"Thank you for your service"

Yeah right. What service. I am soooo disappointed. As you may or may not know I have long wanted to be called for jury duty. So last fall, for the first time in my life, I was finally sent a letter asking me to report for jury duty - but it was the same week as our vacation. So I called them and got deferred, until spring. So, in January some time I got another letter asking me to report the week of March 13th. It also reminded me that I had been deferred from last fall. So, I was really excited. The letter said to call a number the day before I was to report for instructions. So, right after 5:00 last Sunday afternoon I called the number. The recording said that all jurors did not need to report Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, but to call the same number back Wednesday after 5:00. Well, okay. So I would just have two days on jury duty instead of the whole week. Better than nothing. So, a few minutes ago I called back like I was supposed to. This time the recording said that all jurors were excused from jury duty and did NOT need to report. And then, just to rub it in, she said, "Thank you for your service."

A True Love/Hate Relationship

I remember the very first time I heard the song, "Born To Run" by Bruce Springsteen. I absolutely loved that song. A little while later I heard "Badlands" and loved that too. And then, not long after that - "Thunder Road", which BTW is my all time favorite Springsteen song. So I started collecting his albums. I had gotten all of them up until a few years ago. I have seen him in concert THREE times; the last time I was 20 feet away from him, drooling the whole time. So, I guess you could say I was a fan. He seemed like a good guy and had a great voice. And, of course, he is a fantastic songwriter. His songs are like pictures with music. And he has a great band backing him up. So, anyway, I liked the guy. And then a few years ago I started hating the guy. He got too political and started joining the Bush-bashers. So, I stopped listening to him. I could have cared less when he came back to Greensboro last year. When the radio would announce playing one of his new songs, I turned the station. I just didn't want anything else to do with him. Until last night. I had gone to bed and was watching TV before going to sleep. I was flipping through the channels, and all of a sudden there was Bruce. He was on VH1, a show called "Storytellers", and he was telling a story. He was all by himself on the stage and playing piano. He would sing a few lines, then stop and explain where those lines came from in his head, and what he meant by them, then he would sing a few more lines, and do the same thing again. Then he would go on to another song and do the same. I was sort of hooked, listening to him again. And then . . . He played "Thunder Road". And I was gone. It was beautiful. He explained a little about the song before he started singing it, as he was playing the opening notes. Then he sang the whole song uninterrupted, just him and the piano. I didn't even know he played piano. So, I guess I'm a fan again. I hate that I had missed the first half of the show, so I looked on through what was coming up and saw that same show coming on again next week. I've already set the recorder. As Keith Carradine sang in Nashville, "I'm Easy".