Duty Bound

Oops. I forgot all about my jury duty summons until, oh, about 9 PM on Sunday. Called the hotline and, sure enough, I needed to be at the courthouse bright and early Monday morning. Sorry work, forgot to give you the heads up on this. I've received a summons each of the last 3 years and, the prior two, I simply called the hotline and was told not to show. I guess I was expecting the same thing. You know what happens when you ASS-U-ME. In this case, it's all on me.

After sitting around for 3 hours and listening to jury selection (of which I was literally the last potential juror on the list with no hope of being called), I was dismissed to return to work - which was not pleased with my last minute absence right smack in the middle of one of my busiest work weeks.

Watching the legal system work though is fascinating. I did enjoy observing the questioning of the potential jurors and guessing at the reasons for their dismissals. It was also interesting watching two jurors say anything they could in an obvious attempt to be dismissed. One woman in particular kept hinting in a very embarrassing way that she didn't think she could be impartial for one reason after another. When that didn't work, she then suddenly remembered - an hour and a half into the process - that she did, in fact, remember the accused as visiting her place of work and that she didn't have a good opinion of her. Wow. Amazing how she forgot that for so long and then pulled that out at the last minute. They put her out of her misery and dismissed her.

I think she should have been forced to be an alternate juror...not really part of it but still having to sit there the whole time. Kind of like a hockey penalty box.

Running Update:

Sunday's LR

9.7 miles
7:20 pace

I'm dealing with a sharp pain in my left heel right where it turns north. After about 1.5 miles, it loosens up but those first 10 minutes or so are miserable. Right now, I'm proceeding without changing my training plan but keeping an eye on this. I may cut short some long runs if it doesn't show signs of improvement over the next week or so.

Somehow or another I'm already at week 4 of my Chicago plan. Where does the time go?