Many people who know me know that I define family a little differently than most people. For me, family is more than just the people I'm related to. Although my family certainly is my sister, brother-in-law, nephews and mom and dad, my family is also my friends, the people at my church, the gang at the gym. To me, family is the people who you live your life with on a day-to-day basis.
Tonight, I got together with my church family for a potluck dinner, hymn sing, barn raising and ice cream social (although not those last two). It was a great time. We haven't done an all church potluck in ages and I don't remember ever getting together just to sing hymns with the church family. The food was great. The time to just hang out and talk with people was wonderful. The singing was a lot of fun. The Quebe sisters sang and played for a few hymns including The Ninety and Nine, which I recognized from Andrew Peterson's CD Carried Along. They were accompanied by Jacob (our music guy) and Ben (who even links to a Quebe Sisters clip on YouTube) who's about to head to Germany to be a missionary. After the song was over, they broke into the Irish jig (or whatever) that ends that song on the disc. Watching them play, it was obvious that they were all having a great time. And all of us not playing really enjoyed it as well.
Looking around the sanctuary, while we were singing, I realized, once again, what an amazing congregation I'm a part of, what an amazing family I have. I may not actually be related to any of these people, but it just doesn't matter. God has truly blessed me here.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
10 and 2 - Adventures in the US Civil Courts System
My intimate, first hand look at the US justice system is now complete. As of about 2pm-ish, this afternoon, I have been released from my duties as a juror in the 96th District Court (a civil court, so no criminal trials). And, as with previous days, I'm a bit wiped out. Actually, I'm probably more wiped out today than previous days, but I attribute at least some of that to doing "Boring Abs" during abs class (where we do one specific exercise until we all collapse, usually in the 100+ reps and then switch to another exercise for another 100+ reps. I really dislike Boring Abs. But I went and I partipated and I'm glad that I did.) and then kickboxing class, which often wears me out. But, yeah, serving on a jury is, for me at least, draining. It's work, and of a different kind than I'm used to doing. And, now that the trial is over and I have been released from my duties, mustered out and even deposited my check for my service, I can talk about it.
Let me start with a bit about the jury selection process. During the Voir Dire (where the attorneys get to ask questions of the entire panel from which the jurors will be selected), we were told that this was a automobile accident case, that the plaintiff was seeking damages due to injuries and that she was Hispanic and spoke little English, that there were two defendants one of whom was black and the other who was a Marine. The attorneys spent a lot of time talking about the burden of proof (which is probably cause or "more likely than not" rather than beyond a reasonable doubt as in criminal cases), whether an autmobile accident could have more than one cause (and implied that it could be the fault of more than one person) and asked about our feelings about people in the United States who aren't able to speak English well or at all. In the end, no one with any experience in the medical field or military experience (and certainly not the retired Navy corpsman who now worked for the US Postal Service and had duties that included investigating postal service traffic accidents) made the jury. There were, however, two engineers (which I have been told by many people that it's rare for engineers to actually get on a jury) on the jury. Our jury of 12 was made up of three men, nine women. Three (I think) of the women were retired. Two of the women looked like they had some sort of Hispanic background. Most people seemed relatively well educated, over half had jobs in professions that would have required a college degree. It was an interesting cross-section of the people in the area.
On to the case. The traffic accident took place on North Beach just south of Western Center back in June of 1995. DJ (who has an African sounding name that looks like it has too many vowels...everyone, the judge included, refered to him as DJ, which was fine with him) was driving a PT Cruiser in the right hand lane. Mike, who's now a lance corporal in the Marines, but hadn't yet joined at the time of the accident, was driving a Mazda Protege in the center lane. Maria, a hispanic woman who spoke little English, was driving a Ford Explorer in the right hand lane. DJ signaled and looked to see if he could change lanes. Whether he made a move towards changing lanes is unknown. But he didn't cross into Mike's lane. Mike, thinking that DJ was about to change lanes on top of him, looked out his driver's side window, saw no one and swerved to avoid what he thought was an imminent collision with DJ. Mike his Maria, causing her Explorer to go up on the curb (at least a little bit) and jostling her around. They all pulled over and, a few minutes later, talked to the police officer to who respnded to the call about the wreck. At the time, no one said they were injured. All cars were drivable and left the scene under their own power. Mike's car had "distributed damage" along the driver's side which, according to the police report, was a level 2 (out of 9). Maria had a "good dent" (Mike's words) in the right front quarter panel (somewhere in front of the passenger door) that was a level 1 (again, out of 9).
Later on, Maria started to have pain in her neck, back, hips, radiating down her right arm and right leg. The pain did not significantly improve and two weeks after the accident she went to a chiropractor for treatment. She did improve some over the course of two months of treatment, but said that some pain remains today (2.5ish years after the accident). She was suing Mike for damages including pain and suffering that she incurred in the past (before the date of the trial), pain and suffering that she would most likely incur in the future (after the trial), physical impairment in the past and in the future and medical expenses in the past in and in the future. Mike blamed DJ, so he was added as a party in the lawsuit. We the jury were charged with answering a number of questions. Was DJ negligent in his actions (Mike admitted to being negligent in his, so that wasn't for us to determine)? If DJ Was negligent, what percentage of the accident was Mike's fault and what was DJ's? And, what amounts, if any, should Maria receive for those medical issues I mentioned above (which I'm not going to retype).
The evidence was not terribly clear. The police officer didn't remember the accident and could only go by the police report. There was questions about where the cars were in relation to each other. Both Mike and DJ said they saw the other in their side view mirrors. The police officer said that, in her opinion, based on her experience in traffic investigation, Mike was traveling faster than Maria and therefore hit Maria in the front of his car, slid along her car and that caused the damage. Mike remembers hitting Maria first with the back of his car, which would indicate that Maria was going faster than Mike. Although no one made any allegations of speeding (DJ said they were accelerating away from a light). We didn't have to determine anything about the legality of their actions, nothing about traffic laws or anything. Only negligence and damages for medical related issues. Maria's testimony was not easy. Since she spoke very little English, she used an interpreter. The judge said later than he knows just enough Spanish that the interpreter was doing more interpreting than translating. Apparently, Maria's lawyer caught that as well. But, as a court appointed translator/interpreter, there wasn't much that anyone could do other than the lawyers ask the questions a different way. Maria's testimony took the longest, partly because of that, partly because of the interpreter (everything was said at least twice). Maria was also very nervous on the witness stand (not surprising). She also didn't have a great recall of the events surrounding, well, much of anything. I'm not sure how much of that was cultural, how much of that was her being intimidated (which certainly was a factor. When I testified in a criminal case a number of years ago, I was very intimidated and I was just the person who called 911.) and how much was her just not really quite understanding what all was going on. In the end, all of the jury instructions, initial arguments, testimony, closing arguments and all of the filing into and out of the jury box (we got really good at lining up in the right order so that we wouldn't have to step over anyone getting to our assigned seats) took from Tuesday before lunch through quitting time Wednesday. Longer than expected, but we also got a late start on Wednesday due to some other court business that the judge couldn't do any other time.
In our deliberations, there was more varied opinions than I think anyone thought there was. We got a bit of a late start deliberating, due to two of the jury being stuck in traffic (apparently I-35 was a mess this morning). After electing a presiding juror (formerly called a jury foreman), which we did by more or less appointing the guy who was the latest, he was so apologetic that he didn't make any arguments, we got down to work. There was some discussion about whether DJ was negligent or not. But, after reviewing the definition of probably cause (would a reasonable person foresee that his actions or inactions would have caused these events...more or less), we unanimously agreed that he was not negligent. Although, later on, I think that one of the guys was waffling about that. But it turned out that even if he did, it wouldn't have mattered...I'll get to that in a minute. On the question of awarding money to Maria for medical stuff, we were all good with awarding no money until we got to the part about the past medical bills. That's where we got stuck for a good while. At the start, the jury was split almost evenly at awarding no money or awarding some money. There was lots of discussion about a variety of topics. I don't remember them all. There were questions about the credibility of the witnesses (since the accounts they gave were so different), whether Maria had any previous medical conditions that this accident could have made worse and pushed her over the edge of seeing a doctor (she said she had no previous medical conditions and hadn't seen a doctor in five years. But I wasn't convinced that the plaintiff's side did a great job proving that she didn't have any issues prior to the accident). There were comments about chiropractors and lots of other things. We took a number of votes and inched towards our required 10 jurors in agreement (it is required that the same 10 of the 12 jurors are in agreement about every question that is asked of them). It came down to 9 to 3 for giving her money for the past medical bills (which totaled just under $5000). I was one of the three. As I said, I had a hard time with the fact that I didn't feel that the plaintiff's side proved to me, more likely than not (which, again, was the level that was required in the case) that Maria's injuries were bad enough, solely as a result of this accident, that she sought medical treatment (the other hold out wasn't convinced she actually had the pain she said she had. The third had issues with her credibility, the fact that everyone's story was different and a couple of other things.). After what was probably 90 minutes of discussion (all very civil on everyone's part, although I could tell I wasn't making any friends or influencing people), I came to the conclusion that I believed that Maria was injured, to some extent in the accident and that, because at least some of her injuries were due to the accident, she was entitled to at least some monetary award for the medical bills accrued due to the injury. When I type it all out now and reread it, it sounds really simple. But, trust me when I say, at least for me, that it wasn't. At that point, it was about seven minutes to twelve, I knew I wasn't at the point where I was ready to talk about the amount of money, and so I suggested we break for lunch. I know there were a number of people who would have loved to have been done before lunch, but my blood sugar was crashing, my head was starting to hurt and I wasn't willing to make a decision like that when pressed for time and not feeling anywhere near 100%. So I said basically that (although I used less words and emphasized it by digging my grapes out of my lunch box and starting to eat them). And we broke for lunch.
I did what I had been doing the previous couple of days for lunch. I wandered down towards the river, ate lunch and then went walking along the trail there. Wednesday and today it was pretty warm out and I wanted to get some exercise (today especially to help clear my head) so I walked kinda fast. And, as a result got a bit sweaty. Yesterday I didn't realize that was going to be the case until it was too late. I had gone too far out and didn't have the time to really slow down and still make it back on time. Today I didn't really care. I knew I was going to be hot and a bit sweaty when I got back to court. I hoped I didn't smell too bad and figured it was better for me to have a clear head than for me to be really fresh smelling. No one said anything (although the baliff, a neat guy named Mr Tilley, who enjoyed the series premiers of both Chuck and Bionic Woman, both good pilots, in my opinion, did give me a bit of a look yesterday when he let us back into the jury room. Oh well. He didn't say anything and I felt better.)
When we got back from lunch, we started talking about money. This was very difficult for me. I'm not certain if it's that I have a different view of money than many people (honestly, I make a reasonable amount more than my standard of living requires. So, I don't think about money a whole lot. I have more than enough for what I need and most of what I want and I'm content with that. I may gripe about "merit raises" at work a bit, but I have absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to money. God has blessed me hugely in that way.). Or it may be that I'm just not that great with numbers (yes, I'm an engineer. No, I'm not amazing with numbers. I have a hard time remembering specific, but seemingly random numbers (highway route numbers are the worst) and I still, on occasion, count on my fingers when adding an subtracting. I had do multiplication, division and figure square roots to a couple of decimal points in my head. I can't add or subtract too well.). But I had a real hard time with the number thing. It came down to the other 9 people (of the core 10. The other two who didn't agree with giving Maria any money at this point didn't really count anymore. Their opinions were still valid and valued, but since they weren't part of our required 10, their votes didn't count anyway.) were good with giving Maria 50% of her past medical bills (just under $2500), and I was waffling. I felt that somewhere between 25% and 50% was good, but I had a hard time coming to a specific number. Some of the other jurors were starting to get annoyed with me (or more annoyed in some cases), but I worked hard not to let that get to me. I had decided before I was even selected for a jury that, regardless of what pressure people put on me, regardless of the time pressures or anything else, I was going to do the best job I could to give the fairest and best decision that I was able to. I figured I owed the people involved with the case, the judge, the system, myself and, really, everyone who lives under the US justice system that. It's what I would want if I was a part of the case and I think it's the right thing to do. So, we talked a bit about the money and about the percentages. And others admitted that they weren't certain that 50% was right. I (and not for the first time) asked the other engineer, specifically, why he thought the way he did (I found that hearing how the men thought helped me understand things a lot more than hearing how the women thought. Not sure if that's because my engineering mind thinks more like guys do or I just appreciated how the men expressed their thoughts more than how the women did, or a combination of both and probably some other things.). And pretty much everyone couldn't come up with more than 50% seemed right. There wasn't a formula people were using or anything related to how much they felt Maria's injuries were sustained from the accident or how much of the accident was Mike's fault or anything. It seemed to come down to that it just felt right. And, I can't say that I didn't come to the conclusion that 50% was the right amount by any other reasoning. I'm still not certain that 50% was the "right" amount, but I'm also not certain that there is a right amount. I did the best I could. Many people breathed a sigh of relief. We decided (unanimously) to award no money for any medical expenses that Maria might have in the future (although the suit was asking for almost $2000, which would have covered an MRI and something else...I don't remember exactly what now. More chiropractic treatments probably.). And, just like that, we had our verdict.
We filed into the court room one last time, delivered our verdict and the case was over. There were still some other things to tie up. We had to get some (more) instructions, be officially released, get our verifications of serving jury duty (in case anyone needed that for an employeer) and get our paychecks. Officer Tilley took care of getting that rounded up for us while the judge hung out with us in the jury room and took some time to answer any questions we had. That was an interesting time. The judge was very careful to couch some of his answers to questions. He wouldn't say whether what we did was right or wrong or whether he agreed with what we had decided, only that we had done well. He did answer the question of why DJ and his lawyer had disappeared after Wednesday. Turns out that before the trial was over (and possibly even before it began) that he settled with Maria and her lawyer. The judge wouldn't give us a dollar amount, but he said it was a reasonable amount more than what we had awarded Maria. He would have been better sticking it out, but he didn't know that and I think he was a bit scared. Way it goes. We also learned that Maria didn't have a driver's license at the time of the accident. It wasn't really relevant to the case, since she didn't really do anything wrong. She just got hit. But we weren't allowed to know that. So, that was rather interesting and, if that information had been known, perhaps might have changed some people's minds. Not that it should have, but I think it might have.
So, tomorrow I'm back to work and back to my normal schedule (no more sleeping in a bit, doing morning workouts or using public transportation for at least part of my morning commute. For those in Fort Worth, the whole park at La Grave field and take the bus downtown works really well. It's free and aside from possibly having to wait up to 15 minutes for a bus (if you just miss the previous one), it's great.). I'm looking forward to getting back to my life. And that means getting to bed very soon, cause I'm well past my bedtime.
Let me start with a bit about the jury selection process. During the Voir Dire (where the attorneys get to ask questions of the entire panel from which the jurors will be selected), we were told that this was a automobile accident case, that the plaintiff was seeking damages due to injuries and that she was Hispanic and spoke little English, that there were two defendants one of whom was black and the other who was a Marine. The attorneys spent a lot of time talking about the burden of proof (which is probably cause or "more likely than not" rather than beyond a reasonable doubt as in criminal cases), whether an autmobile accident could have more than one cause (and implied that it could be the fault of more than one person) and asked about our feelings about people in the United States who aren't able to speak English well or at all. In the end, no one with any experience in the medical field or military experience (and certainly not the retired Navy corpsman who now worked for the US Postal Service and had duties that included investigating postal service traffic accidents) made the jury. There were, however, two engineers (which I have been told by many people that it's rare for engineers to actually get on a jury) on the jury. Our jury of 12 was made up of three men, nine women. Three (I think) of the women were retired. Two of the women looked like they had some sort of Hispanic background. Most people seemed relatively well educated, over half had jobs in professions that would have required a college degree. It was an interesting cross-section of the people in the area.
On to the case. The traffic accident took place on North Beach just south of Western Center back in June of 1995. DJ (who has an African sounding name that looks like it has too many vowels...everyone, the judge included, refered to him as DJ, which was fine with him) was driving a PT Cruiser in the right hand lane. Mike, who's now a lance corporal in the Marines, but hadn't yet joined at the time of the accident, was driving a Mazda Protege in the center lane. Maria, a hispanic woman who spoke little English, was driving a Ford Explorer in the right hand lane. DJ signaled and looked to see if he could change lanes. Whether he made a move towards changing lanes is unknown. But he didn't cross into Mike's lane. Mike, thinking that DJ was about to change lanes on top of him, looked out his driver's side window, saw no one and swerved to avoid what he thought was an imminent collision with DJ. Mike his Maria, causing her Explorer to go up on the curb (at least a little bit) and jostling her around. They all pulled over and, a few minutes later, talked to the police officer to who respnded to the call about the wreck. At the time, no one said they were injured. All cars were drivable and left the scene under their own power. Mike's car had "distributed damage" along the driver's side which, according to the police report, was a level 2 (out of 9). Maria had a "good dent" (Mike's words) in the right front quarter panel (somewhere in front of the passenger door) that was a level 1 (again, out of 9).
Later on, Maria started to have pain in her neck, back, hips, radiating down her right arm and right leg. The pain did not significantly improve and two weeks after the accident she went to a chiropractor for treatment. She did improve some over the course of two months of treatment, but said that some pain remains today (2.5ish years after the accident). She was suing Mike for damages including pain and suffering that she incurred in the past (before the date of the trial), pain and suffering that she would most likely incur in the future (after the trial), physical impairment in the past and in the future and medical expenses in the past in and in the future. Mike blamed DJ, so he was added as a party in the lawsuit. We the jury were charged with answering a number of questions. Was DJ negligent in his actions (Mike admitted to being negligent in his, so that wasn't for us to determine)? If DJ Was negligent, what percentage of the accident was Mike's fault and what was DJ's? And, what amounts, if any, should Maria receive for those medical issues I mentioned above (which I'm not going to retype).
The evidence was not terribly clear. The police officer didn't remember the accident and could only go by the police report. There was questions about where the cars were in relation to each other. Both Mike and DJ said they saw the other in their side view mirrors. The police officer said that, in her opinion, based on her experience in traffic investigation, Mike was traveling faster than Maria and therefore hit Maria in the front of his car, slid along her car and that caused the damage. Mike remembers hitting Maria first with the back of his car, which would indicate that Maria was going faster than Mike. Although no one made any allegations of speeding (DJ said they were accelerating away from a light). We didn't have to determine anything about the legality of their actions, nothing about traffic laws or anything. Only negligence and damages for medical related issues. Maria's testimony was not easy. Since she spoke very little English, she used an interpreter. The judge said later than he knows just enough Spanish that the interpreter was doing more interpreting than translating. Apparently, Maria's lawyer caught that as well. But, as a court appointed translator/interpreter, there wasn't much that anyone could do other than the lawyers ask the questions a different way. Maria's testimony took the longest, partly because of that, partly because of the interpreter (everything was said at least twice). Maria was also very nervous on the witness stand (not surprising). She also didn't have a great recall of the events surrounding, well, much of anything. I'm not sure how much of that was cultural, how much of that was her being intimidated (which certainly was a factor. When I testified in a criminal case a number of years ago, I was very intimidated and I was just the person who called 911.) and how much was her just not really quite understanding what all was going on. In the end, all of the jury instructions, initial arguments, testimony, closing arguments and all of the filing into and out of the jury box (we got really good at lining up in the right order so that we wouldn't have to step over anyone getting to our assigned seats) took from Tuesday before lunch through quitting time Wednesday. Longer than expected, but we also got a late start on Wednesday due to some other court business that the judge couldn't do any other time.
In our deliberations, there was more varied opinions than I think anyone thought there was. We got a bit of a late start deliberating, due to two of the jury being stuck in traffic (apparently I-35 was a mess this morning). After electing a presiding juror (formerly called a jury foreman), which we did by more or less appointing the guy who was the latest, he was so apologetic that he didn't make any arguments, we got down to work. There was some discussion about whether DJ was negligent or not. But, after reviewing the definition of probably cause (would a reasonable person foresee that his actions or inactions would have caused these events...more or less), we unanimously agreed that he was not negligent. Although, later on, I think that one of the guys was waffling about that. But it turned out that even if he did, it wouldn't have mattered...I'll get to that in a minute. On the question of awarding money to Maria for medical stuff, we were all good with awarding no money until we got to the part about the past medical bills. That's where we got stuck for a good while. At the start, the jury was split almost evenly at awarding no money or awarding some money. There was lots of discussion about a variety of topics. I don't remember them all. There were questions about the credibility of the witnesses (since the accounts they gave were so different), whether Maria had any previous medical conditions that this accident could have made worse and pushed her over the edge of seeing a doctor (she said she had no previous medical conditions and hadn't seen a doctor in five years. But I wasn't convinced that the plaintiff's side did a great job proving that she didn't have any issues prior to the accident). There were comments about chiropractors and lots of other things. We took a number of votes and inched towards our required 10 jurors in agreement (it is required that the same 10 of the 12 jurors are in agreement about every question that is asked of them). It came down to 9 to 3 for giving her money for the past medical bills (which totaled just under $5000). I was one of the three. As I said, I had a hard time with the fact that I didn't feel that the plaintiff's side proved to me, more likely than not (which, again, was the level that was required in the case) that Maria's injuries were bad enough, solely as a result of this accident, that she sought medical treatment (the other hold out wasn't convinced she actually had the pain she said she had. The third had issues with her credibility, the fact that everyone's story was different and a couple of other things.). After what was probably 90 minutes of discussion (all very civil on everyone's part, although I could tell I wasn't making any friends or influencing people), I came to the conclusion that I believed that Maria was injured, to some extent in the accident and that, because at least some of her injuries were due to the accident, she was entitled to at least some monetary award for the medical bills accrued due to the injury. When I type it all out now and reread it, it sounds really simple. But, trust me when I say, at least for me, that it wasn't. At that point, it was about seven minutes to twelve, I knew I wasn't at the point where I was ready to talk about the amount of money, and so I suggested we break for lunch. I know there were a number of people who would have loved to have been done before lunch, but my blood sugar was crashing, my head was starting to hurt and I wasn't willing to make a decision like that when pressed for time and not feeling anywhere near 100%. So I said basically that (although I used less words and emphasized it by digging my grapes out of my lunch box and starting to eat them). And we broke for lunch.
I did what I had been doing the previous couple of days for lunch. I wandered down towards the river, ate lunch and then went walking along the trail there. Wednesday and today it was pretty warm out and I wanted to get some exercise (today especially to help clear my head) so I walked kinda fast. And, as a result got a bit sweaty. Yesterday I didn't realize that was going to be the case until it was too late. I had gone too far out and didn't have the time to really slow down and still make it back on time. Today I didn't really care. I knew I was going to be hot and a bit sweaty when I got back to court. I hoped I didn't smell too bad and figured it was better for me to have a clear head than for me to be really fresh smelling. No one said anything (although the baliff, a neat guy named Mr Tilley, who enjoyed the series premiers of both Chuck and Bionic Woman, both good pilots, in my opinion, did give me a bit of a look yesterday when he let us back into the jury room. Oh well. He didn't say anything and I felt better.)
When we got back from lunch, we started talking about money. This was very difficult for me. I'm not certain if it's that I have a different view of money than many people (honestly, I make a reasonable amount more than my standard of living requires. So, I don't think about money a whole lot. I have more than enough for what I need and most of what I want and I'm content with that. I may gripe about "merit raises" at work a bit, but I have absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to money. God has blessed me hugely in that way.). Or it may be that I'm just not that great with numbers (yes, I'm an engineer. No, I'm not amazing with numbers. I have a hard time remembering specific, but seemingly random numbers (highway route numbers are the worst) and I still, on occasion, count on my fingers when adding an subtracting. I had do multiplication, division and figure square roots to a couple of decimal points in my head. I can't add or subtract too well.). But I had a real hard time with the number thing. It came down to the other 9 people (of the core 10. The other two who didn't agree with giving Maria any money at this point didn't really count anymore. Their opinions were still valid and valued, but since they weren't part of our required 10, their votes didn't count anyway.) were good with giving Maria 50% of her past medical bills (just under $2500), and I was waffling. I felt that somewhere between 25% and 50% was good, but I had a hard time coming to a specific number. Some of the other jurors were starting to get annoyed with me (or more annoyed in some cases), but I worked hard not to let that get to me. I had decided before I was even selected for a jury that, regardless of what pressure people put on me, regardless of the time pressures or anything else, I was going to do the best job I could to give the fairest and best decision that I was able to. I figured I owed the people involved with the case, the judge, the system, myself and, really, everyone who lives under the US justice system that. It's what I would want if I was a part of the case and I think it's the right thing to do. So, we talked a bit about the money and about the percentages. And others admitted that they weren't certain that 50% was right. I (and not for the first time) asked the other engineer, specifically, why he thought the way he did (I found that hearing how the men thought helped me understand things a lot more than hearing how the women thought. Not sure if that's because my engineering mind thinks more like guys do or I just appreciated how the men expressed their thoughts more than how the women did, or a combination of both and probably some other things.). And pretty much everyone couldn't come up with more than 50% seemed right. There wasn't a formula people were using or anything related to how much they felt Maria's injuries were sustained from the accident or how much of the accident was Mike's fault or anything. It seemed to come down to that it just felt right. And, I can't say that I didn't come to the conclusion that 50% was the right amount by any other reasoning. I'm still not certain that 50% was the "right" amount, but I'm also not certain that there is a right amount. I did the best I could. Many people breathed a sigh of relief. We decided (unanimously) to award no money for any medical expenses that Maria might have in the future (although the suit was asking for almost $2000, which would have covered an MRI and something else...I don't remember exactly what now. More chiropractic treatments probably.). And, just like that, we had our verdict.
We filed into the court room one last time, delivered our verdict and the case was over. There were still some other things to tie up. We had to get some (more) instructions, be officially released, get our verifications of serving jury duty (in case anyone needed that for an employeer) and get our paychecks. Officer Tilley took care of getting that rounded up for us while the judge hung out with us in the jury room and took some time to answer any questions we had. That was an interesting time. The judge was very careful to couch some of his answers to questions. He wouldn't say whether what we did was right or wrong or whether he agreed with what we had decided, only that we had done well. He did answer the question of why DJ and his lawyer had disappeared after Wednesday. Turns out that before the trial was over (and possibly even before it began) that he settled with Maria and her lawyer. The judge wouldn't give us a dollar amount, but he said it was a reasonable amount more than what we had awarded Maria. He would have been better sticking it out, but he didn't know that and I think he was a bit scared. Way it goes. We also learned that Maria didn't have a driver's license at the time of the accident. It wasn't really relevant to the case, since she didn't really do anything wrong. She just got hit. But we weren't allowed to know that. So, that was rather interesting and, if that information had been known, perhaps might have changed some people's minds. Not that it should have, but I think it might have.
So, tomorrow I'm back to work and back to my normal schedule (no more sleeping in a bit, doing morning workouts or using public transportation for at least part of my morning commute. For those in Fort Worth, the whole park at La Grave field and take the bus downtown works really well. It's free and aside from possibly having to wait up to 15 minutes for a bus (if you just miss the previous one), it's great.). I'm looking forward to getting back to my life. And that means getting to bed very soon, cause I'm well past my bedtime.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
More new experiences
I've had a couple of new experiences over the past few days.
Monday morning I had to report for jury duty. This is my first time to actually serve jury duty. I was called once before, when I was in college. But, being a student and especially one studying out of state (I was a resident of Michigan, going to school at Georgia Tech), I was able to get out of serving. This time, I received a summons for a Friday in either July or August (I don't remember which), but it was for an off-Friday. So, not wanting to spend an off day serving jury duty, I took advantage of being able to postpone my date of service. Given the choice of three Mondays to report to serve, I chose 24 September. So, Monday morning I headed towards downtown.
While I'm sure the process of assigning prospective jurors to courts is more streamlined than it used to be, there's still a lot of room for improvement. I arrived a bit before 8am, about 30 minutes prior to the time I was required to show up...I wasn't sure how traffic and parking was going to be, and had to stand in line for a bit before being let into the jury room. Once I was checked in (a process that involved scanning my summons and being handed a plastic badge holder), I sat for at least 45 minutes (well, sat and read...at least I had a good book) before we even got started. After some instructions, dealing with people who wanted exemptions or postponements, swearing an oath, a few more instructions and dealing with more exemptions, jury pools began to be called. This involved the woman in charge (I know she had a title, I just don't remember what it was) calling a series of names and instructing that group of people which court they were assigned to, the location of that court and the time they were to report. The first group was assembled around 9:10 am. Some large groups were called and required to fill out questionairres and then, once those were done, they were told their court assignment and where to report (these tended to be for the criminal courts, I believe). My group was finally called around 10:30 am. We were the first group that was given a reporting time for the next day. So, we were free to go...until Tuesday. I estimate that about half of the jury pool for that day had been assigned at that point. And, with the exception of the few jurors who would be held in the reserve pool (for those requests for juries that came in later in the day), I'm pretty sure everyone after me was assigned to a court to report on Tuesday. It seems like it would be much easier to have an automated system, either telephone or on the web (or both, ideally) that would allow you to enter your juror number and it would return your court assignment and your reporting date and time. Seems like that would save a whole lot of trouble and time for everyone. But, apparently, that system hasn't become available yet...at least not here in Tarrant County.
So, I showed up this morning and the judge spoke with us at length about how serving on a jury works and the jury selection process. It was all very informative and he made it interesting as well. This is a civil court, so 12 jurors would be chosen from the pool of 31. The lawyers asked us all questions (a process known by the French term voir dire...although it was said mostly with a Texas accent this morning....I only cringed a little) and after a brief recess the jury was chosen. I can't say anything about the case until after it's over, and I'm not sure about how much I can say about the jury selection process, so I'll leave that for another time.
After our lunch break, we heard the opening arguments for the case and the testimony of the first few witnesses. So far, it's been interesting to be a part of the process. I will say that the jury box for the court room we are in was not set-up for tall people. I'm 5'5.5" and I'm very cramped in there. The chairs are fairly low and the divider that sets the jury box apart from the rest of the court room is very close. It might be better in the second row (my assigned seat is on the first row), but probably not much. I'm sure that the couple of guys are pretty cramped. Hopefully we will finish up tomorrow (the estimate comes from the judge) although a lot of that probably depends on how long our deliberations go. We'll see. I do need to get back to work as I know I have a couple of things waiting for my return. I wasn't figuring I would be away so long.
I also realized that it requires a lot of attention to attentively and actively listen all of the time. Maybe I knew this when I was taking classes regularly and it was just second nature. But to have to force myself to actively listen for hours on end (granted we do get regular breaks), I've found has left me a lot more tired than I would expect.
The other interesting and new thing that I've done this week is start a basic music theory class at church. This is something that Jacob, our director of music (or whatever his title is. He's not an ordained pastor, so I think that makes him "director".) is teaching it. It's geared towards those with little to no music background. Tonight was mostly review for me...although I'm having to dredge up information from when last I actually played music which would be elementary school, so it's been a good review. I think it's going to be an interesting class. I'm not certain what I hope to get out of it, but since it's just an eight week class, and it fits in my schedule, I thought I would give it a try. As I mentioned to the small group that was assembled for tonight's class, if you put the word theory into just about anything, I'm liable to be interested. I figure it's a good way to broaden my horizons a little bit. And, maybe it will help me learn to appreciate music more. One interesting thing that I did learn tonight was that in most hymnals that have music, the four voice parts (soprano, alto, tenor and base) are all represented. Which is why there are four sets of notes (generally two on the top or treble staff and two on the bottom or bass staff). I had never noticed that there were always four sets of notes and never connected that that would be the four standard parts. I also learned that the soprano and tenor parts (generally the two higher parts, one on each scale) are the melody while the alto and bass parts are the harmony. I had a general idea of what harmony was, but never really realized that it was written on the scales. This may be common knowledge to others, but it's new to me.
It's been an interesting week for me so far. I'm looking forward to learning more...after I get some sleep. Who would have thought that just sitting and listening all day would make me this tired?
Monday morning I had to report for jury duty. This is my first time to actually serve jury duty. I was called once before, when I was in college. But, being a student and especially one studying out of state (I was a resident of Michigan, going to school at Georgia Tech), I was able to get out of serving. This time, I received a summons for a Friday in either July or August (I don't remember which), but it was for an off-Friday. So, not wanting to spend an off day serving jury duty, I took advantage of being able to postpone my date of service. Given the choice of three Mondays to report to serve, I chose 24 September. So, Monday morning I headed towards downtown.
While I'm sure the process of assigning prospective jurors to courts is more streamlined than it used to be, there's still a lot of room for improvement. I arrived a bit before 8am, about 30 minutes prior to the time I was required to show up...I wasn't sure how traffic and parking was going to be, and had to stand in line for a bit before being let into the jury room. Once I was checked in (a process that involved scanning my summons and being handed a plastic badge holder), I sat for at least 45 minutes (well, sat and read...at least I had a good book) before we even got started. After some instructions, dealing with people who wanted exemptions or postponements, swearing an oath, a few more instructions and dealing with more exemptions, jury pools began to be called. This involved the woman in charge (I know she had a title, I just don't remember what it was) calling a series of names and instructing that group of people which court they were assigned to, the location of that court and the time they were to report. The first group was assembled around 9:10 am. Some large groups were called and required to fill out questionairres and then, once those were done, they were told their court assignment and where to report (these tended to be for the criminal courts, I believe). My group was finally called around 10:30 am. We were the first group that was given a reporting time for the next day. So, we were free to go...until Tuesday. I estimate that about half of the jury pool for that day had been assigned at that point. And, with the exception of the few jurors who would be held in the reserve pool (for those requests for juries that came in later in the day), I'm pretty sure everyone after me was assigned to a court to report on Tuesday. It seems like it would be much easier to have an automated system, either telephone or on the web (or both, ideally) that would allow you to enter your juror number and it would return your court assignment and your reporting date and time. Seems like that would save a whole lot of trouble and time for everyone. But, apparently, that system hasn't become available yet...at least not here in Tarrant County.
So, I showed up this morning and the judge spoke with us at length about how serving on a jury works and the jury selection process. It was all very informative and he made it interesting as well. This is a civil court, so 12 jurors would be chosen from the pool of 31. The lawyers asked us all questions (a process known by the French term voir dire...although it was said mostly with a Texas accent this morning....I only cringed a little) and after a brief recess the jury was chosen. I can't say anything about the case until after it's over, and I'm not sure about how much I can say about the jury selection process, so I'll leave that for another time.
After our lunch break, we heard the opening arguments for the case and the testimony of the first few witnesses. So far, it's been interesting to be a part of the process. I will say that the jury box for the court room we are in was not set-up for tall people. I'm 5'5.5" and I'm very cramped in there. The chairs are fairly low and the divider that sets the jury box apart from the rest of the court room is very close. It might be better in the second row (my assigned seat is on the first row), but probably not much. I'm sure that the couple of guys are pretty cramped. Hopefully we will finish up tomorrow (the estimate comes from the judge) although a lot of that probably depends on how long our deliberations go. We'll see. I do need to get back to work as I know I have a couple of things waiting for my return. I wasn't figuring I would be away so long.
I also realized that it requires a lot of attention to attentively and actively listen all of the time. Maybe I knew this when I was taking classes regularly and it was just second nature. But to have to force myself to actively listen for hours on end (granted we do get regular breaks), I've found has left me a lot more tired than I would expect.
The other interesting and new thing that I've done this week is start a basic music theory class at church. This is something that Jacob, our director of music (or whatever his title is. He's not an ordained pastor, so I think that makes him "director".) is teaching it. It's geared towards those with little to no music background. Tonight was mostly review for me...although I'm having to dredge up information from when last I actually played music which would be elementary school, so it's been a good review. I think it's going to be an interesting class. I'm not certain what I hope to get out of it, but since it's just an eight week class, and it fits in my schedule, I thought I would give it a try. As I mentioned to the small group that was assembled for tonight's class, if you put the word theory into just about anything, I'm liable to be interested. I figure it's a good way to broaden my horizons a little bit. And, maybe it will help me learn to appreciate music more. One interesting thing that I did learn tonight was that in most hymnals that have music, the four voice parts (soprano, alto, tenor and base) are all represented. Which is why there are four sets of notes (generally two on the top or treble staff and two on the bottom or bass staff). I had never noticed that there were always four sets of notes and never connected that that would be the four standard parts. I also learned that the soprano and tenor parts (generally the two higher parts, one on each scale) are the melody while the alto and bass parts are the harmony. I had a general idea of what harmony was, but never really realized that it was written on the scales. This may be common knowledge to others, but it's new to me.
It's been an interesting week for me so far. I'm looking forward to learning more...after I get some sleep. Who would have thought that just sitting and listening all day would make me this tired?
Friday, September 14, 2007
Stuff that sticks
Just about a week ago, I graduated from space camp. It's been interesting to me, especially in the past few days, to realize the impact that the trip has had on me. I've measured this mainly by what I've mentioned most when others asked me how the trip went.
Initially, I spoke most enthusiastically about my scuba diving experiences, particularly my helmet dive. And that was an amazing experience. As I've said before, it was unlike anything I've ever done. And it was one of the things that felt really like real astronaut training. While I still talk about that a lot (and show those pictures the most), it's the two times at Area 51 that I've shifted to speaking about more. Those were the times that really stretched me and during which our team really came together, especially our experience with the pamper pole. For me, personally, it was a big step, as I've always been too afraid to event attempt an element of that type. But, with the set-up at Area 51 and, especially, the support of my team, it was almost easy (actually, it was easy. All except for the part of getting from the second to last staple up to the top of the pole.). And, while I don't talk about the people as much, at least not individually, it was the people of Team Marshall, including the counselors and other staff people, who really made the program for me.
Space Camp, at least if you judge it from the web site is mostly about the simulated missions and learning about the space program. And that was one of the big draws of the program for me both when I initially went as a kid and when I went back as an adult. But those elements haven't really has as big of an impact on me. I do have a bit of a renewed interest in all things space related now that I'm back from camp. And I do spend more time looking up at the stars. But, overall, those aren't the parts of the program and of my trip that have stuck with me.
For me, I think, space camp was really about the people; my team, and the experiences we shared together. I guess, really, that's a big part of what summer camp and, by extension, life is all about.
Initially, I spoke most enthusiastically about my scuba diving experiences, particularly my helmet dive. And that was an amazing experience. As I've said before, it was unlike anything I've ever done. And it was one of the things that felt really like real astronaut training. While I still talk about that a lot (and show those pictures the most), it's the two times at Area 51 that I've shifted to speaking about more. Those were the times that really stretched me and during which our team really came together, especially our experience with the pamper pole. For me, personally, it was a big step, as I've always been too afraid to event attempt an element of that type. But, with the set-up at Area 51 and, especially, the support of my team, it was almost easy (actually, it was easy. All except for the part of getting from the second to last staple up to the top of the pole.). And, while I don't talk about the people as much, at least not individually, it was the people of Team Marshall, including the counselors and other staff people, who really made the program for me.
Space Camp, at least if you judge it from the web site is mostly about the simulated missions and learning about the space program. And that was one of the big draws of the program for me both when I initially went as a kid and when I went back as an adult. But those elements haven't really has as big of an impact on me. I do have a bit of a renewed interest in all things space related now that I'm back from camp. And I do spend more time looking up at the stars. But, overall, those aren't the parts of the program and of my trip that have stuck with me.
For me, I think, space camp was really about the people; my team, and the experiences we shared together. I guess, really, that's a big part of what summer camp and, by extension, life is all about.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
So, I was wrong
Apparently, my memory was incorrect and there is no manual override (hand crank or otherwise) for the space shuttle orbiter payload bay doors. Although the door latches can be manually engaged from inside the payload bay, should it jam when the doors close. And, the power drive unit for the doors can be manually disengaged, which tells me that if there was ever a real need to, there probably is a way to get the doors either open or closed without using the motors. But it certainly wouldn't be a lot of fun.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Back into the routine
While I don't consider vacation officially over until I have to get up for work on Monday morning, I am getting back into my normal, at home, routine. Sunday school and worship this morning, afternoon nap on the couch with the cats (although I need to convince Iggy to either stay off me or stay on me. The whole up and down thing interferes with my sleep a bit.). I talked to Mom and Dad this afternoon. They were at the IRC (I think that's the right initials) race on Belle Isle in Detroit last weekend and did the old car festival at Greenfield Village yesterday. Sounds like they had a good time. I remember going as a kid. Not my favorite event. Muzzle Loaders Festival (with the old firearms and some mock battles) was better. Although I do remember enjoying watching the various competitions on the village green. I remember something about having to drive from one end of the green to another and having to pop balloons on the way down...or something like that. Riding the carousel and eating ice cream while watching the old, mechanical clock strike the hour was always a lot of fun.
I also got to talk to Cori and Jason, from Space Camp, tonight. It was a short conversation, but it was good to talk to them. I think it's a good sign when goodbyes are hard to say and you miss people when you're not around them. Means that these people made an impact on your life. And that's certainly the case with the team that I spent the previous week with. While I was out running errands yesterday I got to thinking about how close our team became in such a short time. And thinking about how I could become good friends with any of these people that I interacted with in the stores in just a week's time. I knew that I probably wouldn't, just given the circumstances, but it's interesting to think of that possibility. Gives me a certain kind of hope for just life and the world and people, knowing that I could be just a few days from having some new, good friends, given the right circumstances.
Tonight we start small groups at church. I have my small group at 5:30 until 7. Then I'm helping to lead the high school girls' small group from 7:15-8:30. I'll get dinner in there somewhere (already have it packed and ready to go). Oh, and I bought cookies to take for the girls' too. Baked goods always make everything more fun. :) I'm not terribly thrilled about the idea of having the groups back to back, but it's what works best for everyone's schedule. So, I'll make it work. It's only twice a month.
And back to work and back into the routines of life tomorrow. Gotta pay the bills, I guess. One day maybe I'll fulfill my dream of being an independently wealthy philantropist and not have to go to work unless I want to. Unfortunately, that day will not be tomorrow (nor probably any time this week....maybe in October though).
I also got to talk to Cori and Jason, from Space Camp, tonight. It was a short conversation, but it was good to talk to them. I think it's a good sign when goodbyes are hard to say and you miss people when you're not around them. Means that these people made an impact on your life. And that's certainly the case with the team that I spent the previous week with. While I was out running errands yesterday I got to thinking about how close our team became in such a short time. And thinking about how I could become good friends with any of these people that I interacted with in the stores in just a week's time. I knew that I probably wouldn't, just given the circumstances, but it's interesting to think of that possibility. Gives me a certain kind of hope for just life and the world and people, knowing that I could be just a few days from having some new, good friends, given the right circumstances.
Tonight we start small groups at church. I have my small group at 5:30 until 7. Then I'm helping to lead the high school girls' small group from 7:15-8:30. I'll get dinner in there somewhere (already have it packed and ready to go). Oh, and I bought cookies to take for the girls' too. Baked goods always make everything more fun. :) I'm not terribly thrilled about the idea of having the groups back to back, but it's what works best for everyone's schedule. So, I'll make it work. It's only twice a month.
And back to work and back into the routines of life tomorrow. Gotta pay the bills, I guess. One day maybe I'll fulfill my dream of being an independently wealthy philantropist and not have to go to work unless I want to. Unfortunately, that day will not be tomorrow (nor probably any time this week....maybe in October though).
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Post Space Camp - Day 1
And now's the time in the Space Camp story where I spend some quality time with the couch. It's not so much the travel shock anymore, just the general sleep deprivation. Oh, and the fact that my right ear is still a little plugged up from either diving or flying...not sure which (or if it's a combination of both) but it's starting to get a bit annoying.
I'll try again to upload some pictures (might not be until tomorrow). Blogger is having issues (or maybe it's the computer of the internet connection).
I'll try again to upload some pictures (might not be until tomorrow). Blogger is having issues (or maybe it's the computer of the internet connection).
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