Jury Duty

A few months ago I received a federal jury summons for Tuesday, September 1st. I was to report to the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse at 8:30 a.m. for possible jury duty. You don't know if you are going to be needed until the day before, so it is hard to schedule meetings at work that day, but you can call at 4:00 p.m. to check on your status. If a case is terminated without a trial, you will not be needed. So, I dutifully brought my summons to work and set a reminder to call at 4:00 to see if I was going to be fulfilling my civic duty. For some reason the reminder popped up at 2:00 p.m. and I some how screwed up the repeat, because I did not get another reminder that evening.

In fact, I did not get another reminder until 7:30 a.m. this morning, as I was about to head out on a run. Of course, I could not call from home as I had left all the information at work, but luckily the offices opened at 8:00 a.m. and surely I could talk to someone and see if I was needed. Wrong. It was an automated service with no live person to talk to. I jumped in the car and got to work as quickly as possible. At 8:25 I called the clerk's office and found out I would not be needed. Good thing, I don't think I could have made it to the courthouse from my office in five minutes. So, not the end of the world, I missed my run, but I got to the office a little early, and now I won't miss any of the meetings I had scheduled. Wrong again, all four of the meetings I had on the schedule today have been cancelled or moved. September is off to a good start.