Civic Duty

I had jury duty last week. I don't think I ever had to go before...or at least that I remember. If I had gotten as far as I did last week I would remember the experience. The summons was for the whole week but I didn't end up having to go in until Wednesday afternoon. I was called in the first group and we all shuffled into the courtroom to start the long and tedious process of selecting a jury. But first they ask if anyone feels they should be excused and that's where you hear some of the worst sob stories. It's interesting, though, that they make you tell your story in front of all your peers. Makes you think twice about whether or not you want to try. I thought the lack of English skills excuse was a little abused. Once one person used that it dominoed into a bunch of people saying the same thing.

Once that part is done twenty names are called to fill the juror slots plus extras and then they go through a whole list of questions to start the weeding out process. This was a DUI charge, which made it a criminal case, so the verdict had to be agreed upon by all twelve jurors instead of three-quarters as required in a civil case. (This was all new to me.) The questions seemed to go on forever with things like "Have you ever been the victim of a crime?", "Do you know any police officers?", "Does anyone not drink?", "Does anyone not drive?", "Have you ever performed field tests for alcohol?", and so on. Then with every answer comes a story and some people just love to tell their stories. Maybe it's all important but answering the question is one thing, but then continuing with the story with parts that seem completely irrevelent just makes the time draw out longer and longer.

The defendant was latino and one of the questions was "Does anyone speak Spanish?" Suprisingly, not one of the people called up did. Their reasoning behind the question was that they wanted to make sure you would be able to take the translator's version of the witnesses' testimonies, which I thought was a bit strange. How can you hear something twice and then only take one version of it? I figured this was my out if I got called up but that never happened. They kept excusing jurors and calling new ones and we even had to return a second day to continue this but by noon the following day they had finally picked their jury. I was one of twelve left in the audience waiting our turn to be called but it never happened.

So now I'm free for at least another twelve months.

Leaning Building of El Sobrante

I thought I would try regailing you with some of the more interesting things I find with my job. Today I went out to visit an apartment complex that they are turning into condos. The building has some noticeable settlement in one corner and they want to jack it back up and put some new concrete piers and grade beams so that it won't settle anymore. After a closer inspection I discovered that the settlement wasn't really the root of their problems. The whole building is sliding forward due to a cracked foundation.


This is the building from the rear. There are three two-story units.


This crack is in the footing on the side of the building. It's up to an inch and a half wide and you can see through to the other side. The portion on the right side is sliding away from the left causing the building to slide forward. There isn't any reinforcing in the foundation, which means there isn't anything to hold it together.


You can see the tilt of the cripple wall is quite noticeable.


This is a close-up of the cripple studs. You can see that they are lifting up due to the tilt of the wall. What is hard to see is that because all the weight from above is now sitting on a much smaller area, the foundation plate (the wood piece the studs are sitting on) is literally being crushed. If the building slides much more, it could collapse. I was a bit nervous just being in the crawl space. Who knows when it could go.