Dodged a Large Bullet

Couldn't get to sleep. Because I needed to wake up an hour early for jury duty. Or so I thought.

2:30 am I took a trip to the loo, and on my way back got dizzy and next thing I knew I was in the floor next to my bed. It took me a minute to realize where I was (I expected to land in the bed, not next to it).  Getting up, there were massive ocular migraines, which means low blood sugar. Shuffled to the kitchen to measure, 67. Klondike time. Then back to bed

I think by 3:30 I was asleep, and 10 minutes later, it seemed, Google was chiming me awake at 6:30.

Up and showered and dressed, ate a banana, took all the meds except the diuretic, and headed for San Jose. Almost no traffic at 7:30. Arrived at the parking garage about 10 minutes to 8, up one floor to the walkway, then down 2 floors and down the block to the courthouse.

8 am they opened the doors, the signs pointed to the 2nd floor. In about 5 minutes the check-in desk opened, I was first in line. Parking validated, checked in and on to the juror waiting room.

Had my tablet, read until announcements came over the speaker at 9, but it was all platitudes about how great is it to be a patriotic juror. At about 9:30 another announcement telling my group to leave the jury room, go downstairs, walk to the other wing of the building, and go to the 2nd floor. There was a sign in front of the elevator saying it was reserved for prisoner transport.  Pretty steep stairs, definitely not ADA compliant. The whole day not a single prisoner was taken up or down in the elevator, they were using a back stairway.

Waited outside courtroom 46, there was also 44 and 45 but they weren't early morning people.

Around 10 they let us in, only about 20 of us, seated in the audience area. Then magically  the jury box was filled with people. People who had been here since Wednesday and yesterday. After another set of platitudes from the judge, the attorneys played musical chairs with the juror box, and by the time we broke for lunch at 11:50, I was #24, seated in the front row of the audience along with 20-25. All 12 jury seats were taken as well as 6 alternate seats. There were no more potential jurors.

Lunch was a disaster, it was windy and rain mixed with hail, and there is no place to eat nearby, except one rather sketchy cart - the jail and court complex takes up 5 square blocks. Back inside, exploring the first floor, the opposite direction from the jury room and courts, was a stand with sandwiches and soft drinks. Desserts too. Reasonably priced. So I got a turkey and bacon on wheat and a bottle of water.

Had to go back to the courtroom wing to find a place to sit and eat.

Judge had said be back by 1:30, but they made us wait out in the hallway for 15 minutes. In the morning she also sent us into the hallway as she heard, one at a time, hardship pleas from this morning's juror pool. She granted most of them.

Then the judge had us new kids one by one give answers to 10 sets of questions on the reverse of our number sheet. The guy on my right was Israeli a long time ago. His accent was Eastern European.

And the lawyers played musical chairs again, until at about 2:30 pm when there were 12 jurors sworn in, and then she had #21 and 22 sworn in as alternates. 20 had been dismissed "for cause".

And then she gave jury instructions and the schedule for the trial. Finally the prosecutor pointed behind himself at us and reminded the judge that we were there. She should have dismissed us 10 minutes earlier, after the alternates were sworn in.

The whole thing was a study in how to be inconsiderate of We, The People. There was absolutely nothing provided to tell us how any of this process worked. Just platitudes. If I'm called again next year, I'll play the heart trouble/diuretic card.

Home, just early enough for traffic to be moderate. Got here at about 3. Too late to go to work, too early to do anything useful. Pruned my smaller Russian sage bush, which I think got poisoned by next door neighbors' woodworking & painting. Checked on all the plants all around. The roses especially love the rain, and there are bee's friend flowers popping out. One of the lilacs is reaching out. I need to move the ceramic elephant out from under the jungle.

Nothing delivered - was expecting a mechanical toy kitten. It is apparently lost in transit, UPS says. May not need it soon.

Down to the last 2 brownies, so baked a double batch in a single pan. Took 2 hours instead of 1. Letting it chill in the fridge before I cut it.

No PTI today, watched the Channel 2 news and X-Files. I'm guessing it was the end of the season, maybe the series.

Text from the appraiser, tomorrow is no good, how about Wednesday morning. OK. Texted back that I had forgotten to tell him about the new dishwasher & aircon. Forgot about the new sink. And the new bathroom tiles, though I did mention the new shower. And the new kitchen LED lights.

Plans for tomorrow:
Campbell orchid show
1 pm Dancing Cat appointment. Maybe adopt one. There's a big grey tabby male which is allegedly good with other pets. The other male cats are a bonded pair of gorgeous gingers and a blind orange tabby. All the calicoes are small females, probably not a good fit. I'll chat with the staff as I enjoy catterday.
Bringing my camera to both, this time the fast Nikon 55mm and maybe the Tamron macro zoom.

Wait While I Grab Something To Drink

Thanks for waiting. Got a glass of gold cola.

Busy day, with the week of somewhat missed connections continuing.

Slept in, Spook was on the bed as soon as I turned on the lights, and stuck around for pets and ear rubs and head butts for about 5 minutes.

Quick morning subroutine, no breakfast. Grabbed the Baylands Park form and my camera & a couple of lenses and Sharks jacket & out the door. Got the cat carrier from the shed, just in case.

Quick trip to the park, handed in the form, then used their restroom.

Next stop, Cupertino Main Street, orchid show & sale. Parking nearby was full - mostly reserved for the nearby hotel, so I parked 2 blocks away.

Lots of orchids, but I didn't see any catalayas. After taking photos all around, I asked at the door if anyone was selling catalayas. None of the door personnel were associated with any of the orchid sellers, they were just temps running the $$ machine and checking receipts. Clueless.








Just as I was leaving, a woman comes out with a somewhat wilty catalaya with nice blooms on one stalk. $24, so I bought it. Mom used to make those thrive, maybe I can too.

Took that back to the car, noticed I had another hour to kill, so drove back toward the show with the idea that if a nearby space opened, I'd park and go back in, and get a card from the shop which had the catalaya. It did and I did.

Back to the car, programmed in the Dancing Cat address, 702 Julian Street. 20 minutes later I was at the corner of 7th and Julian, parked, but it did not look like the house on the corner was the one. Two homeless drunks outside, lots of graffiti on the boarded up windows. I was way early, so I walked to the Mexican supermarket across the street, used their Baños, bought some sweet limes and bananas, brought those back to the car.

Walked to the corner, the address on the derelict house was 302. WTF? Fired up the GPS, and yup, I was still 0.3 miles away. Moved the car to 15th & Julian, and there it was.

Right on time.

Grabbed the camera and went in. The volunteer recognized me.

After seeing what I thought was the cat I wanted to adopt, two college students with multi colored hair were playing with him. He came right up to me, hopped up on the seat beside me and cuddled. Loved being petted. But he got spooked when he saw a man staring at him from across the room, and hid under the sofa. The man (about 20-ish) was all WTF about that, as he should be.

Talked to the volunteer and she said someone had already adopted that cat. We talked about Zoe & Spook a bit, and she suggested a couple of boy cats which were in foster homes, and she said the thing to do was go online and fill out and application for one. None of the cats in the house were a good fit, either too small or too female or did not play well with others.

Very small, shy female kitty


Tommem, the wondercat. The one that got away. :-(

Ready for his close-up.

Home, shattered scowers, so I figured that going to the SJ shelter was not a great plan. Went on their web site and they only had 2, neither were a fit. So, on the the Dancing Cat's parent company site, filled out an application for a huge white furball, Siamese mix with one blue and one green eye male. Mostly to meet him. I'm not sure from the description if he's the answer.

I have time. Spook has time.

No hummingbirds today, but this morning a pair of goldfinches were munching on seed on the Russian sage bushes.

Took a few photos of the gardens, moved the elephant to a more visible spot, and straightened the blue jay.

Ran the dishwasher, also laundered a few jeans.

I had taken the brownies out of the fridge to get to room temp so they would be easier to turn out of the pan and cut into squares. That turned out to be a major chore. Bottom line, the double batch is now in the table scraps recycle bin. Kind of burned and the consistency of bricks, almost. While I was at it, the remaining pot brownies went there too.

Found a cute show to watch called Big Stars Little Stars in which three celebrity adults and one of their children play a game similar to Newlyweds. It moves along well, very entertaining, and the kids are pretty smart. And know it.

Dinner was an homage to the day, and to my Hungarian roots.

Corned beef & stuffed cabbage. Had I been planning, I might have made stuffed cabbage from scratch with corned beef filling. This is Costco special "halubchis". Kosher for Passover, no less.

Dessert was going to be brownies, but was ad libbed to popsicles.

Plans for tomorrow:
Probably go back to the orchid show, to see if they have nicer catalayas. The lady said they would not have flowers on them, but that's okay, they have a way of popping out flowers if the stalks are healthy. The one I bought needs a bigger pot. I happen to have two.
Maybe A Wrinkle in Time - I read the books when I was a kid, remember enjoying them a lot, associate them with The Thyme Garden. But I remember nothing... I am not thrilled that the movie became a blacksploitation film. The author was as white as white could be, as were her books' characters.