Effects of Katrina

A little bit of the hurricane hit my neighborhood yesterday - just a day after devastating the Gulf Coast. The gas station across the street raised the price of gas about 10 cents a gallon to over $3.00 a gallon. I thought it was high when I drove back from Peavine recently. My car is getting an extended vacation. It hasn't moved in over a week.

So what's the difference between a hurricane a typhoon and a willy-willy?

Biking and Honking

Biking around DC is easy and enjoyable. After class today I rode across the Key Bridge, had Hunan broccoli at my favorite cheapo Chinese eatery (Hunan Express), then rode several miles up the Capital Crescent Trail that follows the Potomac River. The paved trail also parallels the old C&O Canal. These are busy trails, especially the Crescent Trail near Georgetown and Georgetown University. This upscale part of DC is full of healthy exercisers that jog, bike and rollerblading on this trail in the early evening. Just like the streets of DC there is a significant portion of these bikers that think the object is to go as fast as possible and race by as close as possible without ripping the flesh off the rest of us.

I think Washingtonians could do with a little quiet time - internally and externally. So many of them are so obviously stressed out and angry and ready to take it out on anyone that gets in their way. Honking car horns are an everpresent part of the environment in DC. Well, maybe its a good thing. If these characters didn't get a chance to vent their spleen by honking at normal people who knows what they might do to the rest of us when they faced a real crisis. I'm just glad they haven't put horns on bikes yet.

Skeletons in Common

My favorite place in DC to relax or study is the Sculpture Garden and I spent much of the weekend there. When I get tired of studying I pop into one of the nearby museums. On Saturday I went back to the Museum of Natural History for what must be my forty-eleventh visit. Each time however, I find something new or something I just passed over before. This time I wandered into the Hall o' Bones skeleton exhibit which I had overlooked previously. What struck me was the similarity of the skeletons of all sorts of creatures - including humans. Whether it be the skeleton of a monkey, a sea cow, or a fish the same basic parts are there. When you strip away the flesh the commonalities of all creatures becomes even more apparent.

Went Postal

On Sunday I visited the National Postal Museum. I had overlooked this museum - I've walked by it many times as I walked to or from Union Station in DC but never bothered to go in. The museum is more about the US postal system than about stamps. Here you can see postal boxes from around the world, antique postal vehicles, and exhibits on the evolution (or intelligent design?) of the US Postal System. It's really a nice museum - it's too bad so few people go see it. I bought some Dr. Seuss stamps at the post office inside.

Strange Squirrel Behavior

Walking around the DC Mall today I noticed something very strange and disturbing. The squirrels were behaving bizarrely. On the way to the Sculpture Garden from Union Station I saw a large squirrel chewing on a little squirrel. At first, I thought they were playing but when I saw blood I chased the big squirrel away so the little one could get away. An hour later, at the Sculpture Garden I saw another squirrel hopping across the sidewalk with the end of another squirrel (tail and all) sticking out of its mouth. I've never seen squirrels behave like this. Has the stress of living in DC gotten to these squirrels? Are they trying to tell us something?

K Street

I visited a couple of K Street associations today. DC is full of industry or professional associations. They set up in DC for lobby on behalf of their members. K Street NW seems to be the focal point for most of them and the office towers are full of them. Walk down the hall of any of these buildings and you'll see signs on doors with names like "National Association of Tire Rotating Professionals", "American Federation of Hangnail Sufferers", etc. A lot of people here make a nice living starting new associations but someday we will have used up all possible permutations and there won't be anything or anybody left unrepresented in DC.

It's important, when starting an association, to get a good acronym. Here's one I saw today: FARB

The Great Escalator

I live near what must be one of the world's longest escalators, the Great Escalator of the Rosslyn Metro. The enormity of this steel monolith and the gaping hole leading down into the Earth attracts tourists from far and wide. On many mornings one can witness groups of denim clad Future Farmers of America from places like Texas and Missouri riding up and down the Great Escalator. They never actually get on the subway. It's the escalator they come for.

For the more jaded, the escalator is just a way to get to the Metro. To me, it has a larger role - it reveals the true nature of the people who ride it. There are at least four types of people in the world and the way they use the escalator reveals their type. There are those who ride the escalator all the way down without moving off their step (the Prudents) and then there are those who walk or trot down the escalator (the Harried). On the way up, a third type walks all the way up (the Young). A fourth group rides all the way up (the Wise). The types can be mixed of course. I, for example, am of the Harried Wise sort since I walk down and ride all the way up.

I'm sure this has deeper implications but I'll need more time.

Note for Nathan: check this out.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I hate to take credit for this but after just one year of teaching at the University of Tulsa can it be just a coincidence that the students there ranked TU in the top 10 nationwide on four criteria? Among the happiest students in the nation! See the Princeton Review.

Pass the P.E.A.S. please.

In addition to studying Chinese I'm also learning a lot of acronymspeak. In training today I learned the following phrase:

"When compiling a PLA on the CRM the BIS and SDS should not be 32 on the FM-11."

I'm looking forward to getting back to the relative ease of Chinese class.

Toad Suck

On the way to Oklahoma I passed by Toad Suck Park near Conway, Arkansas. I wish I had a Toad Suck t-shirt. That's almost as good a name as one I remember from Poteau, OK. - "Pansy Kidd" Middle School. You can't be a pansy and go to a school with a name like that.

The Arch

Driving from DC to Oklahoma and back in four days is something I don't want to do too often. On the way back to DC this weekend I went the "middle route" through St. Louis, Louisville and Charleston West Virginia. It was a breeze until I got to West Virginia where the highway just kind of poops out in the mountains. The mountains were beautiful but I was dizzy by the time I zigged and zagged through the Monongahela National Forest to be suddenly deposited into the mad crush of Highway 66 in Virginia.

The only traffic problem enroute was a huge bottleneck in St. Louis where the transconentinental highway gets squeezed into a crumbling, narrow, one-lane ramp onto an old bridge over the Mississippi River. Well, at least it gives you a half hour to gaze at the nearby Gateway Arch. They should replace the Gateway Arch with a huge replica of a bottleneck - it would be more appropriate these days.

The Arch holds some memories for me I must admit. I was a teenager when my father took me up in the cylinder-like tram to the top of the Arch. I don't remember where we were headed when he stopped to show me the Arch. A few decades later I was under the Arch helping to manage a ceremony there to welcome the Japanese Emperor to Missouri. Then last year I took my son to see the Arch during a stop on the way to the East Coast. Will he take his children to see the Arch? I hope so.

Assateague

Assateague was great but the traffic between DC and the Maryland coast was horrible. Maryland doesn't seem to know what an overpass is so every crossroad where highways met was a nightmare of traffic. Lines of cars miles long. When we finally got to the serenity of Assateague though, it was great. Wild horses playing in the surf, beautiful sandy beaches and peace and quite. I highly recommend skipping gaudy Ocean City and going to the National Seashore instead.

I'll be bringing G-man back to Peavine for school so I'll be off the blog for four days most likely. See you next week.

Riders on the Storm

G-man and I were having some ice tea at the Pavillion Cafe at the National Sculpture Garden this week when the Doors' Riders on the Storm played over the sound system. Everytime I hear that haunting song it takes me back to one particular day when I was working in the Zink Boy Scout ranch's kitchen. Nothing special happened that day that I can recall but that song takes me to a mind scene - a point in time - in that kitchen. Strange how songs do that.

Take a long holiday.

Wild Horse Island

This weekend we will be at Assateague Island National Park on the Maryland and Virginia coasts. This barrier island is populated by wild horses and is wonderfully quite - at least along the beaches.

The NPS describes the place thusly:

Storm tossed seas, as well as gentle breezes shape Assateague Island. This barrier island is a tale of constant movement and change. Bands of wild horses freely roam amongst plants and native animals that have adapted to a life of sand, salt and wind. Special thickened leaves and odd shapes reveal the plant world’s successful struggle here. Ghost crabs buried in the cool beach sand and tree swallows plucking bayberries on their southward migration offer glimpses of the animal world’s connection to Assateague.

We will be camping next to the ocean and watching the Perseid meteor shower. Hopefully the wild horses won't rough us up too badly. I figure I'm much safer there than in DC anyway.

World's Sexiest Vegetarian - is not me

The most exciting thing to happen today was the long blog I wrote and then lost because Blogger decided to do maintenance before I could save it. Aargh.

I'm not the only vegetarian from Oklahoma anymore. Carrie Underwood was recently elected the world's sexiest vegetarian. I didn't even make it past the second round.

I'll try to remember what I wrote earlier and put it in tomorrow's blog.

What I'm Reading Now

"Tibet,Tibet" by Patrick French. This is a combination travel essay and historical book about Tibet and its invasion and subsequent control by China. I just finished "Foreign Babes in Beijing" by Rachel Dewoskin, an American that starred in a 1990s Chinese soap opera by that name.

Roosevelt Island

G-man and I walked over the pedestrian bridge to Theodore Roosevelt Island this weekend. The island, administered by the National Park Service, lies in the Potomac River between Rosslyn, Virginia and Washington DC. Most of the island is wild. The only structure on the island is the isolated memorial to Teddy. Known as "My Lord's Island" and "Barbadoes" in earlier times, the island was bought by a non-profit in 1932 and given to the Federal Government.

Teddy's statue must be a bit lonely on his island. Not many people go to the island because bikes and vehicles are not allowed. His monument doesn't compare with Franklin Roosevelt's monument on the West side of the Tidal Basin in DC.

Looking for Black Holes

Living in the megopolis stretching from Washington DC to NYC is never stranger than at night. Growing up in mid-America I enjoyed being able to see the stars at night. In DC however, one is fortunate to be able to see any stars at all. The light pollution at night causes the sky to glow with reflected light from the city. The Milky Way probably hasn't been seen in these parts since early in the 20th Century.

For an interesting look at the variation of light pollution around the globe take a look at the world light pollution map here. The places I long to be in are the black areas between the glowing cities.

While this map shows where one cannot expect to see stars at night, it also is the most visual representation of economic development from region to region. To see my point take a look at this map that covers both South Korea and North Korea as well as Japan and China. That big black hole between South Korea and China is North Korea.

Suspicious Activity

For the last two days I've been in training in Alexandria, Virginia at the US Patent and Trademark Office complex. The USPTO center in Alexandria is a modern complex of five "green buildings" (environmentally energy-efficient) interconnected underground. I was struck by the number of foreign languages I heard while walking around the restricted hallways of the complex; Vietnamese, Korean, Urdu and several I could not identify.

On the ride home on the Metro the conductor repeatedly asked passengers to report any suspicious activity. I considered this carefully. Should I report the man in the suit without socks? How about the woman that couldn't decide whether to get on or off the subway car at the Pentagon station and got caught in the door? Then, I thought of reporting the "lady of girth" that backed up to a subwaycar's pole and gripped it tightly with her buttcheeks. On second thought, none of these matters are what one could consider unusual or suspicious behavior in the city.

Space Whales and Kitchens

I had the afternoon off so I took G-man to the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy aerospace museum at Dulles Airport in Virginia. This is where they put everything that won't fit in the National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian) on the Washington Mall. No matter how they tried they couldn't get the Concorde or the Space Shuttle Enterprise to fit in the NASM. Even at the Jumbo Hanger at Udvar-Hazy they've got planes stacked on top of each other. They must live in dread of the boss coming in and telling them to move something. You couldn't move one thing in that museum without having to move everything else. It's like trying to replace an o-ring in a faucet and ending up having to remodel the kitchen.

With the space walk going on by the space shuttle crew today I wanted to see the Space Shuttle Enterprise. It's size is overwhelming close up. Floating in space on the underside of the Shuttle would be like swimming with a Blue Whale.

Beamed Up During a Chinese Lesson

It's been four months since I started intensive Chinese language training and I'm still enjoying it. I'm the only one in the class so it's pretty hard to sleep without being noticed. Into the sixth hour of Chinese I find that my attention span is, as the Chinese say "the size of a sesame seed". On some days I blank out for what seems like a millisecond and when I come to I see that the Chinese character I was writing when I apparently "beamed up" has a long wobbly stroke that leads right off the edge of the notepaper. The teacher is looking quizzically at me but I carry on as if nothing happened. The excitement of space travel.

Missiles in Georgetown

After school today G-man and I biked over the Key Bridge to Georgetown to his favorite comicbook store and then on to the Georgetown Mall for dinner at the food court Hunan Express. The only bike rack in Georgetown is behind the mall and next to the old C&O Canal. Guess Georgetown is too poor to afford bike racks. We locked our bikes up with three locks and, for good measure, took the seats with us. I see too many bikes around DC that are locked up but missing wheels and seats.

Last week we were in Georgetown when a windstorm hit suddenly. We were walking on the sidewalk on M Street when a gust blew a board off the top of a three story building and hurled it missile-like onto the pavement just two yards in front of the G-man. It was such a projectile that I hate to think of what might have happened if it had hit him. You just never know what can happen the next second. You can be walking down the street one minute and POW the next. It's scary to think of how tenuous life is. Carpe Diem.