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Daily Archives: September 2nd, 2023

My Civic Duty

I don’t know how I made it my entire life without being called for jury duty but here I am. August was my second time being on the call list here in Alaska but first time ever being seated on a jury. It has been enlightening.

I’ve always been willing and interested in serving as a juror. For me, it’s not only a civic duty but a faith based duty as well. Heaven knows that if I ever found myself in need of a jury I certainly would want someone (or 12 someones) willing to serve and not doing so begrudgingly, wishing they were somewhere else, and not giving their full attention and due diligence.

I found myself really examining my thoughts and beliefs and actually needing to reconcile a couple of contradictory beliefs. I’m thankful for the opportunity to see our justice system work, mostly the way it was intended to do.

Innocent until proven guilty.

It’s a catchy phrase that we toss around. But before today I never really had to dig deep and experience that reality from a position of judging facts. Questioning myself as to whether or not I truly believed that all those sitting in the defendant’s seat could be, should be awarded that right. Sometimes it’s harder than others.

It’s our right as Americans.

I learned a lot about how our local courts work, the process and people. It was interesting to be sure.

After three days of trial proceedings and the initial day of jury selection, I was invested in the process. Unfortunately I was one of the two drawn as alternates and I was excused before deliberations began. I was disappointed at first, then relieved that I didn’t have to sit in judgement over this person! It’s a heavy thing to be sure.

So next time when the jury duty notice comes around I’ll be ready, once again, to perform my civic duty.

“A Bit Breezy”

The weather man said to tie down any loose items night before last as overnight Thursday & Friday would be a bit gusty. Remnants if an ex-typhoon they said.

It’s never a good time to have a wind storm when you have an overabundance of beetle killed spruce trees in your area. The wind set a steady tree swaying pace the entire day, kicking up a good gust fairly often.

The power was out for a large amount of Alaskans from Sterling to Willow yesterday morning. They had clocked some 70mph gusts up north. At around 7:20 am ours went out.

Time to fill the woodshed. First time we cut wood without Caleb here. 😥

We managed to cut up about a cord of wood yesterday between two friend’s properties. Thankfully these trees were already down and not a casualty of the storm. We do have one tree down on our place from the storm to dispense of. Overall nothing to complain about. Plus that should fill one side of the woodshed. Now to the other side.

This was the longest outage we’ve had since moving to this house. The biggest inconvenience for us being unable to flush the toilets. Trees were down everywhere, on houses, on power lines, on the roads. A good reminder for always being prepared. I need to figure out a water storage system for this house. And install a couple 12 volt LED lights. And finish that solar generator I bought all the components for a couple years ago. Also time to fix the generator pull cord… I need to make a honey do list.

Thankfully, those dedicated lineman worked overtime and restored our power at 3:21 am. About 20 hours, I wonder if we’ll see a difference on next months electric bill?

Fred Meyer must have been the only store in town with power since everyone was there shopping. It was worse than tourist season.

We managed, we survived. I should make a T-shirt.

Now it’s time for moose hunting season.