I'm in the lounge adjacent to the juror assembly area as I type this. This is so bizarre.....I keep getting texts from work as the person who is filling in for me doesn't know the role - through no fault of their own may I add - and I keep getting texted with questions and asking for advice. This is very new - the only communication I've ever gotten from jobs on time off was desperate attempts to try to get me to come in. So bizarre to be asked for advice.

And something else bizarre today too was that a judge came down to talk to the assembled jurors and it was like he was sales pitching the entire concept of jury service - My guess is there's been a lot of pushback as many people can't afford to show their face here given the declining standards of living in America, low wages for this cost of living, and increasing prices with no real increases to match. In 2005 when I went through this process it was as if there was an expectation that you submit to the process - now there seems to be an awareness that for many people, it's both too much to ask and excessive in general (I refer to economics here and how many people are one paycheck away from being homeless in America). Interesting to see the process kiss the rear end of those summoned ever so slightly. Rob