@#$!&*#$%! # #&*+#@!!!!!!

Lets all hear it for the Florida Judicial System!!
(insert multitude of obscene hand gesture capable of making a New York Cabbie blush!)
OY VEY!
Once again treading knee deep in the abysmal quagmire of our finer court systems I had to awake this morning at 6 am!
Let's pause THERE for a minute and just visualize ME being wakened at such an ungodly hour.
NOT a pretty picture.
Even worse was the fact I had to wake up a notoriously heavy sleeper, Kaleb while at the same time NOT accidentally waking up any of the other sleeping beauties for fear of the inevitable Domino effect of ALL children being woken up.
Once again, remember this is at 6 AM!  I cringe at the thought of my beloved being woken at such an hour by a gaggle of grumpy, argumentative children.  I fear my legs would have not been able to propel me fast enough to successfully escape her righteous wrath!
Of course after having a very LARGE cup of my Swedish Espresso we stumbled out the house to walk the mile to the closest bus stop.  Thankfully the early morning ride in is occupied by the working stiffs such as myself, so all was relatively peaceful.  That is until the transfer to the 52 to Saint Pete.
UGH!
Look, with all do respect to those who rely on public transit, there is a certain sector of that class (and all the rest a ya can agree) that, shall we say....lack social skills.  There's the folks who engage in LOUD conversations of a highly personal nature, oblivious to the presence of others in their sphere of influence, whether they are talking on the phone, to another passenger or to themselves!  There are those who are unfamiliar with the concept of personal hygiene and what soap is used for!  And of course the language is the pleasant mixture of street and long shore men.
After a blissful two and half hours on the graces of public transport we were dropped at the Court and made the trudge across the parking lot to stand in line and be violated, then proceeded up to the court room.
Now mind you, this most current of offences is for all intents and purposes, minor.  He had been suspended from school for doing wheelies in the parking lot, but once he left school grounds to go home he supposedly had forgotten something in his locker and went back to get it.  But instead of going to the office he went through the back gate to his locker and got nabbed on camera, then later picked up for misdemeanor trespass.  Just further proof of our family curse.  "You screw up, you WILL get caught!"  (anyone who knew ME in school can attest to the accuracy of this claim) The boy is not overburdened with an abundance of smarts.
ANYWAY!
Once in we had to wait until ALL other cases were heard only THEN being informed that whereas the state HAD filed charges they had NOT filed sentencing recommendations. Their reasoning for not doing so was they had not had a meeting with us prior to the arraignment.  A meeting they had FAILED to attempt to make with us.
!?!?!
So instead of contacting us they choose to wait until we came to court in order to inform us we had to reschedule the arraignment to allow them time to make an appointment with us!
!?!?!
Not to mention the fact that on the date of his arrest in May, they had in fact LOST part of the intake (IE. drug screen) and he needed to go back to do it again!
!?!?!?!
Um.... I'm no expert on drugs but wouldn't whatever he MAY have had in his system on the day of his arrest pretty much be OUT of his system after two months?!
Call me crazy!
Then, of course as the day wasn't fun enough as we walked out the door of the assessment center what to our weary eye's did appear?  Our very own bus speeding off with a sneer! 
SOOOO!
The next one would be along in a scant 40 minuets, so we had the pleasure of sitting in the sweltering heat with a gaggle of high quality people being regaled (against our will) to many a tale of nefarious deeds.  And WOW I had no idea that questions could be so violent as apparently on this side of town they utilize a hatchet whenever they inquire towards something.  They kept insisting that they had to "AX" a question! 
Strange.
Well, once again we gleefully joined the ranks of the propane propelled patronage and off we went.   Of course upon arriving in downtown Clearwater we did so 2 minuets AFTER our connecting bus had left, but not a total loss as I had not yet eaten a bloody thing and it was past lunch, we paid a visit to the local café' for a burger as our wait for the next bus was an hour.
Finally we arrived to the relative security of our little niche of the universe.
Unfortunately....
Somewhere between last night and this morning the shop phone died (YET AGAIN!) so Elijah is in the process of getting us another one!  That'll be four this year.
Do us a favor?  Brighten our day and come pay us a visit.
We need the company!