So Mike came home and looked at the jury duty summons…he is going to return the card with a request for postponement…for what date, we’ve not yet decided, but it will be sometime at least six months from now. As far as I can find, there are no high-profile cases coming up by then, so he should get on a quick trial that won’t put us into financial ruin over his having to be away from work for more than a few days.

I just freaked out over this one, because they called him in VERY close to a VERY high profile case. We can’t afford to even take the chance that he might be forced to serve on that jury. We’ve worked hard for years to repair our credit after the Evil Bossman bullshit, we can’t afford for Mike to be out of work for long enough to fuck things up again. We want to be able to buy a house in Maine, and get out of this shithole state forever.

Also, although it’s probably illegal for employers to fire people due to prolonged jury duty, you know how some people are…they’ll just think of another excuse to can him, if the job’s not getting done. We’re lucky that his employer has kept him on, despite two uses of short-term disability, due to Mike’s being in the hospital and all. But how many more prolonged absences would they put up with before they say that enough is enough?

Mike is 55 years old, will turn 56 in May. That means that it may be difficult to impossible to find another job. He likes the job he has, it pays well, and he hopes to stay there until he is ready to retire. If we can move to Maine before he retires, telecommuting is an option, with his having to show up at the office maybe a few times month or so. So he will do what he has to do to keep said job, for himself, as well as for me and the cats.

As much as we want to see this Neil Entwistle bastard fry in hell for what he did, we have to look out for ourselves first. So Mike will request a postponement, we’ll figure out for when over the weekend, and then he’ll return the card.

Of course, if Murphy’s Law is in effect for us, somebody will find Whitey Bulger soon, and his trial will start on whatever date Mike chooses for his postponement.

But I just want 2008 to be a year of no drama, no financial issues, no going to the hospital, no dead cats, or any such thing. I just want to be sure that if Mike has to be on a jury, let it be for a minor case that only goes for a couple of days, that won’t hurt our finances or anything. We’ve been through enough the past few years, we deserve at least one year of relative peace, right?