Unhelpful campaign literature

I've been uncharacteristically silent on the upcoming election.  In part this is due to the fact that the current political situation makes me ill and part is due to the feeling that my writing about it will probably make you ill. So I'll make it short.

Gather up the last handful of political flyers you received and look them over carefully.  If yours are like mine, half will say what horrible, despicable things their OPPONENT has done or will do and the other half will say what a horrible, despicable person their OPPONENT is. Is this the way we've learned to make informed decisions?  Do we buy a Toyota by reading all the things Toyota says about Fords and Hondas?  Do we buy a house by listening to all the things the realtor has to say about the other houses we've been looking at?  Do we hire the job applicant who tells us the most dirt about the other applicants?  Of course not.

Now you may find a few ads which will actually state a goal: lower taxes, reduce the size of government, etc.  These are much better but they never answer the obvious follow-up question: How do you propose doing that? Which taxes would you lower and how do you balance the budget with lower revenues?  Which government agency would you eliminate or reduce and what functions would that eliminate? Again, do you hire a job applicant who says he can save your company thousands of dollars but won't or can't tell you how?

In any case, please vote on Nov 2.  It makes the politicians at least THINK we're paying attention.

Swallow test follow-up

I had another appointment with my speech pathologist and almost like she had been reading my blog, she decided that she really hadn't found out much about my swallowing difficult.  Cautioning that at this stage of Parkinson's there may not be a lot to document, she sent a message to my primary care physician requesting that he order a "modified barium swallow" test.  The system worked like it was supposed to(including the new "appointment notification by e-mail" and I found myself at 8:15 this morning in the Kaiser radiology department on Morse Avenue.

I felt a little overwhelmed or maybe I should say triple-teamed as there was a speech pathologist, a radiology technician, and a technician in training. The speech pathologist was actually running the show but, not being trained in radiology, couldn't touch the machine.  The radiology technician, not being trained in speech pathology, couldn't conduct the test.

The test was similar to what I had done in the SLP's office except that I drank a barium cocktail instead of water and barium was mixed with the applesauce they asked me to swallow.  Like watching a science movie, I was able to see the food or drink enter my mouth, get tossed to the back of my tongue, and slipped rather quickly down my throat.

I will, of course, have to wait  for the formal interpretation of the test (from the SLP, the radiologist MD, both?) but from the sounds and comments in the room, it doesn't appear that anything is out of the ordinary yet.  But in all likelihood, I will have real swallowing problems later in the course of this wonderful disease.

3 Newsletters = 2 much of a good thing

Once upon a time -- only a couple of months ago, actually -- I was merrily keeping this blog and submitting an entry almost every day.  For anything that came into my head, there was little question where I would share it.  Oh, I could have shared it only on facebook by going directly there but with the RSS feed from my blog to facebook thee was little reason to do that.

Then I was asked to liven up the Alta California Regional Center website and my recommendation for doing that was to use the prime territory on the website for a blog that will be updated weekly.  I won't provide much of the content for that blog but I will be highly involved with the composition and editing of the pieces. Based on the first few entries, I will also be heavily involved with taking and touching up the photos that make or break an entry.

Then just a couple of weeks ago Carolyn and I were asked to edit and publish our ward's newsletter.  Since the previous editor Summer did such a great job, it really isn't possible for us to let this slide or reduce the size or frequency of the newsletter.  She had a 4 or 6 page newsletter (8.5 x 11 inch pages) that was always distributed before the 1st of every month.  She'll be a hard act to follow.

But that's part of my problem -- 3 blogs/newsletters is so much more to write and compose and format than one was. It's just fortunate that one of the new pieces is monthly and the other one weekly.  If they were all daily like I try to make this one, I would have time for nothing but news publishing.

So if you find the frequency of blog entries dropping too much here, take time to relax and perhaps look at the other two blogs in the meantime.

Features

I think the only thing more frustrating that a piece of equipment or software not having a feature you'd like or need is for that software or hardware to have that feature -- but you can't figure out how to access it!  I guess there is one thing more frustrating and that is having had that feature until you UPGRADED!!!

A little background....
Printers were made to print in black ink on white or light colored paper.  Right?  And printers were made to print on one side of a piece of paper.  Right?  So most of what we print is on one side of a sheet of paper and in black.  Until... you discover that there is a colored world out there.  When you find out that documents, coupons, photos, all sorts of things really do look better in color.  And you especially find out when you start printing in color automatically because your printer has that feature and your computer understands how to use it.  Now color is absolutely essential.

Same thing for two-sided printing.  It started with long documents that I didn't want to have to use a hammer to drive in the staple.  Then it was medium sized documents that I wanted to save a little paper.  And finally it was two page documents that I didn't want to staple at all.  I found myself selecting two-sided so often that I changed the default setting of the printer.  I don't use two sided printing all the time but I want it available all the time.

THEN we upgraded our computer.  Suddenly the two sided printing went away.  No way! I complained.  I tried a different printer driver (a blog entry all its own someday) and got two sided printing back... but no color.  What?!  I have to pick and choose which feature I want?  Several dozen sheets of paper later and a half dozen downloads from HP and I finally have two-sided color -- for now.  But who knows what the next UPDATE will disable.

Jury Duty - Post Script

Now that the trial by jury is over and I can freely indulge in some things I could not while serving on the jury, I want to sort of collect the odds and ends of my thoughts and speculations:

1. There's a good reason for the judge's admonition not to talk about the case or do our own research.  For example, I found that the Sacramento Superior Court keeps an online database of people scheduled for hearings, arraignments, and trials.  Although this database isn't particularly user friendly or complete, it has enough information to find out what the minimum charges and convictions have been for someone list there.  Our defendant for our trial was being charged simply with reckless driving by eluding a police officer.  There was both a felony and a misdemeanor charge.  Listening to the defense attorney you might think this was the defendant's first brush with the law.  But according to the database, in the last 12 years alone he has been convicted or plead guilty to two counts of Driving Under the Influence, one count of grand theft auto, one count of grand theft burglary, one count of wife beating, and one count of resisting arrest and interfering with a police officer.  He's just not a really nice guy.
2. I have to really admire people like the defense attorney.  Unlike the jury, he had to know all the history on this criminal and still defended him, sat next to him as if he really did like him, and never let on what a creep he was.  Even the rest of the actors in court (and they were all acting to some degree) were giving the defendant more respect than he has given society.
3. Just as in the jury room, people I talk with about the jury deliberations seem to fall into two groups - the law is black & white and the law is all shades of gray.  I guess that's pretty typical of how people see life though, isn't it?
4. Maybe we don't pay our police enough. Here, this lone CHP officer chases and stops a truck carrying two convicted felons.  By dropping his microphone he has lost contact with dispatch so he can't even expect that backup is on the way.   The driver has acted irrationally from the start of the chase and at the end jumps out of the truck shouting, "I don't want to go to jail!  I don't want to go to jail!"  With good reason to fear for his life, the cop calmly cuffs and arrests the driver.  He spends another two to three hours filling out paperwork because of all the traffic infractions, the chase, and impoundment of the truck.  And he still isn't finished.  Between preliminary hearings, depositions, trial, and other meetings with attorneys and supervisors he probably spent another 50 to 75 hours on this case.  And what thanks will he get?
5. The courts have gone a long ways toward respecting the time and service of  jurors since the first time I was called.  If there is still a problem with the system it is that some people get a summons every 18 months and others go for years.  That should be evened out.  Probably there should also be a way to give credit for those who serve more than 3 days on a jury and those who spend a month on a jury should be exempt for life unless they volunteer to be called up.

Jury Duty parking

Parking was less traumatic than I feared.  I should have had more faith.

First: If you get there before 7:45 the regular jury lot has lots of spaces.  It is convenient and close to the courthouse.  It is even convenient for handicap parking and access.

Second:  Sometime between 7:45 and 8:00 the regular lot will be determined full and a sign will be hung denoting that.  Then and only then can you try the alternate lots.  Or you can still go in the regular lots because there will probably still be 6 to 10 spots available.

Third:  The two-story county lot just west of the courthouse and north of the county administration building is really ideal.  BUT, there is one caution for handicap access - there is no direct access from the second floor to the street level sidewalk.  To get to the courthouse that is only 50 feet away, you must take a ramp to a street overpass which takes you to the plaza in front of the Admin building.  You must then go through the building and across another plaza to a ramp which takes you down to H Street.  From there, you have to cross two streets and travel almost two blocks to get back to the courthouse doors.  Suggestion: park on the first floor of the structure.  There is an easy, convenient access exit to the street level sidewalk.

Down to the wire

Disclaimer: This case has been completed and the jury released from the judge's admonition not to discuss the case.  

When we didn't even start on real deliberations yesterday, a couple of us were worried that this case could go on forever.  But immediately after the bailiff locked us in the jury room, the jury foreman called the group to order and began laying out his "game plan".  Now we're getting somewhere, I thought.  Forty-five minutes later he was still laying out his game plan.  Finally, to get things moving I interrupted with a request that someone else speak.  We started going around the table and it soon became evident that the foreman planned to comment on each comment and take twice as long as the original commenter.  I suggested, kindly but plainly that he needed to talk less so others could talk more.  Fortunately, he accepted my suggestion and I only had to remind him once other time.

At a point in our deliberations when some people were saying the law was not "black and white" we decided on a poll around to room for everyone to give their opinion about whether it was a black and white issue.  The count was 8 to 4 in favor of black and white.  (This referred to the unmistakable nature of the vehicle code.  All participants in this case were white.)  A poll shortly after this revealed that 2 of the "gray" proponents favored the felony charge and the other two, the misdemeanor charge.

We broke for lunch with everyone wondering whether we could ever come to an agreement.  But after lunch we had a couple hours of good discussion about whether laws are or can be shades of gray.  The two nay votes were coming around to see it more black and white which would change their vote.  About the time we would have had a break we took the final vote showing us unanimously in favor of guilty to the felony charge.

It still took an hour to assemble the lawyers, the defendant, and the alternate juror so that we could go back into the courtroom and render our verdict.  I noted with some relief that the guard on the defendant had been doubled for this occasion although in fact he showed no emotion when he heard the verdict.

The judge thanked us and as we all checked out we said goodbyes to the other jurors with hugs and handshakes.  I think it was  ultimately a good decision and everyone on the jury felt good about it.

The case heats up then winds up

Disclaimer: This case has been completed and the jury released from the judge's admonition not to discuss the case.  

I had misunderstood just how far we had gotten on our case after one day.  Turns out that the defense had not even started presenting their case.  And testimony was delayed about an hour while the two atttorney's addressed the issue of a CHP officer who assisted in preparing the report.  When both sides finally agreed as to what the officer would have said if he could have come to witness, we began the court activities again.

To insure that the jury got the message from the defendant's brother, the prosecutor called the Private Investigator who interviewed the brother shortly after the incident.  His testimony was basically the same as the brother's.

The defense recalled the CHP officer and tried again and again to show how his statements were inconsistent and therefore couldn't be relied on for information.  Again and again he tried to make the officer take responsibility for reports he hadn't written so he could show that there are inconsistencies.  It got to be a big turn-off.

Finally, the judge announced that we would hear closing statements.  There were almost identical  with the opening statements except that now we were more familiar with the facts of the case and could see how everything fit together.

Following the prosecutor's last words, the judge read the instructions to the jury - a 20 minute exercise.  We were then escorted to a completely different floor and part of the building where we were introduced to our deliberation room.  After a short break we were locked in the room and told to do our thing.

The first order of business for a jury just starting deliberations is to choose a foreman.  Because I had said I had been a CEO one woman nominated me.  I agreed to serve if chosen.  Another man in the group nominated himself, giving as his reason, his experience being a jury foreman in two other cases.  I agreed he had more experience than I so I would have no problem supporting him.  He was then selected by acclimation.

With less than an hour to deliberate, the foreman suggested we use the time to introduce ourselves and get to know one another a little better.  I'm sure I wouldn't have thought of it but it really was a good thing to do.  It made future discussions much more fruitful and less adversarial.