STILL TOO MUCH DUTY - INCLUDING JURY DUTY - AND MORE STILL COMING

 Sorry to miss you all for 2 weeks again, but it has been more of the same – but this is a longer post to make up for it.

I finally finished the real estate tax exemption paperwork the middle of last week.

We don't mail it in – we used to mail it in, but one year we received a phone call (prerecorded mass calling) that we had not yet submitted our paperwork – so I had to reprint it all and we walked it into their office. (I walked it in, husband waited in car – more about this later.) It turned out that our overeager, newly elected county executive recorded the call to go out to those people who normally file for the exemption, but had not done so – but some idiot sent the phone call to all landowners in the county – and most of the those who received the call did not even qualify for the exemption and many were businesses. They did have our paperwork – all that extra work and wasted paper.

So, since then I walk the paperwork into the assessor's office and they give me a receipt for it. Parking is next to impossible so husband continues to wait in the car while I walk it in. I will say they did add evening hours the first year of the pandemic just for this purpose so those (including me) who did not feel comfortable coming into a busy county office building – and busy assessor's office) could come in the evening – there was plenty of parking when I went at night, but husband still waited in the car.

I walked in the paper into their office the middle of last week – I was shocked at how empty the office was – one woman ahead of me in line and two people ahead of her sitting and waiting. So it was a quick drop off.

We then went on to our next reason to be in the area. I had received a jury notice! When I looked up online where to park as a juror it was confusing with the lot they were specifying alternatively being called “Lot 7” and “Lot 17” and different lots for certain other types of jury duty. The location to report to for jury duty had also been changed to a different court building since last time either of us was called and we wanted to check how to go in, etc. as neither of us really wants to be around people any more than we need to – due to Covid concerns. I was even more confused after we looked as lots seemed to all be pay lots and Lot 7 specified 3 hour limit “for visitors” - how would they know if I was a visitor or a juror. During a telephone call to the courts the following day about this I was told that there is no charge for parking in any of the lots and I could park in any of the lots – apparently they are no using the metering system, but the signs are still there.

I was upset at going for jury duty due to not being a morning person – even more so since the start of Pandemic and I can deal with just about everything later in the day – so lunch time for normal people is our wake up time these past few years. (We stay up into the next morning to offset this late wake up time.) And jurors have to be at the court by 8:45 am – with wake up time to include an allowance to get up, dress, and drive there. In addition husband has not been home alone since the start of the Pandemic and before then I only went out alone 2 days a month – and he has aged during the pandemic. He does not like being alone in the house. Last time I went for jury duty he came along and sat and read during the day. Since jury duty was in a different location, combined with not know if Covid restrictions were in place we decided he should not come as did not want him to end up sitting in the car all day. So unlike earlier times I have gone for jury duty this time was extremely upsetting. I could not ask for a delay as I had done so at the last minute as I was suppose to go the day after I found my left ankle to be blue and called in a medical exemption at the last minute so I could go to the doctor.

Then at the last minute it got worse. How could it get it worse? It was to snow over the night before into the early morning. So – I had not really driven in over 3 years – 4 times locally -

and not much for about a decade before and now I was going to possibly be driving while it was snowing or at least with snow on the ground?! Luckily the snow on the roadways had melted by the time I had to leave and husband woke up (no way he was going to be asleep while I out) and helped me clear the snow off the car. Other than a problem remembering how to work the windshield wipers, I was okay driving and even figured a shorter way to go to the courts than we had planned.

I had agreed to keep texting him when I was not involved in a case and did so. Texted him when I got there, and again when I settled in the large room where we got to see “the movie” and our tickets were collected. (So many stupid people I could not believe it – could not understand the simple “Keep the top half of the form you received. Take the “Juror ID” card off the bottom left of the bottom half. Make sure you filled in the back of the form (I did so as soon as I received the notice) and give us the “L” shaped piece of form you have left” (after removing the juror ID section). People were turning in the form with the back not filled in. Removing the other piece from the bottom (not the ID form) and so on. )

I next texted him when we were left to wait to be called. I went into an adjoining waiting room and was standing in a far corner where no one else was and I would text him every 5- 10 minutes. Then I lost the signal to my cell phone. This is a problem with this phone – I need to reboot it and then it works again. There was a bank of old telephone booths (no phones, just the booths) and I sat in one and rebooted my phone using the table area under where the phone used to be. Each time I rebooted it lines would appear for service, but by the time I tried to text – the signal would be gone again. My concern that my husband not hearing from me that I was going into the voir dire and that I would not be available would be UPSET at not hearing from me. I started walking around and found that in the lobby or hallway phone worked - so I stayed out there next to the jury waiting areas so I could hear if they called people. I think that there was something suddenly blocking the signals as they had started voir dire in adjacent rooms. Though there was a woman earlier who had spent about half an hour on a call to her travel agent booking a trip – we got to hear when she would be away, where she would be and her credit card information – I can't imagine anyone giving out all this information in a room of bored people who could be anyone.

Three different groups of people were called in for voir dire. I had started sitting out in the lobby so that my cell phone kept working. I heard them starting to call people again and went to the doorway – my name was included and I followed the others as I had not heard which room to go to. Major surprise! Employee came in and told us we were chosen – we could not go back into the main waiting room and could not tell anyone there – but we were being dismissed! I texted husband as soon as I was back in the car to let him know! Thank goodness.

That afternoon I started taking my tax preparation required classes – more about same next week.