Jury Case News Article

I still haven’t blogged much about jury duty… Don’t worry, it’s coming.

In the meantime, you can read about the case I was on.  “Defense wins in ‘injured infant’ suit.”

I just say no to tsunamis.

Having experienced earthquakes, fires, hurricanes and tornadoes, I have to go with tsunamis on this question. The problem with tsunamis is there's really no way to protect yourself... In an earthquake, get under a table or doorway. For a fire, evacuate. For hurricanes and tornadoes, go to your basement or interior room. WTH can you do when a tsunami's on the way?

My Everest

After miserably failing at my first mountain biking attempt at Sope Creek over 2 years ago, I thought I'd return to the scene of the crime yesterday and see if things had changed. Thankfully, they had.

First things first. Sope Creek really isn't for mountain biking. Sure, you can ride there (plenty of people were riding yesterday), but it's not a true mountain bike park like Blankets Creek or Big Creek. They have, fundamentally, one trail that runs from parking lot to parking lot. The other side trails are all closed at this point, mainly for damage sustained in recent Atlanta floods. Moreover, the trail itself isn't necessarily designed strictly for mountain biking, but more for cross-country running and hiking. (Feel free to disagree, but a steep uphill grade with 4x4 timbers spanning the entire width of the trail doesn't really feel like a mountain biker's paradise.)

Neither here nor there. As for yesterday, I came, I saw, I rode. The stuff that scared the shit of me last time felt easy this time around, after 2 years of mountain biking 2-3 times a week. The uphills were fun, the downhills were great, and my only spill was really just to trying to navigate some rocks I should have just blasted through.

My Everest is (for the most part) conquered. I'll certainly come back, but I don't think I'll become a regular.

We, the jury…

I fulfilled my civic duty and wrapped up a 9-day stint as a Fulton County juror last Thursday.  I think I have several blog posts in mind related to my time as a fair and impartial juror, but for now I’ll summarize.

- I landed on a medical malpractice civic trial involving a 7-week old boy who ended up with permanent brain damage due to Group B Streptococcus.  The plaintiffs were seeking around $25M in actual damages (lost wages and medical bills) and upwards of $100M in damages for pain and suffering.

- The first day was, obviously, jury selection.  Days 2 through 7 were the trial itself, followed by days 7 through 9 of deliberation.  On the 9th day we returned a unanimous verdict for the defendant (the ER doctor the plaintiffs were suing).

- I went in with an open mind, knowing it was going to be hard to (a) find for the defendant and crush the hopes of this family or (b) find for the plaintiffs and ruin a doctor’s career.  I listened to all of the witnesses and took 40 pages of notes throughout the course of the trial.  The evidence, testimony and other statements presented at trial included photos of the boy (now 2), videos of him and even a poem about the joys of little boys.  Not a fun 2 weeks.

Overall, I’m glad to have had the chance to serve on a jury and gain some insight into our justice process.  Am I looking forward to serving on a jury again in the near future?  Hell no.  Do I wish it could have been shorter?  Of course!  But both sides of this lawsuit demanded as much time as necessary to determine a verdict.

More to come…

I’m in good hands with Allstate. And Twitter.

This marks my first Twitter-related post, which is somewhat surprising based on how passionate I am about Twitter.  But I had such an overwhelming positive experience with Twitter yesterday that I decided it was time to break my Twitter silence.

For those that follow my Twitter stream you know I was involved with an auto accident yesterday on the way home from work.  For those that don’t follow me on Twitter, I was involved with an auto accident yesterday on the way home from work.  Thankfully, nobody was hurt, although my awesome car suffered some nasty damage.

After making sure nobody was injured, and after calling my wife and insurance company, I posted to Twitter:

 

What amazed me was the set of responses I got.  Within minutes I had Mentions and DM’s pouring through asking if I was ok, if I needed any help, if I needed a ride somewhere, etc., etc.  And these weren’t just from people I know IRL, either!  People who I only know through Twitter, some who don’t even live in Atlanta, all took time to see how I was doing.  A few even DM’ed me their phone numbers in case I needed to call.

This is only one example of how Twitter absolutely rocks.  To my Twitter friends – Thank you!  If we haven’t met IRL yet, let’s make sure we do!

Blueberry Picking @ Berry Patch Farms

Yesterday we tried something we'd never done before... Blueberry
picking. It was a nice way to spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon!
 
http://berrypatchfarms.net/
 
Great way to spend $2 (it's only $1.60 for a pound, if you can believe it)!

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21 Days Later

If you’re friends with me on Twitter or Facebook you know I went for a spectacular ride three weeks ago to Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga.  It was probably the best ride of my mountain biking career, actually… The trails were fantastic, we rode for over 4 hours, the weather was perfect, and I went with some great friends.

Of course, if you knew about the spectacular ride, then you likely also know about my spectacular crash.  (I “supermaned” off my bike.  It was glorious.)  I’m sure in the grand universe of falls it wasn’t too bad (no broken bones, no stitches required), but it was certainly my worst crash thus far, worse than this one.  I ended up with some bruised ribs, a really nice gash above my right eye, cuts and bruises all down my legs and two sprained wrists.  My doctor suggested I keep off the bike for a few weeks.

So, three weeks later I was pumped to get back out there and headed over to Big Creek in Roswell yesterday after work.  Big.  Disappointment.  The fact that it was a sweltering 97 didn’t help, or the fact that they had closed off part of the Roswell Greenway, so the only way I could access the trails was to start right off in the middle of the advanced section.  A few things I noticed…

• My wrists didn’t hurt as much as I was afraid they would, so I’m pretty good to go on that front.
• When you’re used to riding 2-3 times a week, three weeks is a long time to stay off the bike.
• Although I had no fear of crashing again right after the fall at Raccoon Mtn, I was rather hesitant yesterday; you can’t ride well if you’re afraid of falling.
• 97 is too freaking hot for me.

But… For the first time since I started mountain biking, I was really excited to get back out there.