I should be out drinking instead of writing.

Let's do some catch up shall we?

Late last month I was called up for jury duty.  Unlike many people, I was actually looking forward to serving.  I made it through voir dire and sat for a criminal case basically involving the possession of marijuana and felony possession of a hand gun.  I could write a whole long post about the case.  I have my notes about it in an email that I wrote out.  Maybe someday I will revisit.  Suffice to say that the trial ended in a dead lock.  Two out of jurors didn't believe that it was proven that the defendant knew about drugs and gun in the back of his car.  Personally, the evidence was clear that he was guilty.  It is frustrating how the same set of facts that we are exposed to can lead us to different conclusions.  Humans really are funny creatures.  Anyways, the prosecutor said that he would retry the case again.  I hope he gets a better jury next time.

Work has become more frustrating as they are cracking down on overtime.  I been regularly getting a few hours every week for the past few months due to my new position.  It demands a heavy workload at the beginning and end of my shifts  Anything left not done simply carries over to the next day and if I'm not on top of it, it just piles up.  I have tried to offload as much as I can but there is a limit to what I can do given the structure of operations.  My immediate supervisors know this and I think they sympathize but there really isn't much they can do either unless they want to hire a new person and or create a new position.  Lately I have been at my wits end and am beginning to get get cold-hearted about the situation.

After weeks of bitter cold, we've finally crossed back into above-freezing temps.  It has been so cold that the Great Lakes were nearly covered over in ice.  I took the following picture in which all I could see to the horizon was ice.

Click to enlarge.

I have been giving some thought to about unfriending Jon- a friend from facebook. He died last year and although I would like to maintain some kind of connection with his virtual memorial of sorts, I also think that facebook is really for the living.  It seems so odd that social connections are now going from dead people to dead people.  I'm not sure I am close to a decision yet.

Here's my facebook look back.  I don't think it was half bad.