A judicial update...and more!

Wait, there's more to the fine blog I wrote yesterday about our judicial system.

I am not one to complain, usually. For me to get upset enough to actually complain somewhere other than this blog, it takes a lot. Like what happened that was described yesterday.

After writing the blog yesterday, I talked to the city manager and the police chief. They didn't completely understand why it happened the way it did, but really couldn't do anything about it.

Both of them said the judge usually does a good job.

Okay.

So after that, I called the judge. He called back a little later. I told him that the boys were not laughing about the glass being broken, that they along with most of the people in the room were laughing about the statement where my son said the other boy "sucked" at throwing rocks. I also tried to emphasize that Derik realized the seriousness of it.

Also, that our son was not the type to run wild or get in trouble. We keep our kids on a pretty tight rein, trying to make sure they didn't get in trouble.

The judge got a little chapped after a while. He asked what I wanted him to do about the situation. Nothing, I said. I just wanted to tell him that I didn't agree with the way it was handled.

That didn't set all that well with him. He said he didn't like parents calling and complaining to him and trying to get their kids off tickets and fines. I told him that I wasn't trying to get the ticket dismissed. He made his decision and we will follow it.

I told him there was no law saying you can't tease a kid. It's not right, but our son and his cousin should not have been fined for that.

He went on to say that he was a kid once and understood. But that his parents raised him to accept the decisions of judges and others and not to call and question them.

Okay, I didn't realize we were living in a place where our freedom was that limited. That was pretty much the extent of the conversation and I'll let it go away now.

Enough with that.

We are closer to another three-day weekend. I don't really have any plans, which is good.

My sleeping schedule has really been bad lately. During the week, I usually get up at 5 a.m. to work on photographs, writing and my web site. All this week, I have woke up at 3:30. The first couple of days, I thought it was because I went to sleep earlier. So last night I stayed up to a whopping 10:30, but still woke up at the same time.

Ugh. That has left me even more tired than normal. I'm a morning person and usually can stay alert until after lunch and then things start to fog up a bit.

I shall return.