What I did on jury duty

Surprise! I'm done with jury duty, isn't it wonderful?  So much more wonderful than I would have thought before I went in, because omigosh is it exhausting to Just Sit for that many hours.

A lot has changed since the last time I had to take my place in the jury pool, but the sitting is still the same.  The differences: now we sit in super comfortable chairs, lined up snug as in a movie theatre with the minimum amount of leg room because the lounge is housing four times as many people as before.  Oh! and there's a video presentation to tell you what to expect from the experience, especially if you are selected to serve on an actual jury.

On Monday, there was Just Sitting for about 2 hours, then Video for about 10 minutes, followed by another 2 hours of Trying To Defer.  A lot of people deferred their duty for a different week, this week being too busy for them to sit in a room for five days.  Boy, would they be sorry if they only knew.

After that: more sitting.  Our roomful of potential jurors wasn't called into any courtrooms at all.  I read some of a book, made friends with the woman sitting beside me, read some more, worked out rough designs for 8 hats, ate an apple, and chatted more with my new friend.

For Tuesday, I thought of something knitty to do that wouldn't involve sharp things:

It took me 4 hours to draft out these two balls (aka half of a braid of roving) into spin-ready condition.  I don't recommend this for more reasons than I can list here (except for the fact that the wool sticks to itself when you go to spin with it later, breaking off as you tug it free and generally being a nuisance).

On the upside, it kept my hands on wool and kept me relaxed, even when one quarter of us were rounded up to go to a courtroom, only to return later with six fewer than had gone out (civil trials only need six jurors.)   And just as I finished off the second ball, we were told that no further trials would be starting this week, so we were free to go, our jury duty complete for the next three years or until we are called again, whichever comes last.

Digression

On my way home I saw a friend and told her of my good luck. She looked blank and then said, 'You were on Jury Duty?  In Courthouse X?  And you're DONE?' Because it turned out her husband was one of the six people assigned to the civil trial.  And also, it turned out the civil trial is expected to take between four and six weeks to complete.  I am pretty sure she isn't going to tell him the rest of us got sent home.

And Now, Back to FiberTalk Daily

When I got home I celebrated by spinning up one of the fiber balls.

Isn't it amazing the way that twist compresses the wool?

I'm not going to spin the other one today though... I'm going to face down Bob's socks, or rather the decision about Bob's socks, because the cuff I started is absolutely too big.  I will need to rip it out and start over and that is going to take an iron will, strengthened by some serious tea.  Wish me luck!