LUDKE-ville 8/7/09

We’re on the edge of a HEAT WAVE … We have heard repeatedly today that the weekend is going to be HOT. DANGEROUSLY hot one report said. I’m not into DANGEROUS anything, but heat is right up there at the top of the list. Add humidity to it and it’s way up there!

Seems like there is always something out of the ordinary happening. So maybe it’s NOT out of the ordinary. Hmm? I’ll have to think that over. I had a jury summons mailed to me a few weeks ago. This is the FOURTH time, I think, that I’ve been called for jury duty. One time I got selected to sit on the jury. Twice I got excused or there wasn’t a trial on my day.

So I didn’t think much about it. I’d call the night before. I’d show up if they told me to. And within an hour I’d be on my way to work. NOT!!

I called the night before. The recorded message told me to show up, so I did. I was one of forty people there. They only need 12. So I’m encouraged by looking at the sheer number of people there, my odds were pretty good to be on my happy way soon. They randomly selected 24 out of the 40. The rest had to still stay there. One by one the attorneys questioned us. Do you this, did you that, how do you feel about this, would you …??? LONG. BORING.

To make it worse the defense attorney felt the need to be wordy. Instead of saying “Is the ball red?” He would say “If Rodney the Mailman was driving his truck past you in the light of the moon on the 23rd day of February in a snowstorm … would it be fair to say the ball could look PURPLE?”

To make it worse the defense attorney felt the need to be wordy AND he had a speech impediment. Instead of saying “Is the ball red?” He would say “If Wodney the Mailman was dwiving his twuck past you in the wight of the moon on the 23thood day of Febwuawy in a snowstowm… wouwd it be faiw to say the baww couwd wook pupwe?”

People were looking at him, concentrating on him and almost every time they’d say “Could you repeat the question please?”

Long story a little shorter – I was chosen. It turned out to be a 2 day trial. OWI – A one vehicle accident occurred. A male and a female were in the truck. The female maintained that she was NOT driving. And yet – the male was trapped in the truck, had to have the jaws of life cut him out of the truck and his arm was pinned between the truck and the ground – ON THE PASSENGER SIDE of the vehicle. We listened/watched a very long (48 minute) video recorded from the officer’s car at the scene. We heard her talk a lot. Just before the trial started she signed a statement that said she WAS driving the vehicle. (duh!) So it was our job to find her guilty or innocent of operating under the influence of alcohol.

We found her guilty – but not until after we had to re-watch the entire boring video and deliberate some more to satisfy a couple of jurors. DO NOT ask me to ever lie for you. Those ‘character witnesses’ were almost funny in the way they tripped themselves up. But I have determined that I do not want to be in that position ever. Anyway – we did find out that this was her THIRD offense for OWI.

That was Wednesday and Thursday. I went to work after we got out on Thursday. Arrived at 5 pm and worked until 8:30. Got most of my rent posted – terrible time to have to be away from the office. Today I worked a full day at City Hall. I could have had those extra hours yesterday too – except for jury duty. Fooey.

I got my hair cut this week also. Not sure yet if it was a good thing or not. My sister in law Bellie got such a cute haircut from Regis – so needing one badly I made an appointment and went in. I told the girl what I wanted. I must have explained it differently in my words than I was picturing in my head. But … like my little sister told me once when I cut my OWN hair – “Vonda, you know I can’t cut it longer right?”

I fussed with it and got it to look okay on days one and two – but if I thought it looked a little "iffy" on Wednesday and Thursday - I was wrong. TODAY it is atrocious. There is so much humidity in the air that each and every hair on my head shrugged it's tiny shoulders (does hair have shoulders?) and gave up ANY attempt at being fluffy and cute-ish.

Nick has a full weekend with his 5-year reunion and a trip he wants to make to Des Moines with some other folks. He’s very pleased to have his yellow car in his possession. He seems to think it’s fun to drive.

If you are in our area – mark the 21st and 22nd on the calendar and join us for the Loud Thunder mini-campmeeting. Van Hurst is coming to be the weekend speaker. We’ve had him before. Very personable. Our friends Gerri and Dale – who are actually the parents of Rhiannon’s good friends Kristen and Kim – are coming to be with us for the event. We’re looking forward to that.

I need to head to bed – Take care and I look forward to hearing from you.
Vonda

PS Aunt Lois how is Robbie doing?