Jury Duty in Las Vegas?

We are legal residents of Clark County, Nevada. Though we don't live in the USA most of the time, Uncle Sam insists we have a legal address. We chose Nevada because 1) there is no state income tax; and 2) David's mum and sisters live here and we can use their address. We have Nevada driver's licenses and have registered to vote (and do vote via absentee ballot) in the Silver State, so we meet the criteria of being residents … except we're not usually here. So when Mary informed me that a very formal “The People of the State of Nevada Send Greetings and Summons to Jury Duty” for me in the mail in December, I was surprised.

Jurors are chosen at random. It appears that though I'm not lucky enough to win PowerBall lotteries … I didn't match even one number on the PowerBall draw the other night ... I do win Juror Summons Lotteries. I was summoned twice while I lived in Colorado and twice while I lived in Wisconsin and I've served on juries twice.

Since I was in Trinidad when Mary first let me know I was a winner, I contacted the Clark County court via their “ejuror” email address and explained I was out of the country. They responded that I had 90 days to change the date and could do it only once. Failure to respond could result in “contempt” charges and a fine of up to $500. Some lottery … you pay out instead of collecting. Knowing I'd be in Las Vegas soon, I set a date and sure enough, within a week, Mary informed me that my official Jury Summons notification had arrived. It required me to complete an on-line Qualification Survey within five days of my appearance date.

Are you a US citizen? Yes

Are you 18 years of age or older? Oh, yes x 3+

Are you a resident of Clark County, Nevada? Kind of

Do you understand English? Usually

Have you ever been convicted of a felony? Not that I know of

Have you ever served as a juror before? Yes

Are you breathing? Yes

“Congratulations and salutations”, I read, “you qualify”. With such strict criteria, I was feeling pretty chuffed. I was provided with all sorts of information regarding parking, smoking, proper attire (no shorts, halter tops, muscle shirts or jogging suits allowed), parking, security, etc. The next step was to wait till 6pm the night before I was to appear and call in with my special juror ID number to determine if I was really needed.

I googled “Clark County jury duty”. Clark County even provides a 10-minute video describing jury duty and gives an overview of the trial process. Though I wasn't all that thrilled about serving on a jury, I was certainly willing to do my civic duty. I was a bit put off by several posts describing how to avoid being picked for a jury, bogus reasons to provide to the court to be excused, and generally getting out of the process. My reasoning? If I was the defendant in a case, I'd want the best possible jury of my peers to judge me … not the ones who had nothing better to do or who were too dumb to figure out an excuse. But that's just me, I guess.

I called at 6:01pm. The verdict? I was excused … not needed for jury duty. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed. After all … I have experience.

Boulder City - A Fine Dam Town

Established in 1931, Boulder City was a town expressly created by the US government to house the thousands of workers responsible for building the Hoover Dam. During the Great Depression, workers and their families found security living and working on this federal reservation. It's only hop, skip and a jump (or ~20 miles/18 mins) from Las Vegas, so we thought we'd head there for lunch and little exploring. It turns out, it's a cute little town with lots to offer.

The Boulder Dam Hotel seemed like a fine place to have lunch. Built in 1933 to accommodate dignitaries and tourists during the construction of the Boulder Dam (aka Hoover Dam), the hotel, designed in a Colonial Revival style, is now listed on the National Historic Register. Though the hotel changed hands several times throughout the years and fell into disrepair, it has now been restored as a B&B and restaurant and operates under the auspices of the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association.

We enjoyed lunch, then headed to the second floor which houses the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum. The museum showcases “the story of the construction of Hoover Dam as told by the workers and their families.” It's small, but provides lots of interesting displays and information, not only about the building of the dam, but a look at the issues confronting the families that lived here.

The best part of our visit, however, was checking out the street art. It's everywhere! A collection of 33 pieces of eclectic artwork graces the main streets of Boulder City's historic old town. There's a street map locating all the artwork with titles and artists. Unfortunately, it was cold and windy and a pleasant stroll was not an option. Instead, I snapped some quick pics as we did drive-bys with the intent of returning on a warmer day to view them more closely at our leisure.

The town is charming. There were several appealing cafes and boutiques and some interesting antique shops, too. Another reason to return on another day and wander around.

By the way, we were only ~8 miles from the Hoover Dam which might also make a good day trip and I just read about the nearby Bootleg Canyon Park Nature Discover Trail. There always seems to be something to do if you go just a little further.

A little trivia about Boulder City …

• Boulder City is one of only two cities in Nevada that prohibits gambling.
• Boulder City was the first federally planned city in the West.
• Named after Boulder Canyon, the US Bureau of Reclamation never relinquished control of Boulder City until 1958. On January 4th, 1960, the city was officially incorporated.

Click here to find out what others are saying about Boulder City...

Or book a hotel and see for yourself...

The Blue View - Godzilla El Niño?

This year looks like it is not only going to be an El Niño event, it's being referred to as a Godzilla El Niño – perhaps the strongest El Niño in recorded history. According to Scripps Oceanographic Institute, “an El Niño is a temporary change in the climate of the Pacific Ocean, in the region around the equator. You can see its effects in both the ocean and atmosphere, generally in the Northern Hemisphere winter. Typically, the ocean surface warms up by a few degrees Celsius. At the same time, the place where hefty thunderstorms occur on the equator move eastward. Although those might seem like small differences, it nevertheless can have big effects on the world's climate.”

According to PBS Online, “The name El Niño (referring to the Christ child) was originally given by Peruvian fishermen to a warm current that appeared every year around Christmas. What we now call El Niño seemed to them like a stronger version of the same event, and the usage of the term evolved over time until it only referred to the irregular strong events. It wasn't until the 1960s that people started realizing this was not just a local Peruvian occurrence, but was associated with changes over the entire tropical Pacific and beyond. In effect, El Niño was too big to be seen as the mega-event it is; it just seemed like a lot of unconnected unusual weather events around the world. “ And Godzilla? We all know where that came from, although I didn't know until today that it is an Anglicized version of the fusion of the Japanese words for gorilla and whale.

As most of us recognize, the weather around the world has been even weirder than usual. In the U.S., December was the warmest and wettest in the country's history, and according to NOAA, an amazing 6372 (!) record high temperatures were registered during the month; there were a multitude of absolutely devastating winter tornadoes in the midwest and south - even San Diego was hit; and record rainfall and flooding have occurred in a number of states. Mother Nature seems especially ticked off.

For sailors, a strong El Niño year is a mixed blessing. Depending on where they'll be sailing, the weather patterns may be better or worse, but will very likely be different than in a non-El Niño year. In the Atlantic, if the El Niño is still strong next summer, the number and strength of hurricanes will be less. On the other hand, there are likely to be more storms in the Gulf of Mexico and southeast U.S. coastal areas this winter.

In the North Pacific, there may be stronger storms and heavier seas in the central and eastern areas. California and northern Mexico will probably see more stormy weather and heavy rains this winter. The South Pacific will likely experience more cyclones. Often during an El Niño event, the cyclones persist later than usual and tend to make their way further east. The usually strong and dependable easterly trade winds may be lighter than usual as well. They may become light and variable, and even reverse direction on occasions. That'll make those long Pacific passages even longer.

We pay attention to big global weather patterns like El Niño events, but in actuality, we don't make or change our plans based on them. We avoid cyclone, hurricane and typhoon regions in the appropriate seasons. Even so, we've had a few close calls, like Cyclone Bune that made our passage from the Chatham Islands to the north island of New Zealand less than fun – and that was in 2011, a La Niña year.

Whether we're on a passage or anchored, we watch for storms or nasty weather approaching and try to be prepared. And we pay attention to the day-to-day weather heading our way. But we didn't postpone our 2009 Pacific crossing because it was an El Niño year, and while we did have our share of bad weather, it wasn't so bad that we regretted not waiting another year. On the other hand, our El Nino event in 2009-10 was considered moderate. There hasn't been a strong El Nino event since 1997-98, but if this really does turn out to be the “Godzilla El Niño” meteorologists are predicting, watch out this year.

The world's weather seems to be getting more abnormal every year. Our trek north from Trinidad in a couple of months shouldn't be greatly affected, but all the Puddle-Jumpers planning to head from Panama to New Zealand this spring will need to be extra careful.