1. Inauguration/Coronation preparations
Now that I'm living 2 miles from the W-House and across the street from a high end mega-hotel, I get to watch the most expensive and intensely policed inauguration in history unfold. The inauguration is one week from today. The downtown area is full of bleachers constructed along the roads, extra road barricades (more about those later), and of course, W's elite fighter force, members of his G-had roam around looking menacing.
Yesterday, I saw three robo-cops in Metro Center with machine guns! Well, I am no gun expert, being a pansy liberal peace nic type. But they looked like what I imagine machine guns would look like. Don't point that thing at me. Another strange occurence is that the advertising posters are all covered with tape and plastic as if an explosion is expected. It makes me wonder if I should resume walking to work.
2. When a saw horse is not just a saw horse
Last week, Monica and Kate visited from Oregon for a single evening. After dinner, I convinced them to go on a driving tour of the downtown sites. Site seeing at night is not entirely conventional, but it's all we had. After getting somewhat lost on the way to the mall and having the Oregonians interpret the map for me, we found our way to the Lincolm Memorial and drove around the back of it. Taylor has a big thing about the Lincoln Memorial and wanted me to drop them off in front of it for a quick look. At that point, we were driving away, and the opposite direction appeared to lead to a nice little lot right next to the steps. The yellow line was blocked with saw horse traffic control things. Monica, bless her helpful heart, pointed out where one was down, so we made a U turn and headed for the lot. That's when a big truck put on it's high beams and started right toward us with police lights flashing. Not wanting to look like a terrorist, I stopped the car. As the terminator put his hand on his gun and approached us, I apparently said (according to later reports of eye witnesses in the back seat): "Show your hands and look harmless." He came over and said: "Did you see the barricade you just drove through?" I was thinking: "That's not a barricade. It's a frickin saw horse." But what I said was: "Um, yes sir." He requested my license and, whilst examining it, asked: "So, when is the last time you got a ticket?" I thought for a second and said: "I've never gotten a ticket." This is where the good part happened. While I am trying to avoid an all-expense paid trip to Guantanamo Bay, Taylor pipes up and says: "Yes you did! You got that ticket in Ashland!" I had to defend myself: "It didn't make it onto my record.
Thankfully, my license and plates are from Oregon and we apparently did a very good and genuine impression of hick tourists who just didn't get the seriousness of saw horses in DC. The kindly SS officer gave me a lecture about driving etiquette in the seat of super power and let us go.
Needless to say, Kate and Monica did not get to tour the Lincoln Memorial.
3. Literary Critic at Large
On the day after Christmas, I went to a play with my mother. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Here is this critic's review of the play:
If a doctor told me I had only one day left to live, I would go see Carousel at the Olney Theater Playhouse. That way, my last day would seem like eternity.
4. I just know there is something I'm forgetting. More later.
5. My new boss, who happens to work from Eugene, Oregon, seems amenable to the idea that I can do my job from Portland. I'll keep you all posted. My target timeframe is still about a year out. I know you'll miss the DC stories. Here is what I have to say about my time in DC:
I am very much looking forward to sitting in front of my fireplace in Portland telling stories about our time in DC.
6. Demolition in progress.
I remember what the other thing is. This is so cool! There is a building I can see from my window. It's about 100 yards away. It is being demolished, and it's fun to watch. Over the last couple of months, the interior of the building was stripped, which wasn't anything to watch. But on Monday, a crane came along. It had a hook. Guys inside the building catch the hook, wrap it around parts of the building sheething, and then the crane pulls it apart. It looks like a car bomb went off. On Tuesday, they replaced the hook with an actual wrecking ball and started pounding away. They've been pounding the building for three days now. They don't swing the ball into the side like I've seen on TV. They just pull it up and drop it straight down. Today I finally remembered to bring my video camera. Unfortunately, I missed the best part. The wrecking ball fell OFF of it's tether and became free range. So it's a good thing they aren't swinging it around.
More news as it happens.
