Which came first? The chickening out, or the getting out of it?

I find myself in an interesting position.

I had a root canal done the other day. I have taken rotten care of my teeth, and it's a wonder I don't have more problems. Novocaine is really good stuff. Get a shot of that placed by a dentist who knows what he is doing, and chickening out of a dental procedure suddenly seems like too much effort (mostly because if you try to drink anything while running away, you'll drool like an infant because of numbed lips. At least for a coupe of hours).

I'm pretty sure I had a point...

Oh right. Root canal.

Okay, so I go in and endure several x-rays, Novocaine (did I mention that's good stuff?), some drilling (heard it, but didn't feel a blasting thing), and with the application of the filling, I smell cloves (?). But the whole procedure, from the fist glimpse of the Blessed Novocaine Needle to the last x-ray to make sure all's well before leaving, it took less than an hour.

Overall, I would recommend that you do all you can to avoid the root canal. Take care of your teeth. But if you must see the dentist for the procedure that gets too much of a bum rap, make sure he knows his way around a needle. It'll make things go by pretty easy.

Jury Duty on the other hand...

Jury duty is hard enough on a good day. When you live in a county that has just arrested 2 judges for corruption and a week-long docket of something on the order of 80 trials to get through with only four judges/courtrooms, it can make things s-l-o-w w--a--y d---o---w---n.

Where I live, the rules are pretty simple. You are called based upon your possession of a driver's license (rather than voter registration, as is/was usually done). You show up on Monday at 8:30, wait until you are either called to a voir dire (if you need to ask, look it up), or the day is over (about 4 or so). If you haven't been selected for a jury by this point, you get to come back and do it all again the next day. And the day after that. If it stretches to a full week, and you still haven't been placed on a jury, they thank you, and send you home.

Basically, jury duty around these parts is one trial or one week, which ever happens to you first.

I got away with only one day. Not because i was selected for a jury, but because My son was running a temp of 102, and my lovely bride had to be able to get to work the next day.

For me, jury duty was the longest 8 hours of my life. Out of 150 people or so, only 40 were called for a voir dire. This was after one of the judges came down, explained the process to us, explained that he alone had about 22 cases on his docket for the week, and might get to 3 or 4 if he were lucky, and that the other three judges had similar caseloads (that's where my math came in above).

I and a couple of contractors were given permission to be dismissed early, because of our situations. Based upon the 8 hours on Monday with a whole lot of nothing going on, I shudder to think what the other 147 people had to go through.

So, we come back to where I started this ramble. I'm in an interesting position.

I had a root canal and jury duty close enough together that I can compare the two with fresh memories of both.

While nothing hurts like dental pain, at least it can be dulled with drugs (Novocaine. Ask for it by name). Jury duty can be dull, but its a dull that seems like it LEADS to pain.

And no needle contains enough magic elixir to make that pain (not to mention lost time that you will never get back) go away.