I survived my brush with jury duty yesterday, getting excused about mid-day. I went farther this time than when I did state jury duty a number of years ago, as this time I actually went to a courtroom. There were only two trial starting yesterday, so they took fairly large groups to both. I made it through the judge's initial questioning in voir dire, but did not survive the peremptory challenges.

We were asked a few times to not discuss the case with people until it's over, which I'll honor here until I see news of a verdict (it should make some level of local news, and the way the judge was talking it'll likely wrap this week).

Generally, there would be many worse places to serve jury duty than the federal courthouse in Boston. Between the waterfront views and the well-maintained courtrooms, there's a lot to like. The only negative I can come up with is that the bathrooms were clearly not designed to handle large groups of jurors on a break.

So first, the good news. It appears that federal jury service does get you excused from state jury service, as I got my postcard from the state yesterday telling me I was excused. That was a nice surprise.

Now for the bad news. I actually do have to go to the federal courthouse on Monday. However, this does work out a little bit for me, as the missus and I have a pass to see a preview showing of the new Indiana Jones movie, which means we'd probably drive in to work. Now the feds are going to pay for me to drive in and park. So there's your silver lining.

So a while back I mentioned that I'd been selected for federal jury duty, and that I was trying to get a deferment as it fell right during our May graduation. Turns out my concerns were adjudged reasonable, as the feds have allowed me to push things back by a couple of weeks. It was a quick and painless sort of deal, quite unlike the stereotypical bureaucratic nightmare.

So, of course, the state judicial system had to jump in and ruin the moment by summoning me for jury duty in July.

It may not be all that bad, as one of the categories for dismissal from state service is currently scheduled jury service. It just wasn't clear if federal jury duty counts, but I'm going to give it a go. I'm not expecting much.

When it became clear that I wasn't going to be lawyering for a career, the law and I came to an agreement where we'd go our separate ways and not bother each other. This accord took a very slight break this morning when I attended my very first parking violation appeal.

Your fact pattern: the city enacted a parking ban on February 12, which means that those of us who park on the street had to move our cars to a city lot, which I did. The ban runs 48 hours, but may be rescinded earlier than that if possible, which happened in this case while I was at work on Thursday. I returned to Beverly on Thursday night to find a ticket on the car for a meter violation.

My thinking, based on past experience, is that the meters in the public lots were not active during the ban. We'd never put money in them in the past, and never received a ticket during a parking ban prior to this one. The announcement of the ban, which we checked on the city website, was silent on the issue of the meters.

According to the sargeant who heard my appeal, the meters remain in force during the day, which he said was noted on the city's parking hotline and in something that runs in the local paper every year. That the same information isn't presented on the website didn't seem to be an issue for him. In fact, he seemed to think that a person would still call the number, which seems redundant.

I'm not so much irritated about the fine as the feeling that it'd be pretty easily avoided if a line like "parking meters are still operational during the snow emergency" was added to the online announcement. It's pretty minimal, and given how likely people are now to go online rather than pick up a phone, I think it'd avoid future problems (unless this is some sort of revenue generating racket, which wouldn't surprise me). Given that a couple of other people got stuck paying what sounded like pretty dodgy handicap parking-related tickets (though I only heard their side of the story after their hearings), I shouldn't feel too bad.

I can't help but think this bodes poorly for jury duty. I'm going to be foreman on a Mob trial and wind up becoming Frank Henderson from Caspar, Wyoming after the defendant swears his vengance. I can feel it.

Beware the Ides of March, indeed - I got a summons for jury duty in the mail yesterday. It's a federal court summons, which I've not gotten before. Apparently, I have to be available during a three week window in May, during which time I have to call in the Friday before each week to see when and if I have to appear.

Problem being that the first week of this window ends with our spring commencement. Which, for an assistant registrar for graduation, is kind of a busy time. So I'm hoping to defer things by a week. I won't know if it's been approved until a week or so before the window starts, which is unfortunate but it does give me some time to set up contingencies should I not get a deferral and actually have to report that week.

Looking on the positive, I've never been to the new federal courthouse, so that'll be interesting. It's also close to where the wife works, so we could have lunch at the Barking Crab or Daily Catch. I think my per diem would just about cover it.