Jury Duty

I have Jury Duty Today, tomorrow, and Thursday.

To me, it is usually a three day vacation. My job is one of almost constant crisis of one kind ot another This plug won't mate with that piece of equipment? Where is this connector located in the aircraft, and what job installs it? I am supposed to hook up to this piece of equipment, but it is not there. When does it get installed?

Stuff that needs an immediate answer to a production problem in real time. No "I'll get back to you on that later." Later is five minutes from now. Some things cannot be answered immediately, and need to be forwarded to Engineering or Planning. But they still need to be monitored. When can we expect this to be resolved?

To me, Jury Duty is like a vacation. Instead of being there at 6:00, I reported at 8:30 today, 9:00 tomorrow, so I get to sleep in. Bring a book, sit in a nice warm building, plug in my i-pod and zone out.

So far I have not been chosen to serve on a jury. I was empanelled once, but I was juror number 16 in a trial that required six jurors. Numbers one through six sat in the box, and the rest of us were replacements for them if they were challenged by the Prosecution or Defense, so the likelihood of my serving were slim to none. Sent home early.

An hour and a half for lunch. Right across the street is the Columbia Tower, which has an atrium with about 20 different shops serving food. Any one of them is probably better than the offerings of the food service at work. Industrial swill VS takeout.

I was in the mood for Thai, so it was Thai Chicken with Basil, with sides of Phad Thai and sticky rice. Not the best I've ever had, but OK. Enough time left over for a leisurely stroll through downtown.

Jury Duty pays a whopping $10 a day, but I get payed my regular salary anyway. Parking is about $20 a day, so I lose $10 a day.

But to me, that's a pretty cheap vacation.