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I had the fortunate opportunity to be one cog in the great American justice system. Too bad I didn't get picked.

I'm in the minority of people eager to serve on a jury. I don't understand what causes most people who mull every way to wiggle out of being in the box. I was thrilled to get the notice in the mail a month ago. Scenes from "Twelve Angry Men" flashed in my head.

I headed down to Merced County Superior Court this morning and was sent away with the instructions to return at 1:30 p.m. to be in the next pool of 90 people.

For years I've seen newspaper and television pictures of weapons seized during drug busts--and a few confiscated firearms in person as well. But the sight yesterday of nearly a dozen menacing handguns and rifles seized by Merced County Sheriff's Department deputies was downright intimidating. Lined up on a big folding table, those weapons looked deadly, like sleeping rattlesnakes ready to strike at a moment's notice. Thankfully they will be destroyed before someone else gets to use them.

Just like many teenage girls, I often toyed with the notion of being on the North Monterey County High School cheerleading squad. High school might have been over for me a decade ago, but I still remember wishing I was a Lady Condor, yelling loud at football games and pumping up my fellow students at rallies.

And although I never had the guts to actually try out, I did learn a cheer or two during my years at North County. I still remember these cheers, though I thankfully don’t find many reasons to perform them these days.

On the morning of April 19, 1995, I was standing outside the downtown L.A. courthouse where the O.J. Simpson trial was being held. I shared a seat in the courtroom with four other weekly magazines, and each morning after I spent my one day at the trial, CNN would interview me on its platform across the street. It was a live, two-minute deal with me answering questions from an invisible anchor. I tried to keep it light, commenting about Marcia Clark's new "do" or how certain jurors reacted to witnesses by nodding off.

The much-needed rain of March didn't come, leading to an earlier spring in terms of wildflower blooms. Hopefully, they'll still by out by the time Mariposa's Agri-Nature Trail's "Weekend in the Country" comes around on April 26-27. Some naturalists are concerned that many of the bright lupin, poppies and other flowers now out in force might not stick around to such an extent that far in the future.