Okay, eventful day for lots of small misfortunes, though nothing too life altering in the end I guess.
As posted before, I learned only by chance about 8 hours before I was supposed to appear, that I was called for jury duty. The actual jury service I could take or leave -- my schedule's really pretty flexible and I don't have any commitments it would interfere with, so I was pretty capable, and even the shit pay (less than the city's minimum wage) was more money than I usually make in a day. But I was pretty offended that I followed all their rules and still came this close ( ) to failing to appear, which would have had me in a lot of trouble!
As it was though, I was almost the first person to be dismissed, because I know about my rights as a juror (visit http://www.fija.org to find more on this) and that seems to freak them out, and they don't want you near them if you actually know you don't have to follow their instructions. They only want the dumb ones. So, at least, I guess I don't have any more of that to worry about.
Walked home, and when I opened the door, my housekey broke off in the lock. I was alone in the house, and figured maybe this was something I'd have to deal with again at some point in my life, so I might as well learn what to do about this. Pliers didn't seem to be doing the job, and I wound up taking the whole knob off the door and trying to shake out the key-piece. That didn't work, so I attempted a trick using superglue I read about. This did not work as described but did lead to the solution, as the extra glue kept the key-piece from sliding away from the pliers, and I was able to actually grasp it and pull it out. Then I had to soak the knob in acetone to get the superglue out of it, but finally I replaced it and all seems to be fine.
I was home before lunchtime, so went with my parents to the Egyptian food restaurant. As my dad dropped my mom and me back at the house, I heard a little metal clank sound when I stepped from the car. Once I was back in the house, I realized the metal tap from my shoe has fallen off, and that was probably the sound. Since it fell off in my dad's car I had to wait for his return to get the piece back and work on fixing that. Had to go out and buy some glue, since the problem seems to be the screws and nails holding the piece on had been a little loose and tore up too much of the plastic in the heel to be able to stay put. (Interestingly, those taps were supposed to be a money saving measure but in fact seem to be costing the same as just having to get the shoes fixed fresh every 3 weeks. Ah well, no wait time at least.) So now I hope that will fix that and the shoes will behave for a while.
And in other news I got my new copy of Marriage la Mode in and approved it, so that'll probably be up on Amazon soon enough; that, I expect, will be my last book for a while. In the meantime it is up on the Createspace site, and I do always appreciate folks buying from there as they give me a better share of the royalties: https://www.createspace.com/3470334
As posted before, I learned only by chance about 8 hours before I was supposed to appear, that I was called for jury duty. The actual jury service I could take or leave -- my schedule's really pretty flexible and I don't have any commitments it would interfere with, so I was pretty capable, and even the shit pay (less than the city's minimum wage) was more money than I usually make in a day. But I was pretty offended that I followed all their rules and still came this close ( ) to failing to appear, which would have had me in a lot of trouble!
As it was though, I was almost the first person to be dismissed, because I know about my rights as a juror (visit http://www.fija.org to find more on this) and that seems to freak them out, and they don't want you near them if you actually know you don't have to follow their instructions. They only want the dumb ones. So, at least, I guess I don't have any more of that to worry about.
Walked home, and when I opened the door, my housekey broke off in the lock. I was alone in the house, and figured maybe this was something I'd have to deal with again at some point in my life, so I might as well learn what to do about this. Pliers didn't seem to be doing the job, and I wound up taking the whole knob off the door and trying to shake out the key-piece. That didn't work, so I attempted a trick using superglue I read about. This did not work as described but did lead to the solution, as the extra glue kept the key-piece from sliding away from the pliers, and I was able to actually grasp it and pull it out. Then I had to soak the knob in acetone to get the superglue out of it, but finally I replaced it and all seems to be fine.
I was home before lunchtime, so went with my parents to the Egyptian food restaurant. As my dad dropped my mom and me back at the house, I heard a little metal clank sound when I stepped from the car. Once I was back in the house, I realized the metal tap from my shoe has fallen off, and that was probably the sound. Since it fell off in my dad's car I had to wait for his return to get the piece back and work on fixing that. Had to go out and buy some glue, since the problem seems to be the screws and nails holding the piece on had been a little loose and tore up too much of the plastic in the heel to be able to stay put. (Interestingly, those taps were supposed to be a money saving measure but in fact seem to be costing the same as just having to get the shoes fixed fresh every 3 weeks. Ah well, no wait time at least.) So now I hope that will fix that and the shoes will behave for a while.
And in other news I got my new copy of Marriage la Mode in and approved it, so that'll probably be up on Amazon soon enough; that, I expect, will be my last book for a while. In the meantime it is up on the Createspace site, and I do always appreciate folks buying from there as they give me a better share of the royalties: https://www.createspace.com/3470334
grayness:
thebeliever:
Showing up with the jitters and wearing your PowerPuff Girl costume: recipe for disqualification from jury duty. And self-amusement.