Grand Jury Duty. Nooooo!

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Gah! Got a summons in the mail for grand jury duty. Grand jurors, unlike trial jurors, meet twice a week for a two-month term. I actually think this might be an interesting experience, as I’ve never served as a grand juror before. Except for one, itty bitty problem: I’ve been summoned to do my civic duty during the upcoming legislative session.

The cosmos is pointing and laughing at me.

And now I wish I was at work today so I could pluck Title 15 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated off the shelf opposite my desk and figure out if I can get this deferred. Guess I have no choice but to peruse LexisNexis online, which is a pain to navigate through.

Lessee…Code Section 15-12-2: “Any person summoned to serve as a juror in any court of this state shall be excused from such service during his attendance as a legislator in the General Assembly.”

@#%$! Close, but no.

Ah, here we go. Code Section 15-12-1(a)(1): “Any person who shows that he or she will be engaged during his or her term of jury duty in work necessary to the public health, safety, or good order or who shows other good cause why he or she should be exempt from jury duty may be excused by the judge of the court to which he or she has been summoned or by some other person who has been duly appointed by order of the chief judge to excuse jurors. Such a person may exercise such authority only after the establishment by court order of guidelines governing excuses.”

Editing bills for the General Assembly during session counts as “work necessary to public good order” doesn’t it? Urg. Hope so.

No More Skunk Camp for Hobkin

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So the results from the vet came back, and Hobkin has a staph infection, apparently a methicillin-resistant one. He gets another course of antibiotics. Poor lil guy! But it’s a relief having a definite diagnosis and simple treatment.

However, as one skunk-related worry resolves, another rears up. The housing crisis and economic recession caused Hobkin’s godmother to lose her house. She’d been unemployed for a while, and with the job market being what it is, she ended up exhausting her savings and then having to default on her mortgage. She declared bankruptcy, and she and her houseful of skunks relocated out-of-state.

We’re devastated. I hope she manages to get back on her feet soon. Really, really hope she does. And now Hobkin doesn’t have a place to go when we’re out of town. His godmother was wonderful. We completely trusted her to look after him, had total peace of mind boarding Hobkin with her, secure that she was both capable of and would look after him with the same care and attentiveness that we would.

I don’t know what we’re going to do next month for Christmas when we go to visit fosteronfilm‘s folks. We can’t take Hobkin with us because skunks are illegal to own as pets in Illinois, and we simply can’t board him at our vet’s. It would be far too stressful. We’re considering getting a professional pet sitter, but even if we can find one who’ll sit a skunk, I very much doubt they’d have any experience caring for one. And even if they came by four times a day (which is how often Hobkin’s meals are), Hobkin would be alone for huge chunks of time. He’s used to having someone with him essentially 24/7, not to mention sleeping with me at night. I think he’ll be sad and lonely being alone for so long. I would be.

Don’t know what to do. Wah!