Ugh, Dana!

erika, I'm so sorry. You made the right decision, tough as that is, and I'm glad that there was good quality of life right up to the last day.

Trudy, fingers crossed.

I get called for jury duty every two years. Like clockwork. We have a small permanent population, a number of non-citizens, lots of law enforcement and lawyers, and any number of people who haven't passed the cut-off for their felony convictions (I believe they have to be 10 years past the end of their sentence). So ... every two years I schlep down to the courthouse and go through the one day or one trial thing. And I get picked fairly often. Once it was for a drug case where the guy admitted he had the crack and the only question was whether it was for his own use or for distribution. We decided it was for personal use, which entailed a less severe sentence. On the upside, I got to see crack in person.

I also get called for the federal court; two or three times so far. I've lost track. They're a lot more demanding - you're on call for at least two weeks (call in the evening before to find out if you need to turn up the next morning) and they can extend it as much as they want. Once it was scary - big drug case with several defendants, some of whom were delivered to the courtroom in handcuffs. And the defendants got hold of a list of the jurors, with our names and, presumably, addresses. We saw them going through the list and matching up faces with names. We spent some time under the U.S. marshals' protection. Some people were seriously frightened; I remember one woman sitting in front of me shaking she was so scared. The judge declared a mistrial, dismissed us, and tossed us back in the pool.

Another time in the federal court - the U.S. District Court, to be formal - it was some poor guy who, basically, screwed up. He did some dumb stuff but happened to have crossed state lines, making it a federal case. We found him guilty, but some of the jurors were crying over having to do so.

I like seeing the predominant species in different areas. There's a high concentration of Hondas and Toyotas where I live, and a noticible number of Mini Coopers. When I visit my sister in MI, Fords and Chevys predominate (unsurprisingly).

BMWs and Priuses here. Good lord, they're prevalent. It's hard to feel special about my new old car when there are a million on the road--older, newer, same age. And Prius has surged out of nowhere in the last couple years.

Also, cars are white, black, silver, and dark blue. BORING.

Yeah, I miss my dark red Jetta still. But I see very few of those, the VR6, on the road. More VWs than Michigan, unsurprisingly, but not that model. I get why people kept trying to buy my not-very-good-condition one off me.

The Prius is the number one selling car for California, so I'm not surprised you see a lot of them.

I work in a wealthy suburb of Chicago, so Mercedes are a dime a dozen. Lots of Lexus, Audi, etc. A fair number of Bentleys, Masaratis and Nisan Leafs. Plus the occasional Tesla Model S.

Then there are clients who are "ID protection," which means we're basically creating a false identity under their name to throw Googlers off the track of their negative items.

YIKES. better-job~ma to you, Amy.

When I was living in MA I got called to serve a few times, but it was always just after I moved to a different county, so I was ineligible.

I see a lot of Priuses and other hybrids here. C'ville is Virginia's crunchy-granola spot. The number of smug rich hippies here is staggering.

For some reason I seem to be seeing more Jaguars (the car, not the cat) these days. I don't know if I'm noticing them or if there actually are more. And when I see one of the little "smart cars" I smile - they're so darn cute!

when I see one of the little "smart cars" I smile - they're so darn cute!

I drive a Toyota Echo, which is fairly damn small. One day when I went to the library, there was a Smart Car parked with an open space next to it, so I parked there just to make my car feel big. And then I took a picture: [link]

I bet that raised your car's self-esteem.

Smart Cars are cute, but Toyota makes a car that is bigger yet cheaper and with better gas mileage.

I love smart cars. I first saw them in Italy in the early 2000s and I desperately wanted a pink one. The new Fiats are also very cute. Alas, with all the 75+mph highway driving I do, not a realistic choice (not to mention the growing child).

My next car will be some sort of electric/hybrid/something. I am thinking I will need to get a new one to better fit a carload of kids bigger than me in the next 3-4 years. The taller of mac's friends already complain about backseat legroom in my Focus.