The deck construction continues!
July 23, 2004, 10:18 AM
I had forgotten what it was like being in a place where construction was occurring on the outside of the building. I think that the last time I lived around construction was from 2000-2002, when, while I was living in Potomac Hall, JMU built Phase II of the College Center (aka “The Festival”). Then there was the time in 1993 at Stuarts Draft Middle School when they built on eight new classrooms while school was in session (but doing all the tie-in work after school was out for the summer).
But now it’s at home, and there is a group working on our new screened-in porch, which has replaced the old deck. It has also incorporated the structure of the old deck, as the workers didn’t demolish the framework, but built new framework around it. Right now there’s no roof on there yet, nor any evidence that one will be there yet except for tall support columns holding nothing at this point.
It’s been a few days since I’ve taken photos due to my work schedule. I took photos on Monday and Tuesday, then haven’t taken any since then. Next I photograph will probably be on Saturday or Sunday. I’m going to show you the progress photos in a Life and Times photo set. That will be neat.
Otherwise, my Washington DC trip on Wednesday went really well! I have now officially railfanned the entire system at the railfan window, and also visited all 83 operating Metro stations. There are three stations currently under construction that will open at the end of this year, which I will be visiting soon after they open. Still, that’s quite an accomplishment, no? Riding into Branch Avenue station at the extreme southern end of the Green Line and saying, “I did it!”
And let me tell you… those new Green Line stations that opened in 2001 are just gorgeous! They all have at least some sort of artwork in them, providing lots of color, plus are somewhat unique in their design, as a lot of the above-ground stations use the box-style station roof, vs. a gull-wing or peaked-roof canopy. Actually, the Green Line has no gull-wing canopies on it, except for half of the lower platform at Fort Totten.
Then otherwise, as cars go, I got a good mix, though a few surprises. First of all, Rohrs and Bredas on Red, Blue, and Orange consistently. Not a surprise. Yellow was all-Breda from what I could tell. I saw no Yellow rehabs. CAFs, with some exceptions, lived on the Green Line. I saw only one train of Breda rehabs, running the Blue Line. What I thought was strange, though, was seeing a Rohr train running Green Line, which is rare. Most often you’ll find CAFs on Green, and the occasional Breda. Rarely Rohrs. Also strange was that I saw NO mixed consists of trains, meaning a train that consisted of more than one car type (Rohr, Breda, CAF, Breda rehab). I also got a photo of a CAF on Orange service, which was a first. Last time I’d tried that, the train went out of service at Vienna, so I got, instead of “VIENNA” or “NEW CARROLLTN” on the side, I got “NO PASSENGERS”. This time I successfully got “NEW CARROLLTN” on the side of the train.
And I went Panda-spotting, taking pictures of a lot of those panda statues. That ought to be neat when I compile it all.
Otherwise, at work yesterday, life was interesting. We got a bunch of new signage for the Service Desk, and since I’m good with these things, I was the one who hung all the new signage up. So I took down ALL the service Desk’s signage, and then followed the guidelines to get all the NEW signage up where it should be.
It looked weird in there with all the signage down, too, let me tell you. One of our CSMs made the comment that it looked like we were moving out, since the walls were bare, and things were scattered everywhere except where they should be. My comment? I jokingly said, “Yes, we’re moving into Layaway’s cave.” But by the end of the night, our new signage was up, and looking fine. Freshens things up in there, all right.
Web site: Suitland, one of the stations that I visited Wednesday
Song: Drops of Jupiter
Quote: "I did it!"
Categories: DC trips, New porch and floors, Walmart, WMATA