The winter that wasn't.

The last three months were the winter that wasn't, in a year that won't be except for long interludes stress, strain, isolation, loneliness, and misery for very many.  It only snowed a traceable amount once all winter, and my furnace only came on maybe thee dozen times (I keep the thermostat 49, the lowest it will go).  I attended a fancy (black tie preferred) wedding in a hotel on the new Washington Waterfront on the Anacostia in January, I had my fifth eye procedure in February and came down with a dreadful two-week crud with copious up-all-night coughing fits on Valentines Day.  I think that's about sums up the winter.

Now I'm sheltering in place at home under the governor's orders in Virginia.  I didn't step foot off my property yesterday but I have adequate tp on hand (about 30 rolls--not cases), a sufficient amount of bourbon and flavored seltzer water in the cabinet and lots of dented cans picked up from the clearance shelf in the supermarket on the back porch, not all of it expired, only most of it, and none by more than two of three years.  I guess I'll be okay.  Being a former cop I still have my service weapon and I laid in fresh .357 bullets, that weren't 30 years old, the last time I was in West Virginia (just try buying ammunition in the DMV) so I'm doubly alright.

So I think that's about it for the entire year while we hunker down to ride out this virus, because it caught us completely unprepared thanks to the reckless voting choices many hinterland voters made in 2016, wishing upon pixie dust.  Gone are my intentions to attend my high school class's 50th year reunion in New Jersey, my law school class's 30th year reunion here in Virginia and the wedding of a nephew out west.  It looks like that 6 hours of extravaganza on the waterfront on a bitterly cold January evening is about all the socializing there'll be for this entire year.  I haven't even been in physical proximity with my girlfriend for the last three weeks because she has a brother in the risk group and an octogenarian relative.  I walk two miles three times a week down the roadways (the neighborhood streets are not busy) because my lungs feel too tender to start running again after my February sickness.  Was it the virus?  I'll never know because there are no adequate tests anywhere, still, in America.  I have a relative who is terribly sick currently who lives in a red state so she got a test, that took NINE DAYS to come back, negative.  Now we all wonder if it was a false negative because in MAGA America, everyone is paranoid and no one trusts anything.  Anyway, there'll be no secondary test 14 days later because still, there isn't adequate testing for the coronavirus test in America while thousands die from it.

But the phlox is in bloom, flowing over retaining walls.  Life springs eternal.  The cherry blossoms in DC waxed then waned, though the DC mayor shut down the Tidal Basin, appropriately, because thousands of idiots the weekend before last were perambulating the basin, cheek to jowl, viewing them.  America will get through this with less casualties with proper regard, or with mass casualties with reckless disregard.  Be safe, everyone.

The Cherry Blossoms 2019

Washington is famous in the spring for its flowering and beautifully colorful blossoming of the Cherry Blossom trees around the Tidal Basin, gifts from Japan when we were their friends (after WWI), before we were their enemies (WWII) and now we're their bosom buddies (post Occupation, but pre-Trump).

Pink and white natural colors of the blooms are riotous, but the wildlife don't notice.

I was in Europe, my first trip overseas, when the blossoms were at their peak.

But when I got back, I traversed the Tidal Basin a few days after The Peak and it was singularly still beautiful, before it subsided very quickly into the green leaves of the actual growing phase of these special trees.

More Cherry Blossoms

It's just about over for the spectacular cherry blossom blooms.

Enjoy.

The beautiful colors of spring will still be ongoing even as these blooms fade.

Wait till next year for these special blossoms.

Cherry Blossoms 2018 continued

The cherry blossoms in DC are still at their peak glory.  There's still time this year to see the glorious flowering of these special trees throughout the District, for a few more days.

Today's blossom-viewing trip took me and a friend to the Japanese American Memorial which is down the street a few blocks from Union Station towards the Capitol.  In this tiny, tranquil island of serenity and repose along busy Louisiana Avenue, two tethered cranes (by barbed wire, symbolizing the enclosures around the camps in hitherto uninhabited interior regions of the western states where Japanese American citizens from the west coast were interned during most of World War II) struggle to attain their former freedom.

The cherry blossom blooms on the trees surrounding the park, like all flowering petals, are very fragile, just like our democracy could be unless we are wise and ever-vigilant.  Never again, the country said in Reaganesque proclamations in the 1980s, or maybe going forward we should say, It couldn't happen here.  Right?

Many parts of DC are always noteworthy, often striking and sometimes beautiful.

Cherry Blossom Run 2018

Yesterday the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin in DC were reportedly at peak bloom, so I met a friend and former colleague from work outside my old shop and we ran 2018's version of the Cherry Blossom run.  Driving to Haines Point amidst all the traffic going to see the blooms and parking there was adventuresome but I accomplished it, being rewarded along the way by being surrounded by the beautiful blooming trees as I jockeyed for a parking space and finally meeting my running buddy, DiDi, only 15 minutes late.

This 3-mile sightseeing jaunt was going to be my long run for the week and fortunately we had plenty of stops due to the crowded walkways along the waterfront and so I could take pictures of the flowering trees.  The run itself showed me I'm still woefully out of shape as I labored mightily to keep up with my far more fit friend, she of the five half-marathon races run last year, but with the forced stops and slowdowns, it went pretty well despite my poor conditioning.

The day was deceptively cool.  Although sunny, it was windy and raw along the wide-open waterway.

There were unusual sights along the way in addition to the bustling crowds, like the artist painting the trees in their bloom.  I mentioned to her that she needed to start adding some pink to her canvas to go with the blue of the sky and water, the brown of the tree trunks and limbs and the green of the grass, and she politely smiled at my smart-alecky suggestion, pulled her gloves on ever tighter to ward off the cold and went on with her passion.

This is an example of the splendor she was hoping to capture in her painting when she started adding the pink of the blossoms.  It is a sight well worth a visit to the District despite the bother of the crowds, traffic and lack of parking.

Alongside the Tidal Basin is the National Flower Library which reveals its location each spring on an otherwise grassy field by the first sign of the perennial tulips poking up.  Just last week there were only a few green shoots poking up, by next week there will be a plethora of different colored flowers in neatly set beds.

Last year's Cherry Blossom run produced one of my favorite animal pictures, a goose sailing along serenely with blown away petals bejeweling its back.  Last year the blossoms were more scrawny and blew down much sooner than this year.

Here's another picture from last year's run.  Each spring I make an effort to run around the Tidal Basin, with friends preferably, to see these world-renowned blooms at or near their peak.

More Cherry Blossoms

Jefferson Memorial.

Washington Monument.

Cherry Blossoms.

Pink-rimmed Tidal Basin.

Cherry Blossom Festival

The Cherry Blossom Festival in DC started on the day of the March for Our Lives rally.  The cherry blossoms hadn't bloomed yet, but they're out in full flower now, best seen around the Tidal Basin.

There's a lot to see besides the trees on the Tidal Basin, like the FDR Memorial, which has a section depicting each of his four terms.  Here tourists are hamming it up in the first term section depicting a bread line while Roosevelt struggled to ameliorate the ravages of the depression wrought by the Republican president Herbert Hoover.  Hmmm.

Throughout the day during Festival Week there are performances on the stage set up in the basin's parking lot.  There's a temporary food court there with picnic tables so visitors can sit and eat and be entertained too amidst the beautiful backdrop of resplendent cherry blossom petals.

Over on the other side of the pond, TJ stands in his portico gazing across the way at the newcomer on the basin, MLK, Jr.  For those interested in symbols, a cross is formed along the Mall by the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol as the long piece and the cross piece being framed by the White House and the Jefferson Memorial, with the Washington Monument being the joining point.

Groovin' on a Sunday afternoon

Easter Sunday was a wonderful day.  It started in the morning as I went for my long run of 5K for the new week.

At noon I went to the Long Dog Cafe for lunch, my usual spot for a holiday lunch.  The fare was Dog Collars (onion rings) and the Greek Pizza Pie.

I was joined by a friend with whom I was going to view the Cherry Blossoms in the District after lunch.  I wished her a Happy Passover and she wished me a Happy Easter and made the pointed observation in a playful dig at my cultural myopia that pizza, being made from leavened dough, thus was unsuitable for her consumption during the religious holiday.

It being Sunday, we found free parking on Haines Point and walked to the Tidal Basin from there.  The beautiful Cherry Blossom trees ringing the circular tidal pond were given to the United States by Japan in 1912 in a gesture of friendship.

The blossoms were blooming, a wonderful explosion of muted pink and soft off-white petals.  Ducks glided around the Tidal Basin, oblivious to the hectic pedestrian tumult on the pathway above the retaining banks.

The splash of colors went on and on, all the way around the Tidal Basin.  The day, though overcast, was temperate and made the stroll very pleasant despite the crowds on the confined walkways.

After about four miles of walking and viewing, we made our way back to our car and noted that the District had left a Welcome note to visitors and residents alike on a long row of illegally parked cars in the form of $50 tickets, with the notation "tow requested" marked on them, in its ever-increasing venal quest for revenue through the proliferating use of parking restrictions and speed, red light and stop sign cameras.  Hey, we're glad you're here!

The day was ended on a flavorful note as we enjoyed homemade ice cream at a local confectionary shop.  The cherry blossom blooms are still at peak so visitors should get here soon to view them in their full glory, but be sure to study the parking signs when you park.

Cherry Blossom 2018

It's Cherry Blossom Festival time in DC this week.  Earlier in the week I perambulated the Tidal Basin, but the petals weren't really out yet.

This morning I went back to the Mall and the Dogwood blossoms were out.  They always precede the Cherry Blossoms by a week or two.

Around the Tidal Basin, the Cherry Blossoms were promising but not yet fully bloomed.  The crowds were ever present and will only get worse as the week to come progresses.

A tree here or there had bloomed for the most part.  Blossoms and buds, side by side.

The Tidal Basin has a slew of attractions, well worth a perambulation.  Like the FDR Memorial.

Also the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial is there, the newest addition.  Dr. King's stern visage gazes in impenetrable reflection at the Jefferson Memorial across the way.

One of my favorite monuments, the World War I Memorial. lies across the street on the backside of the MLK Memorial.  This year is the centennial mark of the end of that useless and costly war.

There's more close by the Tidal Basin.  Today was the kite festival by the Washington Monument, and there'll be more to speak about and show in a subsequent post.

2017 in Review, 1 of 3

Retirement leaves you with a lot of time to do nothing, as your friends from the workforce melt away.    But my world took a seminal change on January 20th while I listened in growing disbelief to the dystopian inaugural address of the new president--what was this bombastic fraud, this faux president, this Russian plant, talking about?  American Carnage?  Where?  Oh, I got it finally--he meant going forward.  Protest marches, my first in 45 years, ensued for the following three weekends, and more to come undoubtedly, as I and others did our best to protect our sacred democratic institutions from these destructive bomb-throwers and truth-levelers.  (The new line in the sand?)

Perhaps February was spent in a funk.  I watched a lot of CNN and MSNBC.  Something new and concerning or infuriating occurred every waking hour, it seemed.  I found it impossible to watch a Kellyanne Conway interview as she does not answer a single question, she only turns it into an opportunity to launch sideways into some unrelated anti-democratic screed and never relinquish the platform.  I thought Sean Spicer was almost equally unwatchable, but now in the days of the unprincipled lyin' Sarah Huxabee Sanders, I pine for him.  I do remember that the greatest football game ever was played sometime during this month, Super Bowl 51, where the Patriots came up off the mat when down 28-3 midway through the 3d quarter and prevailed in OT, 34-28.  Unbelievable.  The Patriots showed that there is hope for patriots, no matter how dark it looks.  (A patriot stands watch over Clarendon.)

In March a couple of friends and persons important to me professionally passed on, one older and one younger.  I saw one on her last night, after many years of no contact, and the other one's passing was a shock.  We celebrated their lives and said our goodbyes to these two fine people at two separate wakes amidst laughter and tears.  But as always, nature rewarded us with its annual display of resilient life in DC with the blooming of the cherry blossoms.  (A goose serenely glides along in the Tidal Basin with its back bejeweled with cherry blossom petals.)

April represented to me, as a history major, the centennial of America's entrance into WWI and pathway to global greatness, and a friend and I ran around DC to see as many of the WWI monuments as we could find, like the Pershing statue downtown and the cardboard cutout doughboy temporarily outside the Navy Memorial at the time.  There were other historical runs around the District later this month visiting sites associated with the end of the Civil War in April of 1861, like the Surratt Boarding House where the Lincoln assassination plot was hatched and the Ford Theatre where President Lincoln was shot.  And, of course, there was a resistance march, the Science Rally.  (Statue of Homeless Jesus downtown outside a church.  If you look instead of looking away, you'll see that the humble soul without possessions has pierced feet.)