February was a Fantastic Flop. Like the perfect storm, it all came together to create
"interesting" conditions. The month started out innocent enough, some swell from the
first to the sixth provided some fun waves and half decent conditions. Then, life
and nature took ugly turns.
The first turn was being summoned to jury duty. Originally I was supposed to do this in December
around the holidays, but my boss said that we were expected to be very busy at that time and
made me postpone the jury duty. Then fate kicked in when I reported. Ended up as Alternate Juror No. 2
on a trial that went on for eight days instead of five. This involved two men assaulting a third man,
basically all homeless, basically all crack dealers fighting over $32 and a few dime bags in a part
of downtown known as "The Bottoms" where people basically "bottom out" in life like the tide sucks
water off a reef at low tide. The claim by one dude was that the two other dudes beat him up and stole
$32, right along the lines of importance as the O.J. trial I guess. The thing that killed me is that
over that amount of money and given the profiles of the three involved - it probably sucked about
$200,000 or more out of the city coffers and everyone who was forced to endure this mess. I chose to ride
the trolley every day which was convenient and free. Multiply 12 jurors plus three alternates, plus over
50 other people - trial lawyers, judge, police, detectives, court reporters, deputies, transportation
and housing of the purps, people from the District Attorny's office putting together the case and compiling
surveilence videos, evidence testing (DNA) and presentation - the whole nine yards. Over $32 and
three crackheads fighting on the corner of 12th and J.
Now multiply or add everyone's salary up for eight days, inconvenience, cost to the city of the jurors (I got a check
for about $102 for the service), cost to employers of the
jurors, lost productivity, and I personally was forced, literally, to an eight day and not a five day trial because that's just how long it
went on, and I lost 24 hours of vacation time because most employers only pay for five days of jury leave. Because
of three crack heads and $32 in cash. Two of these days were spent doing nothing except sitting in the jury lounge
waiting for a decision (as an alternate), after which time I got completely fed up with wasting more time, and I wrote a note
to the judge telling him that I had served my five days and that I would not be returning past the eight days. Several
hours after delivering the note to the judge's chamber, all three alternates were summoned into the jury office
and released from service subject to recall. The next day, I received a call saying the jury brought back a "not guilty"
verdict on these idiots. What a complete waste of time and money. But...
That wasn't the end of it. Traveling by trolley, waiting in the jury room, exposed to thousands of people a day,
I got so sick the first day back at work that I didn't even know I had gotten sick, which then got three other people
in the office sick instantly and it was just the domino effect thereafter. Two weeks of living hell being sick - upper respiratory
infection to sinus infection to fever to atrocious cough, that still remains today a month later (March 16). Good
lord have mercy. More lost work, more sick time spent...just a disaster. My lungs still hurt.
A little consolation is that for the most part, Febuary was a flop for waves. Lots of rain, cloudy days, windy days,
which did not help being sick but...it was seemingly the only consolation. So was going to a couple of SDSU basketball
games during their run to the MWC tournament win and the NCAA dance. Plus I had plenty of "sick time" to get this
thing up and running online again, so it wasn't all bad....
The photo is from the 6th, and I did not surf from Feb. 7 to March 11. That's prettttttty bad. Details in March entries.
- cliff