Actually...

I do have a somewhat interesting story about jury duty. It was classic murphy's law. The prosecutor had 4 witnesses testify. One was a deputy sheriff. One was the victim, one was an adolescent who was a partial eyewitness, and the last was a friend of the victim who mainly testified about the victim's injuries. The defense must try to discredit these witnesses, (or at least that's about all he tried to do) The deputy had a strong case, and must people are likely to believe the cop. So he's not easy to discredit. The victim was a bartender as a shady bar in the outskirts of Athens. In trying to link the shadiness of the bar ot the shadiness of the peole who work there, the defense brought in a man who could mention this shady activity and, again, link it with the victim and therefore discredit her. Well, this guy was on disability so when the prosecutor cross-examined, she approached that subject with him.

Prosecutor: So you're on disability?
Witness: Yes
P: But you worked everyday for the owner of the bar?
Witness:Yes
P:does your disability coordinator know this?
W: Well, I didin't work every day... and I didn't get paid. I was being nice for a friend.
P: Earlier you said you worked every day...
W: Well, not everyday. I get sick alot. Part of my disability is that I get confused. I don't remember a whole lot.
P: No further questions your honor.

This witness didn't remember a whole lot about his criminal record either. So it was one of those moments similar to TV where the witness for the defense ends up making things worse.

Duty

I have performed my civic duty today (and yesterday) by serving on a petit jury. This means I got to witness the inner workings of our judicial branch. I have to say that I do not understand why people want to be judges. They have to sit alot and listen to hours of testimony and fancy talk by attorneys. I could barely take it for 2 days. The case was a robbery. I think the guy took b/w 100-200 bucks. and now he's going to be sent away. I hope he used that money wisely.

This is a picture of our elustrious Athens County Courthouse. Kent took this in the summer, so it's recent.


I can't think of any funny or interesting story from the trial. It was nothing like on tv. And the people weren't nearly as pretty. Except me, of course. ;)

I would serve again, if I had nothing better to do, and maybe if it was in the winter when I don't mind being shut inside a building for 8 hours. But in the event that you get called and don't want to serve you can get out of it by stating that you don't think you could be fair and unbiased. I had my chance, but froze. It's hard to come up with something on the spot, plus I didn't want to look weak.

Blog promotion

A recent OU Ultimate grad has moved to India to teach English to the children of the small town, as well as capture the splendor of the region through photography. Denny is his name and you can check out his blog at http://dphoto25.blogspot.com/.

Kent was the subject of a photo story and Denny gave us some of the photos that he took for that. Plus, one can never have too many ultimate photos of oneself.

Much ado...

Hi there. It is 8 o clock and it's still 90 degrees out. I am sitting outside because it somehow feels cooler than the 88 degree house. Yes, our house is 88 degrees. Except for the bedroom which is cooled by the AC. Yes,we have AC in the bedroom. I finally broke down yesterday and put Rick's old unit in our bedroom window. I'd like to say it helped me sleep better, but the truth is I woke up with an earache. Could be a coincidence. We'll see tonight.

As I said, I am sitting outside on our patio. The "Athens Brick" patio lovingly installed by Kent. With help from Nick. I don't think I did a lick of work on the project. That's how it goes. Anyway, I am sitting out on my patio and I can hear the sounds of the Athens County fair. Tonight's featured event: the tractor pull. Exciting. Although, I can't hear the tractor so much as the announcer who sounds like a southeast Ohio male version of the teacher from the Charlie Brown cartoons. This is still better than last night, which was a country music band. I could hear them like they were on the radio in my neighbors house. Now, we are not that close to the fairgrounds, so I can't imagine being down there. Maybe I am just getting old, but that reminds me that I better bring earplugs to the uptown music fest this weekend.

Stay cool.