THE FATHER BLOG

Happy Friday to all. It’s all downhill next week for me as I was summoned for Jury Duty.

Why do most of us hate it so much? Feel free to share your own stories of jury duty in the comments section, but here is my experience.

I feel like I’m the one in trouble…check in the night before to see if you have to appear in court the next morning. If you do, there is a good chance you could sit there ALL day and do absolutely nothing. Waste a day of your life to be told you can go home and come back tomorrow.

What if you do get picked to enter the courtroom? Last time in there was a large questionnaire to answer. Which the lawyers then reviewed and started the Voir Dire (fancy word for lawyers picking what they believe is the best profiled jurors to get the outcome they want).

If you don’t get picked? Back to the other room like a cattle call or maybe go home and….you guessed it….call back again that night to see if you get to go back the next day.

The two times in the past I was summoned in, I was unfortunately chosen. Once for a criminal trial and the other for a civil trial. Civil is better because you can divide blame, if necessary, on both parties. Makes things quicker and way less painful for the jurors.

The criminal trial I was on years ago was an absolute joke. Most obvious “this guy is guilty and we’ll be out of here in 3 minutes” turned into days because the judge wouldn’t let us leave the juror room as a hung jury and we were told we aren’t leaving until we come to a decision. 10 jurors of the 12 said guilty. 2 jurors (well picked by the defendant’s lawyer) had nothing better to do than get paid their $7.50 a day with their free lunch and hold everyone else up. It got to a point the 10 of us all changed our vote to not guilty and let the guy go because of the 2 jurors we knew just wouldn’t budge and the rest of us had jobs and lives to return to. The system may be considered the best in the world by some, but I’d question that for sure.

I would love to hear your experience if you have served. Please share!

So I’m a day late on this one but Oh Well!

Yesterday was National Son’s Day so it gives me a chance to post a few of my recent favorite pictures of Mikey. There is more to that boy than sports but it is such a huge part of our lives. I know someday as I get much older (hopefully), I’ll look back and remember all the travel tournaments, road trips, rinks, fields, tee times and golf courses, and all the places we got to see and experience together.

I know those are many of the same memories I have that I shared with my Dad in the past as well. Someday Mikey will hopefully look back on these days and have the same smile on his face that I do when I think of them.

For Booze Tuesday, I’m discussing the celebratory beer. Good news about this…it can be anything you have in the fridge because it’s more about the occasion than the beer. And why am I discussing celebratory beers on a random Tuesday? It’s because Mikey and his high school varsity team took home the championship last night. When I got home late last night….I needed a beer…celebratory or to settle the excitement before bedtime….or possibly a little bit of both.

I’m proud of him and his teammates for what they have accomplished. I’m particularly proud of the way Mikey endured this season. Mikey was the youngest and smallest on this team. When the season started, he had dreams of playing for varsity but said he would have been happy just being able to practice with them.

He got the occasional practice early on but was still seem as “too small” and they were worried he could get hurt, so they didn’t play him or even allow him to dress for the varsity team. As the season went on, he got to practice more and prove himself until they let him play in a game. And he produced right away with goals and assists and also by showing his size had nothing to do with his ability to compete as that level.

Fast forward a couple months to last night. Mikey was now on the starting line. He had the primary assist on the goal that finally put them in the lead for the first time late in the 3rd period. And he was out on the ice as the clock hit 0:00 as they celebrated the teams’ first championship.

Life isn’t easy….it’s going to throw you around and try to keep you down. But sometimes you work and fight hard enough and you win some of life’s battles. And when you do, go and have yourself a celebratory beer….You deserve it!!