Last week, I was scheduled to do my part in our democratic society by showing up for jury duty.  Where I live, jury duty is a week long commitment, though you may not be required to attend each day.  You do need to check in twice a day, to see if you are needed in the morning and again in the afternoon.  For someone with a 50+ mile commute to work, it didn’t make sense to go in even if I wasn’t needed in the morning, on the off chance I would be needed in the afternoon, which happened to me last time I had jury duty in 2003.

The whole experience was a bit of a bust, though it did enable me to keep up with my busy plans for the week.  I went in Monday morning, one panel was called, which I didn’t make, and then they let us go by 11:30, which gave me enough time to go home and change before heading out to Wrigley Field for exciting crosstown action.

And… that was it.  Every night, I either called or checked the website and was told I wasn’t needed.  Every afternoon, I would do the same before lunch and got the same response.  A week of working from home, with the occasional baseball game sprinkled in.   I had prepared for the week by stocking up on books, but only made it through one.  All in all, a complete waste of time.  We’ll see if it takes another 14 years to get called again.