Jury Duty

I'm serving jury duty this week and next.  By an odd set of circumstances Wife is also serving jury duty as well though her two week service period started the week before mine did.  This confluence of service occurred because of multiple rescheduling we did at the end of last year.

Here in Albuquerque there are three courts you can be called in on to do jury duty.  There is the Metropolitan Court which handles smaller criminal and civil actions.  District Court which handles the larger stuff.  And Federal District Court which deals with cases involving Federal rather than State law. 

Wife and I have been called to Metropolitan Court.  This means that we mostly go to the Courthouse in the morning, sit around for half a day and be sent home.  The reason you rarely end up going to an actual jury is that the small nature of the cases usually are settled before they go to trial.  In addition they start a new jury pool group each week and (in general) bring them in every other day.

Unfortunately they don't actually tell this to you.  They tell you you need to be available for two weeks.  So that means two weeks of not being able to schedule anything business or personal.  Wife only has two more days to go and has only been on one panel and that panel never actually was called up for interview.  I on the other hand was called onto a panel the first day there (Monday) and was selected for the jury.  The trial was a DUI case and went through Monday and Tuesday. 

The trial itself was kind of interesting and being responsible for someone's fate certainly makes you pay close, close attention to all that goes on during the trial.  What's a royal pain is all the waiting around.  I don't know anything about how courts schedule things, but as a juror you are mostly in the dark about what's happening.  So there's all this waiting around without knowing when you're starting or how long things are going to go.  Plus you can't have any electronic devices with cameras on them in the courthouse (so no phone or computer if they are half way recent at all), and none at all period when you are in the jury itself.

The jury deliberating room is this small place with now windows or anything.  When we finally finished and had our verdict, we called them only to be told they were on to something else so we had to sit in this tiny room for another hour and a half.

Fortunately today no panels were called and I was able to come home at Noon time.

If The Shoe Fits Wear It

With the last of the offspring sent to their part of the world, I'm finally getting into the rhythm of the semi-retired lifestyle.  And I have to say I'm liking it a lot.

I'm working effectively half-time.  That's around 25 to 30 hours a week.  I'm making sure that I hike twice a week and I'm trying to always do the hikes during the week so I have my solitude though sometimes schedule or weather forces me to a weekend day.

I've found that I'm actually doing more actual client work than I was doing recently which is good because it is what I really enjoy and I get paid which I enjoy as well.  I'm doing lots of work on our projected trips which I love to.

Unfortunately I've got jury duty for two straight weeks next month.  So that will screw up the hiking schedule for sure.

But I'm looking forward to more doing what I'm enjoying.

Bitter-Sweet

The final whirlwind of family activity ended this morning as we were caught in the Pulandic Vortex that accompanies the physical moving of Pulandia from continent to continent.

#2 Pu and the Visigoths came in late Wednesday night, spent Thursday getting everything together for their move to Hong Kong.  Of course all the kids were wound up.  Everyone in their group was a combination of anxious and excited.  It took every cubic inch of auto storage space to get all the bags and all the people in and to the airport.

Even though they were here for just over a day, it was amazing how the home went from its pristine, Elder Fleet Command inspection ready status, to the Pulandia in exile look. Immediately upon getting home, Wife was throwing herself into  returning things here to here to Elder Fleet Command standards

I was very happy to have had this last bit of time with them even if it was stressful because they're going to be out of the country for two and half years.  The time with the grandkids was especially sweet.  And this brings up the whole topic of having family that is so far away.

Every visit is an event.   Whether we travel to them or they travel to us, it's not just a 'hey we were in the neighborhood so we stopped by' or 'are you free Saturday for dinner' moment.  It is a lot of valuable time and travel on all the parties to make the visit happen.  And you're very, very happy to be seeing each other but it is never in a normal setting or living pattern.  That brings a certain amount of stress.  Then all too soon it's over and either you or they are on the way again. 

So while we love the fact that our children have all pursued there dreams and have found great places pursue their lives, we miss having a more regular day-to-day relationship.  I will say that Skype has made things much better because you can see everyone. And I think as a family we make a real commitment to communicating consistently and regularly.  And to be perfectly honest, I don't think where we live would really be a great place for them to be pursuing their careers. 

Yet it is all a bit bittersweet.

Then again isn't that the nature of life in general?

Snow, Silence, Solitude

We had two small snow storms yesterday and the day before.  And it was supposed to get warm again today.  The last storm was kind of slushy.  I hoped to get some snow hiking in this morning.  Got going early so that it wouldn't be in slush and mud.

At 8:10 AM I was at the trail head.  It was 17 degrees.  No worry about melting here.  There were no cars in the parking lot.  There were only a few tracks in the snow heading up the trail.  After 3/4 of a mile of hiking the tracks went in a different direction than I was going.  I was hiking in fresh snow.

It was a bright, sunny day that was warming up quickly.  I was shedding various layers that I had on in the beginning to keep warm.  The sun shining on the snow made it look like a blanket of diamonds.  These pictures do not do it justice.

Alone on the mountain with my thoughts and my mantra reveling in the quiet and solitude.

Not Opening A B & B

The amount of cleaning and rearranging that was necessary in the aftermath of the mass family holiday/family reunion was incredible.  And with Wife having the Flu for the first week of it, it meant that I was on the battle lines.

I honestly can't remember when I've done so many loads of laundry not to mention trying to clean out excess food.  That one was the worse.  There was terrible amount of over buying for the reunion (as we've not done that before) and there was no way to give away a lot of the stuff as it had already been heated/served etc.  So I while I did a pretty good job of trying to utilize things there was still a lot of waste.

The first full week of January saw me going to Santa Fe for business.  It was like going on a holiday!

A Big Tip Of The Hat To My Numbers!

That would be my very lovely, hard working daughters numbers 1, 2 & 3.  Each of them through dint of hard work and focus have come a long way and have really taken charge of their destinies.  Life is supposed to be a challenge and they continue to address each challenge that comes up.  2014 marked some real accomplishments for each that I feel deserve to be recognized.

Daughter #1 (along with son-in-law 1A) were forced to become entrepreneurs after the economic collapse in 2009.  Now in the third year of their business, they are getting serious traction and are showing that they have an excellent future ahead of them.  There will be more challenges ahead because that's part of being an entrepreneur, but they've conquered some of the harder things that can be thrown at them and I know that they have what it takes to get the success they want in life.

Daughter #2 has had so many twists and turns in her saga that it could read like a soap opera.  But in December she found out that she got tenure in the State Department Foreign Service that ensures that she has this career path through her retirement if she wants.  What a blessing.  Bravo Pu!

And Daughter #3, she decided a year and half ago that to make the money she wanted for her family she needed to change for an operations position into sales.  This is a girl whose not shown any predilection toward selling in her life!  2014 was her start.  She had no pipeline or book of business to work from plus gave birth and took 4 months of family leave.  In spite of all that she nearly hit her full sales target for the year.  Well done.

Eldership Casualty Report

The Eldership de-I is limping back to ElderFleet Command after successfully surviving Family-adeddon...but not without serious casualties.  50% of our crew is out of commission with diseases brought by various family members.

Of course with a crew of only two, that means that Wife has come down with the influenza and is seriously miserable.  Hopefully she will start to feel better before too long.