The Wandering Minstrel

We’re back in California for a few days. Today, I picked up the mail and found a jury summons from the Los Angeles Superior Court. Hmmm, I thought, that’s going to be a tough commute from Arizona to Los Angeles to serve on a jury.

I examined the summons and found that I could be excused by filling out an affidavit send it back to them by providing one of a variety of reasons. One of them was “moved out of Los Angeles County” - perfect.

I filled out their pain-in-the-ass affidavit explaining my change in residence and mailed it off. The County insisted on having proof that I no longer live in the area. I printed out a utility bill from my account with the Arizona Power Service, folded it up and stuck it in the envelope with the affidavit. It burned me that I had to pay the postage for this, but I’m glad to be rid of the California jury service problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I am willing to sit and serve. I have served each time I have been summoned but I HATE jury duty. There is always some asshole in the courtroom or in the jury (if I get selected) that pisses me off.

I was looking online for a jury summons image (seen above) when I ran into a WikiHow article on “HOW TO GET OUT OF JURY DUTY.” I went to the site and was intrigued by one of the techniques they suggest:

As a last ditch effort try the George Carlin technique: George Carlin offered the best suggestion: Tell the judge you’ll make a great juror, as you can spot guilty people just by looking at them.

My project over the past couple of days has been installing some solar garden lights along both sides of the drive leading to the RV pad behind the patio at the new house. The Better Half and I went to the local discount store and bought sixteen light stakes to illuminate the path after dark. I finished installing them Tuesday and they look great after dark.

The RV pad itself can be illuminated by floodlights on the patio roof but we’re not always sure that they will be turned on so the new solar lights will be available to guide our RV (or someone else’s) to the pad. Full hookups are available back there since we asked our contractor to provide for that during construction. Clickable image.

The Better Half and I went to the historical downtown section of town today. While I was in the bank, this rig rode by. The Better Half took this (clickable) image of these two cowboys in their state of the art maximum fuel economy vehicle.

Last October, I posted about the Town and Country magazine loads for my 9mm Glock 26, “Little Boy.” Since then I have a different formula for the carry gun depending on whether we are in Wickenburg or down in the valley.

Clickable image: Fat Man and Little Boy in their Don Hume IWB holsters.

After rethinking the potential for personal crimes in both areas, I now prefer to carry “Fat Man,” my Glock 30 with .45 caliber JHP rounds when we’re in the Phoenix Metro area and when in our small town, to carry Little Boy with one round of shot and the other ten rounds to be 9mm +P hollow points. A quick look at the data on personal crimes in Maricopa County will reveal my reasons for wanting the .45 stopping power.

The first 9mm shot shell round is for rattlesnakes or whatever dangerous critters we encounter in town and the rest of the rounds (if the first shot does not discourage an attack) are reserved for two-legged varmints.

The Better Half took this photograph of a Classic 1956 Fort Thunderbird as we drove through the parking lot by the hardware store. We took a look inside the car and it looked as good inside as it does on the outside. Clickable image.

Well, first known that I could find on the internet.

I was looking on a real estate site last evening and ran across this aerial view of the new house taken during construction sometime late last year. The property lines shown in the photo are incorrect, as far as I can tell. You can see the approximate view of the entire lot and the new house here.

Pasta Primavera and mozzarella-stuffed meatballs. This is actually a fairly healthy meal. Whole grain pasta, cauliflower, broccoli, lean ground turkey and low-fat mozzarella all topped off with The Better Half’s low-sodium marinara. Does all that healthy stuff detract from the flavor? Hell no! Clickable image.

Government guzzler . . .