Simplified?

This week I am taking a course in "simplified acquisitions" - how to purchase supplies and services for the federal government. When I'm through, I'll be able to buy stuff for our unit. How long is the "simplified" course? Five days 8 am to 4 pm. How thick is the "simplified" manual? About 5 inches thick. And yes, there is a course in "advanced simplified acquisitions" but I think I'll skip that one. I'm not even going to think about taking "complicated acquisitions".

Winter Arrives

The fountains in the Sculpture Garden have been transformed into a skating rink for the winter. The leaves have been replaced with holiday lights and skating children have replaced paddling ducks. The security guards have retreated indoors along with their overused whistles.

I took a walk through Georgetown the other day to admire the old brick houses around N Street where John Kennedy used to live. Standing on a street corner enjoying the pattern of Ginko leaves on the brick sidewalk I noticed a car pull up and discharge Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist. She popped into her house and I walked on. Back at my apartment a couple of hours later I turned on the Chris Matthews news program and watched him interview Ms. Dowd.

Tom's Restaurant in NYC - "Sienfeld's Restaurant" 

Washington DC Skating 

New York City Skating 

NY NY

I'm in New York City tonight. Found a roundtrip bus for $35 and a hostel for $10 so I thought I'd go check out the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. I had forgotten how great the Metropolitan Art Museum was. It's huge. Mummies, sculptures, entire reconstructed ancient monoliths. It goes on for mile after mile. Three hours was all I could absorb and all my feet could take. The Met stays open on Saturday nights until 8:45 pm. It was worth the trip.

New York is appealing during the holidays. The Gothamness is spruced up with lights, shoppers and beautiful window displays (Bloomingdales). Back to DC tomorrow.

Moon Over the Potomac 

Maryland Bog 

Next-of-kin

When one works at an embassy one has to take a turn at what is called "duty officer" - usually for a week. Part of the unpleasant part of that duty is notifying next-of-kin if a family member has died while overseas. We practiced doing that today. I pray I don't have to do that for real.

Jail Time

My training today was on what to do if an American is thrown in a jail overseas. How are we supposed to help them? We had a mock jail we practiced in. I got to play a crazy American that was locked up and couldn't tell the Embassy anything coherent. I just acted naturally.

One story I've heard even before I got here is a possibly apocryphal story about a US Embassy officer on duty getting a call from the local police in some unnamed European country. The local police asked that the US Embassy come pick up a drunk American that was frolicking naked in the fountains. Our guy asked how they knew this fellow was an American. "Because he's drunk and frolicking naked in our fountains," said the local police.

After studying at the Sculpture Garden in downtown DC today I took a stroll out onto the vast expanse of the Mall. To my horror I found huge pieces of burnt aircraft laying all over the grass from the art museum to the Smithsonian. The charred chunks of metal were surrounded by police tape. News trucks with satellite dishes were nearby. Several cars were smashed to bits. My gosh, I thought, I didn't hear a plane crash! I stood there slack-jawed for a few moments trying to figure out what had happened. Then I noticed that instead of picking up the pieces, a crew was putting the pieces back onto the lawn. Not only that, but the news truck was from CWN - Constant World News. It was a movie under production.

After inquiry I found out the movie is about a Space Shuttle called "Patriot" that crashes - logically enough, right into the Mall between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument (stick thingy). How plausible does that sound? A shuttle has the whole world to crash into and it just happens to plow into the front lawn of the US Capitol. Well, that's not good news for NASA's budget is it?

As if that wasn't enough excitement for the day, I saw the Dalai Lama today. I and 16,000 of my friends heard him speak at the MCI Center in DC this afternoon. This is something I had hoped I could experience during my life. Now I've seen the Pope (twice) the Dalai Lama (once) and Oral Roberts (many times). Now, if I could just see Elvis I would have a complete set.

Jogging in Traffic Does NOT Improve Your Chances

What's the deal with jogging in traffic? All over DC yuppies are dashing across streets (jayjogging?), through red-lights, between cars - in pursuit of good health and hard bodies. It just doesn't seem logical to me to try to lengthen one's life by jogging through city traffic.

Too Much Plastic

One aspect of living in DC that I hope doesn't spread is that most of the stores and grocery stores here require shoppers to have a "loyalty card" to take advantage of their sales. If shoppers don't have these creditcard-like pieces of plastic they have to pay a much higher price. The cards are free but the result is that one has to have a bag full of plastic to go shopping. At CVS you need your CVS card, At Giant you need your Giant card, etc etc. Carrying it all is a hassle.

When novice shoppers see the sale signs they don't notice the tiny script on the price that says "with your Giant (etc) Bonus Card" so they load up and get quite a surprise at the checkout. The first time this happened to me I just left all my groceries at the register.

Why do stores use these bothersome cards? They think they promote shopper loyalty. The cards also enable stores to track your spending habits since the card information goes automatically into their computer system. I don't like the invasion of privacy but I don't want to pay the higher prices if I don't use them. If the system spreads consumers will need to find a way to fight back.

Off-Limits

I had to get out of the city for a change so I drove down to the Calvert Cliffs State Park on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. The name and description sounded grand. I pictured standing on top of the 100-ft cliffs gazing out at the blue waters of the vast bay. I also imagined solitude - something I crave after being in the city for weeks on end.

What I found was less than I had hoped for. The cliffs were off-limits, the water looked like lake water, and there were too many people there - even on a cool day. Near the end of the 2-mile trail the park posted a sign warning visitors to wear bright orange because hunting season was in progress. Good thing I was wearing deer-brown clothing I thought to myself. I evaded the hunters and arrived at the beach where I found "off-limits" signs on both sides of the small beach. Visitors couldn't even get close to the cliffs.

Duck stands on one leg in front of US Capitol to protest global warming. 

Shock and Awe

A few years ago I forgot the code to disarm a house alarm and was subjected to a terribly loud alarm that nearly had me writhing in pain on the floor - it certainly disoriented me. I was confused well beyond normal levels. So I can "sort of" empathize with the pirates that recently discovered what LRADs are.

A bicycle-eye view of Washington DC today 

My Fair Lady?

I'm in Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) training this week. It's amazing how difficult the legislatures and courts have made fairness. Actually, the difficulties can't all be blamed on the above - the idea of fairness varies widely from person to person. Here's a case in point.

Longshadow 

A Walk Through Arlington

It was another great weather day. A walk seemed in order so I moseyed over to the Iwo Jima Memorial and on to the Netherlands Carillon. I couldn't stop so I continued south through Arlington National cemetery where I sat down on a bench. Surrounded by thousands of graves and rolling hills I thought about the transitory nature of existence and how great NOW is. The sun was disappearing behind Robert E. Lee's home and I was the only (living) person in sight. Arlington is so vast that its easy to get lost in its corners.

Tonight I went to see Good Night and Good Luck about Edward R. Murrow. It's well worth seeing.