What! Jury Duty!!!! Not Again.

5 times. Honestly. I have been called for jury duty five times. The last time, about 3 years ago, I figured my jury duty days would not come around again. Once you hit retirement age they let you say "no". Well, I got the papers, again! and read them... and they have raised the age to 70 where you can say "no" and guess what. This is one of those things you can't "just say no" to. They threaten you with arrest, officers beating your door down and jail time for contempt, if you don't show up on your appointed days.

Now, most of the people I know have NEVER been called to do jury duty. Believe me, I ask people this question. That's right. And 2 times before this one, I wasn't the only juror there questioning why they were repeatedly called. When asked for a show of hands as to how many had been called more than once, at least 1/3 of the room raised their hands. Then, the jury boss went into this long explanation how names are selected randomly. What I want to know is how I get to be random so often and many people don't get to be random once. Does this seem fair to you? Bah!

I know I should feel honored to have an opportunity to do my "civic duty" but I just don't anymore. And I probably shouldn't complain, I have been through this process enough to know how to answer the questions to make sure I am not one of the selected few. They do pay us, sort of. $12.50 per 1/2 day and reimburse us for gas at 10 cents a mile. Hey, I could call this my second job, right! Especially with that kind of money to be made. Oh, give me a break. I'm too old for this stuff.

I really hate the inconveninece of having to crawl out of bed early, drive 26 miles in whatever kind of weather is hitting us that day, and then sit around and drink bad coffee and wish I was some where else. I have learned to take a book and a bottle of water (although, new letter says we aren't alowed to bring beverages with us).

I know it will be fun. I can't wait. Oh Drat! Why didn't they send a letter to one of those people who thought sitting on a jury would be interesting. Everyone needs to learn it really isn't.

Oh.... welll.... I wish I could say I felt better after getting that off my chest, but honestly. I don't.

Mom Update

Winter was such a good thing this year, then all of a sudden, for no reason, it got really mean. Our temperatures have dropped to subarctic and we are freezing up here. But, life goes on, and I comfort myself with words that it can't last long. Spring is just around the corner. But, just for the record, it has already lasted too long. And even though the temperature is climbing all the way up to a high today of 17, maybe, well, that just isn't good enough. I want to see some ice melting, dad gum it.

Even if freezing, we still have to keep on with the routine, so yesterday was Mom's doctor day. She had appointments with her oncologist, Dr. Shen, and her primary care physician, Dr. Byrens. She had blood work done last week and x-rays made, so we were ready to hear how things were going.

Dr. Shen was first and he is a talker. Although Mom's platelet count is dropping (92,000) and is considered "abnormal" is is still fine. The test they run to determine the size of her tumor, shows that it is shrinking. A good thing, having gone from a 10 at the time of surgery down to an "8". I'm not sure what those numbers mean, but Dr. Shen seemed very happy with the report. Mom seems to have recovered from her pneumonia and is feeling better than she has in a long time. She returns to Dr. Shen on the 6th of March.

Dr. Byrens also was pleased with the way Mom is doing. He was very encouraging and said since she was doing so well, she would not need to return for 6 months. This puts her new appointment into August. SHe was quite tickled about this, mentioning that she would be almost 93 before she went back to see him again.

She wondered why no one was saying much about surgery anymore, but Dr. Shen had said they would review that in the spring. So for now, all is well and Mom is doing great and we are hoping to continue getting these good reports.