<Massachusetts has a "One day, one trial" policy. So if you don't get called the first day, you've still fulfilled your obligation. Your name is put back into the mix 3 years afterwards. You can postpone your date up to 6 months after the first one assigned, but you can only change it one time. Once you turn 65, you can request to have your jury duty at the courthouse closest to your home. Once you turn 70, you can decline to serve.> This sounds very similar to California, except that I believe that your name gets put back into the mix in two years instead of three, but I am not sure about that. I was not aware of being able to request to have the jury duty at the courthouse closest to my house after 65, but that sounds like a reasonable idea. You can certainly decline to serve after 70 in California by simply writing a reason on the form. What is odd is that I posted on this thread two days ago (on Saturday), but the it did not show up on the front page until today for me. So I tried to start my own thread on Sunday, and it disappeared within two or three minutes after I posted it, and I attempted three times. I had saved my message as a text file before attempting to post, and so I did not have to keep writing it. It was basically the same message that I wrote here two days ago. I have no idea why those thread disappeared, but I blame it on the Sunday gremlins. Our sister, who is a lawyer in Austin, Texas, told Kevin and me that we could get dragged into court for not showing up for jury duty, but if they did that for everyone in L.A. County who did not show up, the courts would be doing nothing else. I think it is slightly more difficult to get a jury when the population is very diverse - at least it seemed that way when I went for jury duty in San Francisco. A lot of people had English as their second language, and they got dismissed fairly quickly. One woman from Guatemala got dismissed because she told the judge that she could not be fair. She said, "No, I cannot be fair - I am brown," meaning that she could not have fair skin. There were a lot of characters that got called up for jury duty in San Francisco when I got called, which was around 1979, I think. We were not allowed to read books in the courtroom, but one woman had brought her knitting and got stern looks from the judge and the D.A., but it was not against the rules, and so they could not make her stop. It made me wish that I had known how to knit.

I had to leave for awhile, and when I returned I found another message from the school staff. The school system wants all parents to complete a survey about whether they intend to send their children to school this fall, and if so, whether they intend to have the kids ride the school buses. If their decision is not to have the children attend, the board wants to discuss the decision with them. The message also mentioned the on-line learning option. I think this was in planning stages before the positive covid19 case was identified, but it's nice to know there are options. BTW, I'd heard that the neighboring town's mayor had announced a mask mandate (churches excepted), and my trip today was the first time I've been in the city limits since my father's last cardiologist appointment mid-March. I saw many people outside without masks, some walking together. Some people had masks pulled down, and I watched as one lady pulled up her mask as she entered a convenience store. My doctor told me his opinion is that wearing a mask is much more important than worrying about contact with money, mail, etc., although hand-washing is always important. A mask is required for an appointment, and of course the staff were all wearing masks. He also said that the staff is having a difficult time finding disposable masks, and when they can find them the price is more than double what it was before covid19.

I would totally do it, if I qualified. I would love to help our country on the road back to normal! I don’t think I would qualify for an efficacy study, though. I think in my area they were looking for people who might have a really good chance of being exposed (i.e. college students, teachers, etc.) Since I don’t work outside of the home, and I live in a little town with low numbers...I don’t think I’m the best candidate.

@KittyNYz6 - I've used a product that's similar with a castor oil base -- it deters moles for a couple of months, but did nothing to deter the gophers. Everything I value is planted in a gopher wire cage. Except one rose that was planted before I knew about cages and is now a massive rose on a slope, so I just pray gophers don't find it. And I have on citrus tree left that's not in a cage. I also learned the hard way that gophers will chew holes in ceramic pots, wood barrels, resin pots, and the thinner stainless steel gopher wire cages. The only thing that works for me is the much more sturdy gopher wire cage for individual plants and the "hardware cloth" (which is like chicken wire but with tiny holes) at the bottom of my raised beds. Good luck!