Today I had to go to the courthouse for jury duty.

This meant getting up very early as I had a long drive to the county seat.

This was my first time to have jury duty in the new court house.

The new court house is 13 stories high and looks really nice. The old court house was a smaller building and not very pretty.

In the old court house the jury room was in the basement, but in the new court house the jury room was on the 12th floor and had a terrace on which you could enjoy great views of the surrounding area.

It was interesting to look down on the historic Hotel Stockton and see the layout of the roof.

I arrived before the stipulated time of 8:00 and was told that we would start at 8:45. It was a good thing I brought a book.

Finally we got started and eventually a judge came and told us about his upcoming trial. The trial is next week starting on Tuesday, which unfortunately was a big conflict for me. I have a course with International students next week, including one from an island in the Indian Ocean, who was already on the way to San Francisco.

The judge reviewed hardship cases while we were still in the jury room. There was a long line, so I remained seated until the line was down to less than a handful of people. It was interesting to hear all the reasons for people having a hardship. There were the usual cases of not being paid for jury duty by their employer, full time students, sick family members, caretakers, having to take care of children, etc… With few exceptions all were excused, and those exceptions were rescheduled.

I made my case to the judge and was excused from service. It would have been an interesting experience to serve on a jury again, so I was a bit disappointed that it was next week. Why couldn’t it have been the following week? I am now exempt from jury duty until 2025.

Since it was just mid morning I decided to walk to the nearby main branch of our library system. I did a bit of research in the local history section and found a good source for something I am working on.

I then fought traffic all the way back home. Something was slowing things down.

Now to mentally prepare for my course next week.

Steven