Presidential Suite at the DC Capital Hilton - Sunday Five Suite Life

This is the view from the terrace of the Presidential Suite at the DC Capital Hilton, a dear friend of mine stayed there for four nights recently.  The suite is 1,500 square feet plus a roof terrace.  Every president, except the current one, since Roosevelt has stayed in this suite.  If has a grand foyer, bedroom with a large bath and a separate side entrance (the mistress entrance) a huge living room, a formal dining room that would seat about 12, a butler's' pantry (with a seperate entrance.) It was rather comfy.  

Hence this weeks Sunday Five, hotel rooms.
1: Have you ever been upgraded to a suite? 
2: What is the largest hotel room you have ever stayed in? 
3: Tell us about the worst hotel room you have stayed in? 
4: What one element from staying hotels would you most like to have at home? 
5:  Have you ever taken a "souvenir" from a hotel stay? 

My answers:
1: Have you ever been upgraded to a suite? Several times. 
2: What is the largest hotel room you have ever stayed in? The presidential suite at the Holiday Inn in Louisville Kentucky, about 1,000 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, wet bar, marble floors and wall to wall, floor to ceiling windows.  I was there one night, and I was staying alone on a work trip. 
3: Tell us about the worst hotel room you have stayed in? Microtel in Beckley West Virginia, I killed a bed bug. 
4: What one element from staying hotels would you most like to have at home? Daily maid service. 
5:  Have you ever taken a "souvenir" from a hotel stay? I have a "couple" of "Do Not Disturb Signs." 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Nice View Most Days

This chipmunk has a nice view, a large burrow, likely lots of friends.  Not a lot of foraging options, but things are growing back.  What are the odds Mt St Helens will blow her top again?  I'd nest there and take those odds, would you? 

Bits of Wisdom

Be the best you, you can be.  The only person you have to make happy, is you, pleasing others will not necessarily please you.  

In world of clones, and wanna bees, break the mold, cast your own shadow, walk your own walk, speak your truth.  

Don't be a model, be an original . 

First, be true to thine own self. 

Is It Art?

This is on display in front of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC.  I love the Hirshhorn, it's avantgarde collection of modern and contemporary art, it's willingness to push the boundaries.  

So a very large rock, with a face painted on it, on a midsize POS car.   Is it art? If art makes you think, evokes emotion, then I think it is art.  And also maybe the highest and best use of a Chrysler Spirit.   

A real story about boulders on cars.  About 20 years ago, a road construction crew was working near I-75 in northern Kentucky and dislodged a huge boulder, that rolled down hill and landed on the a car parked inches away from a house trailer.  The boulder was huge, really really huge, larger than the car.  The homeowner complained that his car had been crushed and initially the construction company refused to pay for the value of the car saying "there is no evidence that the car is under the boulder." They had a point, but the trailer dweller was left without a car and engaged a lawyer.  The engineers determined that it was impractical to break up the rock in search of the car, and doing so would probably damage or destroy the trailer just inches away.  After some gentle legal persuasion, the construction company paid for the car, and compensated the land owner for "loss of use" for the space the car was parked, that could no longer be effectively used as a parking space.  

Add insult to injury, the County billed the car owner for the property tax on the car the following year.  When the owner protested, the county clerk said, "prove the car is not still in your possession?" Round two for the lawyers, was to prove the car was no longer a car, even if it was still in the possession of the owner. It can be hard to prove a negative. 

Still the question, is it art? 

The Way We Were Wednesday Warm Summer Days

This was taken after 1972, my father has the Cannon Ftb in his lap.  The man with the white hair was Leonard, a friend of my father.  In the background is a Ford or Dodge station wagon, those nylon web lawn chairs, the print shirts and polyester trousers.  Another hint on the time, my father was not wearing glasses yet.  

The Best Belgian Restaurant in New York

We were looking for breakfast, a block or two off Times Square, and came across this sign.  The food was amazing, but things were not quite French.  Turns out it is the best Belgian restaurant in New York, maybe in the United States, but people know what to expect in French food, Belgian food leaves them unsure.  

Would you try it? 

Mural Monday With A Message

As I recall this one is continued on the side of the parking garage.

Sunday Five - Reading Materials

We are about six weeks away from my end of the year list of every book I have read this year.  Barring unforeseen circumstances,  I will once again exceed the pace of a book a week.  I have an advantage, I have a 60 to 90 minutes on the subway going to and from work, 4 or 5 days a week, my reading time.  

Hence the Sunday five on reading: 
1: What are you reading now? 
2: How fast do you read? 
3: Have you bought any books this year, that you have not read and are unsure you will ever read? 
4: Can a person be well read, if they don't read novels? 
5: Do you keep a list of the books you have read? 

My answers: 
1: What are you reading now? Hauling Checks, by Alex Stone 
2: How fast do you read? 40 to 50 pages an hour, with occasional gusts. 
3: Have you bought any books this year, that you have not read and are unsure you will ever read? Yes, Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward - too depressing.
4: Can a person be well read, if they don't read novels? I hope so. 
5: Do you keep a list of the books you have read? I started 3 years ago, and have been posting on my blog.  I wish I had started a read log 30 years ago.  I have a log of every hotel I have stayed in since 2005.

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Airport Construction

For the first time since the early 1990s there is major construction at Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA.)  If you have flown in or out of DCA on American Airlines (before that US Air) on a flight that was not from a major hub for American, you may have endured the gate 35 X experience.  35X is one gate that uses shuttle buses to take passengers to and from smaller planes parked around the ramp.  The terminal expansion will replace that with 14 new gates.  No more taking a bus, to take a plane.  Stylistically it is being matched to what was built in the 90s.  

Also a new entrance and TSA security entrance is being built between arrivals and the Metro Rail station and parking garages.  When this is finished you will clear security before entering the main concourse, eliminating the 4 separate security entrances.  The layout on this is still unclear to me, but the result will be that you will be able to move from concourse to concourse without dealing with security.  

It will be a nice step forward, for my home airport.  

Strange Facts that may or may not be true

I have been reading again, this time The Female Brain. Two facts stood out:

1: In testing 10% of men who thought they were the father of a child, proved not to be so.  Busting the myth of female fidelity.  

2: If a female sheep does not smell and bond with a newborn lamb withing 5 minutes, she will reject the lamb and keep it from nursing.  

Read any strange facts recently? 

Government Logic

I was working with a group of Federal employees, good dedicated public servants who have truly devoted their lives to helping others live a better life.  I was coordinating them speaking at a non-government conference.  

The Conference encourages speakers to bring their PowerPoint on a laptop they are familiar with. A series of emails with their fearless leader.  

1. Our lap tops won't work unless they are logged onto our secure server, and we can't do that on public WiFi. 
1. Then bring the PowerPoints on a jump drive, and use someone else's computer
2. Our jump drives are encrypted and won't work except on another encrypted government computer. 
1. Then email the PowerPoint to your home address and transfer it onto a personal jump drive
3. We can't do that, it is a violation of security protocol for us to copy the file onto a jump drive that is not issued by the office. 
1. Hmm, how do you normally do this? We email the file to someone outside of the agency.
4. So, if they email it to me, it is not a violation of security protocol, (there is nothing confidential on the file) and I can do anything with the file.
1. The solution, totally lose control of the file, to keep from violating the security rules.  

I wish I was kidding.  So many bright people trying so hard to do the right thing.  I sure am glad that file had nothing in it that is important.  

The Way We Were Wednesdays - Hanging Around Airports

My father was born the year Charles Lindbergh's first solo flight across the Atlantic.  From an early age, he fell in love with airplanes and flying.  He wanted to enlist in the Army Aircorp in World War II, his mother refused to consent, and by the time he was drafted late in the war, they were no longer training pilots.  In the early 1950's he quit smoking, and learned to fly.  He figured money wise it was about a wash, and one might be healthier than the other.  

As a consequence I grew up around little airports, and little airplanes.  The image above was from a typical Sunday morning.  

Carnivore, Omnivore, Vegetarian

Warning, I am going to say rude things about Vegans, if you are going to be offended by that, come back tomorrow, I promise to be better. 

A couple of weeks ago I hosted my annual national conference, if I get more specific than that, my employer will claim ownership of all of the content on this blog, and demand the $39 a year in advertising revenue that this blog produces (seriously, it took me almost three years to accumulate $100 in advertising revenue, the minimum threshold for Google to pay out, but still, $100 is $100, and I don't actively or passively shill for any of the advertisers (I might if asked to.)  

The conference includes a couple of buffet lunches.  I select the menus from what is offered by the venue. I try to be careful to make sure there are kosher and vegetarian options.  This is not that hard to do, except when the Chef decides to put bacon in the coleslaw (it was good!) Next time I will ask that they put the bacon on the side.  Two of my three kosher colleagues ate it anyway and commented that it was "really good."

Carnivores eat meat, vegetarians eat anything but meat, omnivores eat anything that does not eat them first.  By our nature, human beings are omnivores, if our digestive systems are healthy, we can eat almost anything.  

Then along comes the Vegan.  
At the conference I am the fix it man, the person you go to when you have a problem, and I try to find a solution. The buffet line was moving along smoothly at lunch the second day, and an angry young woman comes up to me and demands, "where is the vegan food!"  I politely direct her to the catering staff, who will take steps necessary to meet her "dietary needs." I also point out, that if she had emailed us ahead of time, as we asked in the registration materials, we would have had a special meal ready and waiting for her.  The only person who did email us ahead of time, never claimed her special meals, but grazed off of the buffet (kosher - vegetarian - no dark green leafy vegetables.) After lunch comes the conversation with the banquet captain (BC.)  

BC, "Vegans, they are always so bitter and angry."
Me, "I think it is hunger, bacon would solve that."  
BC, "Hard to cook,"
Me, "I find it hard to find fresh vegans and I am never sure if we should stew them, or grind them and make burgers." 
BC, nearly falling over laughing, "sometimes I just want to say, PACK A LUNCH!" 
Me, "Or go graze in the park." 

Yes sometimes I talk about people behind their back, don't you? 

Mural Monday - Recovered

Another one, buried underground in Rome of 1,500 years.  Nice faces from the far distant past.

Sunday Five - Being Nice

1. Do you often remember to say, "please" when asking others to do something? 
2. Do you expect or demand a "thank you" when you do something? 
3. When was the last time you performed a "random act of kindness"? 
4. Do you resist the urge to share or pass along something negative or insulting? 
5.  Do you say "good morning" to strangers? 

My answers: 

1. Do you often remember to say, "please" when asking others to do something? Almost always. 
2. Do you expect or demand a "thank you" when you do something? Nope, the world owes me nothing for doing my part. 
3. When was the last time you performed a "random act of kindness"?  Yesterday, 
4. Do you resist the urge to share or pass along something negative or insulting? Often, but not always. 
5.  Do you say "good morning" to strangers?  Habitually, even in the middle of the afternoon, or early evening.  Some people stare. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Routine Things in Life Need Not Be Boring

I remember discovering "Colours by Alexander Julian" in early 1980's, he put our a line of smartly colored dress socks. I had already discovered that underwear came in colors and styles beyond what my father wore.   Bright colors were a bold choice in the rather button down office I was working in.  Someone commented one day on my socks, and without thinking, my response was, "the routine things in life, need not be boring.  

Make a bold choice today, to not be boring.  

The Supremes - Not on a Monday

It has been a couple of years since I have stopped over to watch the Supreme Court in action.  Understanding how the process of appeals work helps you to understand what it happening.  

Each side has a time limit to explain their side, with questions from the Judges.  When I was in law school I participated in a couple of mock appeals cases. In one the judge asked me something like, "So you want us to rule that the sky if green?"  And my answer was, "well, yea!"  After the round, the judges offered feedback to the students.  He laughed and said, "great answer, but next time make it, Yes Your Honor, I believe the Court should Rule that way because the sun is yellow, and the sky is blue, and yellow and blue make green."  I was embarrassed, the room chuckled, but the lesson was learned, and it stuck.  I finished second in that competition out of almost 100 students.   

Have you ever seen an appeals court hearing cases? 

Does this Dome Make Me Look Bald?

The last gift that I can remember moving me to tears, is a 10-20mm Nikon lens, it is glorious.  And if I hold the camera just right, well there I am.  

What gift moved you to tears? 

The Way We Were Wednesday Walt Disney World

This was taken just a few months after Walt Disney World opened.  My family visited that first winter it was open.  The haunted mansion was one of my favorites, still is.  

What one element of this picture screams early 1970's to you? 

How To Be A Modern Prince(ss)

I buy cute little make the world happy books, I long have, I probably always will.  I recently read, How to be a Modern Princess.  It was focused on Meghan Markle, but many of the ideas apply to living well, and not letting anyone tell you, you can't do that.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

• Be both interesting and interested. 
• Expand your horizons; travel to far flung shores. 
• Get good at giving inspiring speeches. 
• Start your own blog and name it after your favorite Italian tipple. 
• Love your food. 
• Believe in fairytales.
• Be an advocate for gender equality. 
• Always be proud of who you are.

The first one is simple, tell your story and ask the other person to tell thiers. I have traveled and will continue to do so as long as I can.  Don't fear telling your story, tell others they can do anything they set their mind to and mean it.  Well, I didn't name my blog after a tipple, but I little birdy.  We are what we eat, if we don't love what we eat, how can we love ourselves.  I found my sweet prince. Why do we treat half of our population as second class citizens? Love yourself, warts and all we are the best us we can be.  

What would you add to the list? 

Mural Monday Ghostly Rome

I love this stuff. A church in the forum in Rome that was buried for 1,500 years.  

Sunday Five - Telling Our Stories

As bloggers we tell our stories, describe what is important, what amazes us, angers us, makes us happy.  We describe the adventure that is our life.  Thinking about this I came up with this weeks Sunday five. 

1: If you wrote a book, would it be a comedy, love story, adventure, mystery, thriller, science fiction, or other? 
2: Is your life story, more fiction or nonfiction? 
3: Is the sound track of your life, classical, opera, rock and roll, hip-hop, folk, jazz, or other? 
4: Would it be nice to have more poetry or less poetry in your life? 
5: If you wrote a children's book, what would the title be? 

My Answers: 
1: If you wrote a book, would it be a comedy, love story, adventure, mystery, thriller, fiction, science fiction, or other? Mystery, living in this town - a spy story. 
2: Is your life story, more fiction or nonfiction? Non-fiction but no one would believe some the stuff I have done. 
3: Is the sound track of your life, classical, opera, rock and roll, hip-hop, folk, jazz, or other? Folk 
4: Would it be nice to have more poetry or less poetry in your life? More, I just wish it made sense to me. 
5: If you wrote a children's book, what would the title be? You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

DC Then and Now

Way back in about 1978 my grandmother and I visited Washington DC, for both of us it was our first time.  She had been widowed just a couple of years, and had decided that she wanted to see places she had never seen.  She didn't feel comfortable driving long distances alone, so my middle brother or I would drive her in her car.  

She tired easily, so much of DC was a slow drive in the craziest traffic I had ever seen.  Early one morning I found a parking space near the Lincoln Memorial and we climbed the steps, up and down, she was quiet most of the rest of the day, nodding off in the car, it was a bit much for her.  We walked around Mt. Vernon.  The guard at Arlington Cemetery gave us a parking pass and let us drive around the grounds (I think today you have arrange that in advance - we just drove up.) There was very little security in DC at that time.  

I came back in the summer of 1991.  Drove into the city and stayed at the Holiday Inn near the Air and Space museum.  I walked the city, and saw everything I could.  At that time you could walk in any door in the Capital, and ride the underground subway between the capital and the congressional office buildings, no security, no metal detectors.  Today there are lots of metal detectors, and a lot of the underground passageways are off limits.  You can't wander around the capital at will, guided tours only today. (Unless you are a part of a congressional hearing in the capital, I did that once.)  

In 1991 I stood in line near the White House and picked up tickets for a same day tour.  Today you have to apply weeks in advance, supply information for a background check and hope and pray that you are granted permission for a tour of the White House (not that I would want to tour with the present occupant.) 

All of the museums now have visible security, many require you pass through a metal detector and have your belongings x-rayed.  Security at most federal office buildings makes a visit unpleasant at best, and sometimes simply impossible (if the person who invited you accidentally leaves you name off the list.) 

There are more museums today, virtually all of them free. Parking and traffic are as insane as ever.  Security is the most noticeable change.  

Have you been here? 

Life Before Google

I was raised before computers, when the library card catalog and a good encyclopedia were the source of the answers.  A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to wander around the Library of Congress, they stopped updating card catalog in 1980 (just three years after I finished high school.) It is still there, people were pulling the card for books they had published and having their picture taken with the card.  You can't do that with Google.  

Computer databases have changed research and scholarship.  The answers are faster and in some ways easier to find.  There are times when paging a few cards forward or back, or a few pages forward or back would find the perfect answer, that is hard to do on a computer.  And the answers we get in an online search are limited based on what is popular or highly rated, not always what is best.  I am working on a journal article, so far I have one paper book cited in a footnote, and about two dozen online citations.  My how things have changed in my lifetime. 

Did you go to school before Google?   

Happy Halloween

I made a terrible mistake, I scheduled my major national conference for Halloween and the day after this year.  I have caught more grief from adults, adults without children, who don't want to be at a conference on Halloween than I could ever have imagined.  Halloween is kind of a non-event for me.  I really don't pay much attention to it.  I had a job interview once on Halloween, I thought that explained the hat of one of my soon to be colleagues was wearing (little did I know it was her everyday hat.)  For this year, I am supplying about  40 pounds of candy, for the 230 people expected at the conference.  

Do your own thing, observe, celebrate or ignore,  have a fun day.   

The Way We Were Wednesday - Spo-Land

What do cowboy hats and hemorrhoids have in common? Sooner or later every ----hole has one.  I started early.  This was taken on the top of South Mountain in Phoenix, Spo lives someplace in that valley today.  

A friend of my father moved to Phoenix in the early 1960's, we went there twice, the first time for a couple of weeks, and the following winter we wintered in Phoenix, I went to the first grade there.  

I no longer have a cowboy hat, do you? 

Late dinners and drunks

A very late and long work dinner this evening. Drinks started at 6:30, dinner didn’t come out until 8:30. The board member sitting next to me had a martini and at least 5 glasses of wine. She held my arm to steady herself on the uneven sidewalk on the walk back to the hotel. Glad I abstained tonight. We made it back safely. I hope she feels well in the morning.

A Rich Life

An old friend of mine posted something on Facebook that made me stop and think, and write.  

She has had a long and interesting, but not always easy life. She married the bright young man she met in college, supported him through medical school, started a family.  She lived a rich life, full of material trappings, a huge house, fancy cars, nice furniture, and clothes.  When she was about 50, she came home to an empty house with a for sale sign in the front yard.  The doctor left her for a 20-something, he planned it out so he appeared broke, she got next to nothing.  She moved, went to work as social director in an income based housing community (how I met her) and worked her way through earning a masters degree.  She worked for a few more years, and then found herself approaching 70 and downsized out of a job at the same time she was being treated for lung cancer. Because she hadn't worked for so many years of her adult life, her income is modest.  She is now living a community similar to the one she worked in.  She has grown sons who adore her, a dog that she loves, and fills her days with gardening, reading, writing (she had a book published a couple of years ago) and spending time with her friends.  

The thing that triggered her Facebook posting, was a comment by one of her old friends from her days as a doctor's wife, about being poor in retirement.  She pointed out that she leads a happy and fulfilling life. She may need to say, I can't buy that, or I can't go on that trip, but she leads a rich life.  She is surrounded by things she likes and does things that she finds valuable and rewarding. 

Success in life is not about what we have, it is about what we do.  She does what she finds value in.  More material possessions would not improve her quality of life.  She would sooner have the love of her sons, her dog (not necessarily in that order) and fun with her friends than money in a loveless marriage.  She has a rich life.  

I hope I grow to be more like her as I age. 

Mural Monday- Near San Diego

A few years ago we were in San Diego for a conference and a grad-school friend of Jay's picked us up, drove us north and out along the Pacific to a small town for breakfast.  We passed this on a boarded up beach house.  

Sunday Five - Explain to me

The museum guide was trying to explain a Jackson Pollock painting.  

1: What is meaning of life? 
2: Why does anyone defend Donald Trump? 
3: When will we know we are old? 
4: Why can't we all just get along? 
5: Does any of this really matter? 

My answers (because I wouldn't ask you do anything I wouldn't do.) 
1: What is meaning of life?  42- according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  
2: Why does anyone defend Donald Trump? Moral bankruptcy 
3: When will we know we are old?  Some days I know the answer, other days I wonder if I will ever grow up (like being a grown up is a good thing.) 
4: Why can't we all just get along?  Our personal fears, lead us to distrust others who are different than us, and some people are just simply evil. 
5: Does any of this really matter? Only to us dears, only to us.  

Please share your thoughtful or creative answers in the comments. 

The Mirror Project

One of my first forays into posting online, was submitting images for the Mirror Project https://mirrorproject.com/.  The Mirror Project ran from 1999 to 2006, and accepted contributions from photographers, showing at least a bit of themselves in a reflective surface. At first I felt constrained to mirrors, the more I looked around the more reflective surfaces I found.  Creating content within the rules of project helped me to see the world in a different way, drove me to see things I had previously overlooked.  

Sadly the project stopped in 2006, when as the website says, "someone dropped the server."  It has been revived in archive form only, no longer accepting submissions.  

Still when I saw my orange shoes reflected in the stainless steel surrounding a fountain at the Hirshorn I couldn't resist. 

What was your first online platform? 

People Watching

We get so busy, so scheduled, so many things we have to do, or want to do, it is easy to rush through and forget to take time to stop and look at the world around us.  A couple of weeks ago, we drove into Washington DC on a Sunday morning (street parking is free in many areas on Sunday, and on a Sunday morning you might actually find a space near where you want to be.) We wandered an art museum, then stopped for a coffee.  While Jay waited for the barista, I sat and marveled at the sights around me.  People watching.  

Transportation Sharing

In bike-sharing or scooter sharing there is a concept of rebalancing.  Getting the wheels where people want them, not where they left them.  In other words the provider has to move the things around.  Bike share does this primarily in vans.  This is a rebalancing ride, moving four scooters from where they were, to where there are not enough.  

When I was in Nashville last March, the taxi driver that was taking me to the airport was a talker.  He explained how Uber and such had driven a lot of taxi drivers out of business.  We passed a group of ride-share scooters, he said to make ends meet a lot of taxi drivers have contracts with the scooter company.  Late at night they drive around town, picking up the scooters and take them to a charging location, then redistribute them back out on the streets. 

Have you, or would you, ride one of the electric scooters? 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Gilda

I met Gilda the second winter my family wintered in Florida.  We were in high school together.  We have stayed in contact over the decades.  Gilda and her mother had moved to Florida from Connecticut.  Her mother worked in the factory for McDonnell Douglas, at the time assembling seats for airliners.  Her mother's family was from Quebec, they spoke French as a second language. Gilda's French was always better than mine.  We dated a little.  I think she sensed that both of us would be happier with someone else.  But we have remained friends.  We differ in our views on religion and politics, but agree that people should be kind to one another, judgement is not ours.  Maybe we believe this for different reasons, but does that matter? 

Her daughter is awesome.  She actively pursues happiness in her life, rejects the haters, loves herself and encourages others to love themselves, be kind to others, and be nice to cats.  Emily gives me hope for the future of our society.  

Tell us about an old school friend you have stayed in contact with. 

Obscure Facts that May or May Not Be True

I recently read a book titled, "What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions." 

Two facts stand out:
1: If you fill your bathtub with blood, it will be gross, if you climb in you will float on top, kind of like the Great Salt Lake, then it will congeal, and be even grosser.  

2: The odds are 1 in a billion, that the person next to you in traffic will murder someone in the next 24 hours.  Not bad odds, but don't piss them off.  

Read any obscure facts recently? 

Mural Monday

Sometimes the image is the message, sometimes the message is the message.  

I am working on a journal article on ethics, the words become visual concepts in my mind when I focus on the overlap between them and try to parse out the exceptions.  

Have you had a chance to think deep thoughts recently? 

The Sunday Five - Really How Are You Doing?

1. Are you in Love? 
2. Did you laugh at least once this past week?
3. Did you take time to do something you enjoy this past week? 
4. Do you have dreams or goals in life? 
5. Tell us what makes you happy? 

My answers:

1. Are you in Love? Endlessly with my sweet bear 
2. Did you laugh at least once this past week? Yes, often, with the irony in Washington DC it is easy to find something to laugh about. 
3. Did you take time to do something you enjoy this past week? I always make time for blogging. 
4. Do you have dreams or goals in life? 46 months, Ireland in March, a big conference coming up soon. 
5. Tell us what makes you happy? A comfortable and reasonably secure life, planning and traveling, my sweet bear.  

Please share your answers in the comments. 

And The Flag Was Still There

The United States national anthem is the words to a poem, written by Francis Scott Key, set the melody of an old Scottish drinking song.  Maybe that explains why it is so hard to sing well, when sober.  The poem describes the battle of Fort McHenry at the mouth of the harbor in Baltimore.  When we visited we took a local passenger ferry from the inner harbor in Baltimore out to Ft. McHenry, a very nice 20 minute ride.  

Francis Scott Key's family owned a tavern in Washington DC, the Key Tavern.  The national park service "lost" the building.  How do you lose a building.  Well, it was disassembled to be moved when the Key Bridge was built, but they hadn't agreed on a location and didn't have money to rebuild it. Parts of it were stored in a warehouse, the bricks were numbered and stored in a maintenance yard.  And in the fullness of time, a couple of decades later the location was decided on, and funds were appropriated.  When the engineers went to look at the pile of bricks, they were gone.  The pile had been scavenged for bricks for Park Service projects, and many had simply been carried away by people who had access to the yard.  Used to build backyard barbecues and such.  Parts of the interior and structure were in the warehouse, but the building itself was gone.  Opps!  The flag was still there, but the building was gone. 

Casting a Shadow

I started to write a deep philosophical entry about the shadows we cast in our lives.  But what this photo really demands is a reflection on great fun.  All of us have unique experiences in life, things that few others get to experience.  For me, one of the highlights was riding on a Zeppelin back in the summer of 2015.  Little more than a dozen people at a time, perhaps 300 people a day get to experience watching the Zeppelin they are riding in cast a shadow on the ground, a unique shape.  

When we were planning the trip to Germany Jay emailed me two flightseeing websites. The one he was sure I would choose was a ride in a 1930's vintage airliner, the other was the Zeppelin.  I was instantly drawn to the Zeppelin, as long as I could afford it, I really didn't care what it cost, a part of the trip was planned around it. 

I am so glad I did this, the Zeppelin cast its shadow on the ground and onto a part of my life's adventure.  

What experience casts a positive shadow on your life? 
   

Happy Anniversary

1992, 27 years ago today, we set up housekeeping together, joining our lives.  Four years ago, after society and the law caught up, and recognized that our committed long term relationship is valid and deserves protection, we married.  

We are good for one another.  We comfort one another, we make one another laugh.  We respect each other, and remain faithful to one another.  We balance one another, we share curiosity and intellectual capacity.  We are both responsible, but not overly stingy.  Our intellect and whit are good matches.  

I can't say I love you, enough times a day, knowing that someday I won't have the opportunity to do that again. LOVE YOU! 

Facebook reminded me that 10 years ago this past weekend, I took part in a march on Washington for marriage equality.  In law school, I had had looked at the Constitutional issues and understood the line of reasoning that would win, but honestly, I didn't think society was ready. Five years ago when the cases were being litigated I feared that prejudice would win over legal reasoning.  I am so glad I was wrong.  

Cars, the way we were Wednesday

My paternal grandfather loved cars, he worked for Ford for about 30 years, he told amazing stories of Model As, Model Ts, and other early cars.  With a young family in the 1930's he would buy junkers, make them run, fix them along the side of the road, and run them until they wouldn't run any longer.  Just before World War II, he bought his first new Ford.  After the war he bought a new car every two or three years until he quit driving in his late 60's.  He owned a lot of good cars, but he loved telling stories about the early junkers that he somehow made run to get him and his family from place to place.  I miss those stories.  

When my mother and my aunt cleaned out my grandmother's house, they found her file with the bill of sale, for every new car they had ever bought.  My mother said, "what a load of rubbish" and tossed them all out.  If I had been there, I would have kept them, every one of them.  

What is your earliest car story? 

Leather Ball Bags

If you use a black powder rifle that fires round lead balls, you need a leather ball bag, to keep your balls in.  There are so many bad jokes that can be made about this, I am going to leave that up to you all, and your creative minds.  

Back in the 1980's there was a western themed bar and entertainment complex downtown Orlando call Rosie O'Grady's. In the gift shop they sold leather bags made from bulls scrotums. I regret not buying one of those.  

What is your best leather ball bag quip?   

Mural Monday France

Over years I have spent a couple of weeks roaming the back roads of Normandy, someplace there I came across the gem.  

Do you think that is a tomb this is above? 

Sheep on the heather, Sunday Five

It all started with one cute little stuffed sheep, picked up one spring near easter.  He was cute and fuzzy and the next thing you know, acrylic or wool, sheep were a regular part of our lives.  A week in Yorkshire fueled the passion.  

1: Have you touched a live sheep? 
 If so: What to you think of the lanolin smell? 
2: If you had time and space, would you keep sheep? 
3: Are there fields of sheep near where you live? 
4: Do you have a stuffed (artificial) sheep in the house? 
5: Do you wear wool clothing? 

My answers: 
1: Have you touched a live sheep? Yes, when they are welcoming they are fun to pet.
 If so: What to you think of the lanolin smell? It makes my nose itch.
2: If you had time and space, would you keep sheep? I don't think I should be responsible for keeping anything alive. 
3: Are there fields of sheep near where you live? There is a flock in the historic farm at Mt Vernon about 8 miles away, not many others in this urban jungle. 
4: Do you have a stuffed (artificial) sheep in the house? Several
5: Do you wear wool clothing? When I can. 

Your answers in the comments please.