Jury Duty

On Monday, I was called to jury duty. Here in California, you go for one day and if you don't end up on a trial, then you are done for at least one year. If you do get on a trial, once that ends you are done for at least three years.

Lorien was still out of town, so I took Nina over to Mima's at a little before 7. I then parked at the nearby Euclid Station and took the San Diego Trolley downtown. It was my first time riding the trolley. One drove off while I was still buying tickets, but the next one came 15 minutes later. I was a few minutes late for our 7:45 reporting time and they had actually started the introductory video. The tickets were $5 for a one day pass or $2.50 each way. I think we were paying less than that to go from Silver Spring to downtown DC, but maybe just because we weren't going during rush hour. The parking was free and there was enough at about 7, which was really nice.

The day itself was fairly dull; I read and did some word puzzles (thanks to Mima and Mom and Dad for the magazine subscriptions). My friend Joel from work was also there; he had been called for the Monday before but forgot and took advantage of the generous come anytime within two weeks of the day you were called policy. During the hour and forty-five minutes for lunch, we walked over to the central library and got lunch. The central library does have children's books in French, like the library in Silver Spring, but they were mostly too advanced for me. I really liked that we could get them so easily in Silver Spring and wish the Mira Mesa library had them. Of course, under Mayor Sanders, I should just be glad that the library is open ever.

Joel did get called to go to a courtroom the third and, it turned out, final time they called for people. They hadn't gotten enough people for the jury when they quit for the day at 4, so he had to go back this morning. They asked everyone to come at 8:30, but the judge got tied up, so they twiddled their thumbs for an hour and a half. Then, an hour later, they had enough people for the jury and Joel was one of four people who hadn't been interviewed, so he got to come to work for the afternoon. Lucky him, huh.

One cool thing about jury duty is that they have someone from the Grand Jury talk about what the Grand Jury does in San Diego. It is apparently a roving investigative body with subpoena power. It seemed like a really cool thing to get involved with, but the time commitment is 9-3 M-Thursday every week for a year. Most of the members are retired. Last year's Grand Jury wrote a report on climate change. You can find it, plus responses from San Diego County, the Mayor's Office, the City of San Diego, and others, at http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/grandjury/report07_08.html.