!!

Love the downtown architecture!!!

First time, I didn't get called for a jury. Usually I end up on a panel, then getting kicked off because the prosecutor doesn't like me!!!

Pink wedding gown, anyone???

Hey, there's a cat on the roof over there!!!

Finally, a decent shot of the dragon gateway going into Chinatown!!!

Justice Takes A Vacation

Jury duty is finished for this year. All week I've been calling in to see if I'll be required to show up, and Thursday night I hit the jackpot!!! This is a departure from the way things went the time before last, instead of everybody showing up for a cattle call on Monday, they just have you call in every night for a week. A MUCH better system, and it made for a much easier time getting through the security on the way in.



The title to this post doesn't specifically refer to anything of my actual experience (well, it was actually something of a vacation for me, one day off work, a shorter, quicker commute, plenty of time to read my paper, lots of photo ops, etc) but rather the first shot here. When I saw it, I immediately thought that would be the title of that shot.



Shot number two is of an old metal lunch box, fully tagged out. It was on the very corner of a vacant lot with a huge hole in it, next to a traffic cone. Behind an eight foot chain link fence with barbed wire. If any panhandlers rolled up on me, I was going to give them the location of this box, and tell them if they retrieved it for me, there would be a five in it (well, not IN it, but in it.... aw, crap, that clarified nothing... here's hoping you're able to figure it out on your own) for them, make that ten if there's something extremely interesting within it!!! I'd have done it, I swear I woulda.



When I got called to be on a case, I started out as juror (alternate) #15. After the preliminary questioning by the judge and both counselors, they started picking who they liked for dismissal. #1 & #6 were removed, and replaced by alt 19 and 20 (because of seating arrangement, I think). Then they got the juror #9. Dismissed, and #13 takes her place. No sooner than he sits down than he's removed and replaced by #14. #14 doesn't even get seated before he's dismissed. I'm called to replace him. I got up, gathered my bag and bottle and waited to see if I was going to be dismissed at this point. Everyone laughs a little as this is going on. I make my way to the #9 seat and sit down. I'd say around 45 seconds later I was dismissed. Everyone laughs even more at this. Seat #9 was a tough fill today!!!



I had to return to the jury assembly room to await more call ups or or the all clear for the day. If you can make it through the day without getting permanently placed on a trial, you are done for the year. Not long after returning, they started calling for more. They announced the room, and it was the one I had come back from. I knew they were going to run out of alternates!!!



The free WiFi at the courthouse was cool, but the filter on it sucked and didn't make much sense. No access to Runescape where I could have entertained myself for hours or Twitter where I could make a little comment in 140 characters or less, but I could access Blogger where I could put ALL kinds of content, and YouTube where I could actually clandestinely shoot and post a video!!! Oh well, I wasn't there that much longer, and I won't be back for a year!!!



Oh, and another sweet deal, jurors get free admission to MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art. Of course, by the time I made my way there, taking shots all the while, there was less than 15 minutes left that they were open!!! I rather enjoyed some of what I saw, and thought that I could do as well or better than some. I'd love to go back when I have more time. They gave me a little sticker that says "MOCA member". I stuck it on my John's Incredible Pizza card for maximum juxtaposition.

Oh, I finally located where Angel's Flight is!!! They have a notice that it should be open in the first part of this year. I've been hearing that for years.

Mileage III

I bought gas again today. The tank wasn't near as empty as it had been the previous two times, having only travelled 251.9 miles. In spite of this, it still took a considerable amount of gas, 9.26 gallons. I wasn't able to buy from my usual gas station, I drove there, and they had chain link fence set up all around most of the islands!!! They did have a large banner stating "OPEN FOR DIESEL". Nice if you need diesel. Ended up driving to a Circle K that I've never been to before, and I wonder if I'll ever go to a Circle K again. Seems like their pumps always suck, and judging by where the needle was and how much it took, I suspect their pumps are not properly calibrated. Weights and Measures will be hearing of this.



If you are keeping count, this tank would be 27.2 MPG, for a three tank average of 29.08 MPG. Still not bad, but the downward trend in my mileage is troubling. Next time will be better, I'm sure.



Anyway, I did manage to get her washed over the weekend, and got a couple of pictures yesterday. I had to take a half day yesterday to go to traffic court. A little matter of being pulled over with an unregistered vehicle. I had gotten an extension, then mailed the court the paper showing my release of liability, along with a letter describing what I'd done. Apparently they didn't get it (or it fell into a bureaucratic black hole, more likely) and sent me a delinquent notice wanting to get $800 out of me. I showed up to court, which was rather busy that morning. After a couple of hours, I was finally called to the stand. On my way up, the judge asks if I got the car registered. I replied that I had junked it, and almost before I'd made it to the stand, he asks if I can pay a $10 dismissal fee. Duh, sure thing, jug!!! Then I had to wait almost an hour for the clerk. Considering the alternative, not a big deal!!!

The Return of the Sofa King Random

It has happened again. We traded the tattered remains of the couch of narcoleptic properties for a fresh one.



My parents came upon this one, and being aware of our sofa's sorry state, bagged it for us. I napped a little bit on it on Sunday. Nice. Once again, I AM THE SOFA KING!!!



I purchased my second tank of gas for the Saturn. 314.1 miles on 10.05 gallons. Works out to 31.25 MPG. That'll do. Especially since I've been wringing it a bit, and did a bit of driving with the A/C cranked up.

Has it occurred to anyone that if you were to make a wireless device to do nothing but connect to Wikipedia, and put "DON'T PANIC" on the cover, you would essentially have a terrestrial version of The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy???



This was a very cool version of the Pontiac Solstice that GM had at the Pepsi 500. I like the way they did the rear view mirror.



My older boy has announced that he will be learning l33t. Good luck with that.



Speaking of the Pepsi 500, they just did the Fall ticket drawing. I'm going back to Fontana!!! *More than a year from now, for the next Pepsi 500... Perhaps I'll take Sammy this time, it'll be just a couple weeks after his birthday...

Many lunch & learns on the horizon. I'll be there!!!



I See they're going to be coming out with the next series of comic books based on Stephen King's Dark Tower Series, entitled "The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home". Sounds pretty cool, I'll have to check that out.

I just picked up tickets for the Counting Crows & Maroon 5 concert for this coming Friday. Can't wait!!! I asked the supervisor who handles scheduling if it'd be possible to get an early shift for that day, and she tells me, "Funny you should ask, I was going to come looking for you to see if you could do early shift this Friday!!!"

#11 on Letterman's top 10 list of perks of being a NASCAR driver: Bring your helmet into any Taco Bell, they'll fill it up with guacamole for free!!!

I was thinking I might set up a twitter account and use it to track my mileage...



The cake is a lie, or so I've been told. Has something to do with the video game "Portal". On the Labor day barbecue at my parents' house, they asked us to bring a dessert. We went to Baskin Robbins and got an ice cream cake. I selected this one because it looked a little to me like the one that is a lie. It's the red on the top that did it.

Day after tomorrow will be two years I've been at my job. I'm still happy there. Last week my supervisor told me that I'll be seeing 6.3% more gravy on my next check. w00t!!!



Yesterday I got the checks in the mail for my court settlement. Cool. I was pretty sure I was going to have to put the screws to 'em some more before they'd make with it.

On Thursday, work is hosting a farewell party for one of the managers who is transferring to Chicago. I'll be going back to Geezers for that!!! On my two year anniversary!!!



The first lunch & learn is coming up this Friday. It's about the expansion, something I'm quite interested in. They just put the sign up sheet out this morning, and it coincides nicely with the early shift lunch hour.

2.75%. Now that I'm eligible for 100% of that cash profit sharing, that's the magic number that'll get me another magic number!!! Of course, as I've said before, it's all gravy, but you can never have too much gravy!!!

Life of Lesiure

I know it seems like I just got back from vacation, but in the time since then, I've gone on two more!!! Life is good!!!



The first was a week at the family camp up in the mountains that I had been to two years ago. My parents and niece and nephew came, and were in the cabin next to ours.



All but one of the days we were there, however, we spent mostly away from the camp.



We went to a couple of different creeks, on a hike, up a forest service fire lookout tower, and all us guys except the youngest went off roading in my dad's durango. That turned out to be an adventure. I'll likely post a little video clip of that later. The picture of the dirt trail there is where we had most of the excitement. Fun trip.



Yesterday I had to be in court again, for what hopefully will be the last time on this case. I think it went well, the judge will be mailing my verdict. To reply quite belatedly to one of my loyal readers, Pank-Anon, the reason I've not let this slide is because I stand to get a well deserved judgement of up to $12,000 or so. Probably won't be all that, but the only way I could not prevail is to not take it to court!!! AND, the defendant has insurance, suckly as it may be, and if they have to pay for insurance, the insurance should be made to pay up when they are called upon to do so.

ANyway, since I had to take the day off for that anyway, the boys and I, as well as my father and nephew all went up to Millard Falls for some actual tent camping.



It was also fun, but a lot different than staying in a cabin. Campfire and marsh mellows, hiking up to the falls, crapping down a hole in a hut.



Today we hiked probably more than two and a half miles each way to up above the falls. I had been that way before, but instead of going to above the falls we had gone the other way to some abandoned mines.



It was interesting to see some new areas, as well as what the falls look like from the top. Interestingly, the creek goes underground about 25 feet before it makes it to the falls.



This post is slightly abbreviated from what it was going to be. I had a computer freeze. Hate that.
Today is my birthday. A different way to spend my birthday.

The Overflow Pictures

As mentioned in my previous post, here's the overflow pictures!!!



I think this is my favorite shot of the Disney Concert Hall.

Parking under the Disney Concert Hall like that reminded me of the time my boy and I saw the Counting Crows with the Philharmonic there. Good times.