Answering the Summons (to Jury Duty)

Last Friday (5 July) found me back to work after the Independence Day holiday of the day before. Work is still going well, although being outside when it feels like 100 degrees F (38 degrees C) is no fun.

On Saturday (6 July), I co-hosted Writer's Block, a monthly program of Naturally Autistic Radio. On the show, host Tim Pylypiuk and I discussed religious writings, and issues of trust among writers. The show went rather well, I thought. Back with a new episode on Sat., 3 August.

I hit the sand on Sunday afternoon, playing sand volleyball at New Ballwin Park in Ballwin, Missouri. It was a meetup of the St. Louis Friends Meetup Group. There were 12 of us there and we all played on the sand court, although the sand was rather hot (I had socklets on, which helped). Despite the heat and the attention of some Canada Geese who briefly interrupted a game, we had a wonderful time and will get together later this month in Arnold, Mo. to play.

Monday morning (8 July), I answered a summons to jury duty at the St. Louis County Circuit Court in Clayton. Arriving by 8:30 am, I checked in and sat in the room with about 300 others. During the morning, three groups of about 48 people each were called by name to be prospective jurors in a case being heard that day. However, my name was not on any of those call ups. We broke for lunch at noon, I walking to Chipotle for my meal and World News for a couple of magazines to read over lunch. Arriving back at the courthouse by 1:30, I and the others were there for about an hour when a court official told us we would not be needed that day or the next. With that, we left the courthouse, with myself heading into work for the rest of that day. At least I did my duty as a citizen of the county.

Last night, I was at the Dorsett Inn, a restaurant and bar in Maryland Heights, Mo. for the Firstsite STL Meetup. It's a new Meetup group of singles. We were there for karaoke night. I and a couple of others in the group had the courage to sing. For me, I did two songs: the Frank Sinatra classic "Summer Wind" and Billy Joel's hit "Big Shot." I had not done karaoke in a decade, but it was fine.

This afternoon, I was the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis' Forest Park for this month's News at Noon discussion, presented by the St. Louis Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Today's program was a discussion of legal issues involving news organizations and social media, with two media law attorneys and a newspaper writer on the panel. I briefly chatted afterward with one acquaintance, Janette Lonsdale, an editor for whom I've done some proofreading of content. I also ran into Lucy Knapp, who I worked with four years ago on a temp proofreading assignment. She's now publisher of Women's Journals in St. Louis.

Later.