This is going to be a busy week. One of the county committees on which I sit is the presiding body in a contested case hearing, which means that for four days this week two of my colleagues and I are sitting in a former courtroom listening to testimony and expert witnesses and cross examination and arguing lawyers and ruling on objections, after which we deliberate and issue our decision. I find it mostly quite interesting, but Smokey -- who dropped in about 15 minutes before we adjourned today -- said he doesn't see how I can stand it. It's a bit like being on jury duty except that we are allowed to take notes and ask questions if we need to. And no matter what we decide the matter will probably go to court anyway.
It also cuts into my blog reading and writing time. Worst of all, I cannot knit during the hearing, although I have my emergency knitting kit with me just in case there is a long break in the action. Always prepared, that's my motto.
I was ten minutes late to the opening of the hearing this morning, thereby making twenty-seven people (I counted) wait for me. Sunday night Smokey got my car stuck in a snowbank at the side of the driveway. Monday morning I got his car stuck in another snowbank on the other side of the driveway. This morning when we climbed to the top of the driveway so he could drive me to the county government center in the 20-year-old Jeep with a snowplow on the front (Da Yeep, as we call it), it wouldn't start. Eventually we got it going and I got to where I needed to be, albeit late as previously mentioned. By the time he came to pick me up at the end of the day he had fixed (he thinks) the thing(s) that were making Da Yeep hard to start and had pulled my car out of its snowy grave.
Winter in Wisconsin. It's not a season, it's an adventure.
