One does end up knowing what one likes. (In British English, the use of the impersonal or generic 'one' is commonplace. In the U.S., one is often replaced by you.)

We made it to another Friday and this one shows up on the calendar as September 6, 2019. I've been on the lookout for some time now for a waffle iron. We have a perfectly good waffle iron. But, it's not like the one we used to have that made really good waffles. That's right. I'm having to stick the word 'vintage' on the front of my search for a waffle iron. I located and ordered one off of eBay. It is said to be in A+ shape for its age. It is used. It is a Sears and Roebuck, Avocado green, waffle maker. The very functional maker we currently use produces a really good and thick waffle. I like my waffles thin and crispy. I know. That sounds very picky, but, as they say, life is too short to not have waffles the way you like them. You've never heard that one. You may need to get out more. It is supposed to be delivered next Tuesday. It does have a 30-day return policy. Please don't ask me what it cost. Back when we actually used one like this I'm pretty sure a new one would have been maybe one-third the cost of this 'vintage' unit. I will let you know whether it ends up being a Deal or No Deal proposition.

Twelve years ago, here is what was going on as reported in my daily blog: September 4, 1977 ~  Visiting a Land that Time Forgot!  It's the first day back from the holiday but I have jury duty today. Scheduling it this way is in and of itself quite an insult to how businesses and people function but this is only the tip of the iceberg. So, I guess I will just have to let off a little steam. This jury deal happens to be one of my pet peeves and while I may exaggerate the situation some for emphasis, it is a sad process. You see, I have a jury summons for the local county where I've lived since 1976. Let me be clear, I am one of those who do not mind serving. But what I do mind is the complete lack of technology, organization, and any other vestiges of a process that exists within the jury selection process. In our county, we meet in a theatre because of the need for multiple juries. Up until a couple of years ago, they didn't even use computers to process prospective jurors. They at least now have a computer to check you in but it pretty much is only to validate your summons notice. There will be some 350 to 400 people show up out of perhaps 500 who were summoned. We will wait around until Jethro and Uncle Jed decide to get started. There will be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth over the need to be excused but unless it's really serious most people will be forced to stay.

Then a judge will get up to explain our role, swear us in, and give a very patronizing speech about how the system can only work if citizens are willing to participate and how that we are the most important element in our system of justice. I happen to believe in our system but please don't tell me I'm the most important part of how it works. Not when all the staff and the judge have parking spots reserved under the courthouse while we walk six blocks in the rain. They are citizen servants, we are citizen servants, but obviously, we are not the MOST important citizen servants. Want to show people respect? How about making everything that happens regarding this entire process work to the convenience of those who have left their jobs and their homes to come and serve? How about demonstrating the importance of people and their participation in the way that systems are provided and how they work and in how effective the entire process is carried out?

In my county, I am from an area that provides probably 80% of the revenue for the entire county, one of the richest in our state. The rest of the county is for the most part still rural. Yet, I have to make a long-distance call to find out if I am still required to serve. I'm not complaining about a fifty-cent phone call but it is the idea behind it. I am proud to serve alongside my fellow citizens who show up in overalls and use a spit cup for their Redman chew. I am most happy to stand up and be counted for the justice we all hold dear. However, I despise a system that is by design insulting while somehow it attempts to make its archaic and sloppy features as in some way to be endearing. I despise the patronizing way in which the county employees coordinate this program. I have been selected to serve on a jury more than once in this county. I have served as the foreperson on a very serious case in this county. In the end, there is some redeeming grace to know that a defendant has received his or her day in court and has been tried by a jury of peers but the process itself stinks and it doesn't have to be the way it is. I always leave knowing that if any other enterprise of any kind on the face of the earth operated the way this organization functions, then they would have no customers and no business. Okay, enough of my complaining. Now it's time to take a ride on the Reading back into a world that time has forgotten!

Sounds very opinionated as I re-read this one, twelve years later. But, what else is new? Have a great Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday and may God bless us, one and all. Amen. ....More later.