Well, it seems that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. And that means six more weeks of winter.

To that I say, six more weeks of winter? We haven't even had six weeks of winter to begin with! Forget six more weeks. You see, January was unseasonably warm here, and so for a period of several weeks, we were having sixty-degree weather. And it was January. Now it's finally gotten a bit more like winter, with our getting snow two weekends in a row.

Still, I'd like to really see a snowfall that will cause several inches to cover my car, requiring me to really use the brush on the end of my scraper. Or perhaps give it one good blast with my windshield wiper.

So we'll see what the rest of winter brings. The groundhog saw his shadow. Good. Maybe we'll get that snowfall I've been hoping for.

Yesterday, in this space, I said, "Still, I'd like to really see a snowfall that will cause several inches to cover my car, requiring me to really use the brush on the end of my scraper. Or perhaps give it one good blast with my windshield wiper."

Today, this is what I got:



And I think I'm going to need to give the windshield wipers a whirl at the very least. But there you go. Snow on the windshield. And after Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday in Pennsylvania, meaning six more weeks of winter.

Otherwise, though, while I was outside the house with Big Mavica, I got a few other shots.


This is Sis's car, idle while she's at VT, also covered with snow.


My car again, this time from the rear.


The house as seen from the end of the driveway, with snow on the roof and in front. As you can see, this isn't a whole lot of snow by any means at this point.


The backyard, as seen from the porch, also is snowy, but as I mentioned, the snow is thin. The porch, however, was bone dry, thanks to that remodel we did last summer.

And meanwhile, guess who was laying on a pillow up in Mom and Dad's room, being a dog. That's right - Greta.



That's amusing, though. We talk about it one day, and we get it the next. Now maybe if I wished for a million dollars...

Look at this!



Yes, I have TWO monitors now! One and two. The big one is my original 19" monitor that came with my computer back in 1998. The second one is a HP monitor that I inherited from my father when he recently got a new computer. I actually got the whole computer from him, and I scavenged it for parts. So I took the video card out of it and also hooked up the monitor.

It's weird having two monitors. One of the first things I did was show my father how I can throw windows between the two screens. First it's on the left, and then it's on the right! Left, then right. Right, then left. Whee!

After that, I figured out how to make my background different on the two monitors. What I ended up doing was making a double-width background - two 1024x768 images next to each other in one image. Thus I have a platform-level view of Glenmont station on my right-side monitor, and a similar view of Glenmont from the mezzanine on the left. So the background images are different, but I tried to harmonize them at the same time.

Now you may be asking, what does he need two monitors for? The answer is: I don't. There is absolutely no reason that I need to have two monitors on my desk. Then why do I have it? Because it's cool, that's why! I can figure out how to use two monitors at once, and then act like this is how I've always done it. In fact, I'm writing this Journal entry on the new second monitor. Kinda cool.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to arrange things after this somewhat-significant assault on my desktop. After all, the monitor is sitting in the space formerly occupied by my scanner and my printer. I found a new home for the printer, but I've not yet found a new home for my scanner. We shall see what happens on that front.

It's also interesting how this second monitor works. When you start up the computer, the first monitor does all the usual boot-up stuff, and the second monitor is idle. Then once Windows logs itself in, then the second monitor comes to life. When you go to shut down, as soon as you start shutting down, the second monitor goes black. When you're running an MS-DOS application (yes, I have some old DOS games that I've literally grown up with and still play), the second screen goes black and the MS-DOS application runs on the main screen.

All in all, though, this is just cool. I don't need this, but I got it because it's just awesome to have. So geekish. I love it.

Ever done that, where you burn the roof of your mouth eating food that's a little too hot? I did that last night. We had pizza, and it was just a little too piping hot to eat, but I ate anyway. The first bite was just like, "WOW!" on the heat index.

So it was pretty evident that I'd burned my mouth on that hot pizza. And as expected, it was numb afterwards, as the heat from the pizza probably burned off all the nerve endings over there.

The next day is when the fun begins, though. By the day after, all the nerve endings and such related to sensation have healed, and so now you can feel the burned area again. And it's still sensitive from the burn. And it's not even a "pain" kind of feeling. It's more of a tingly feeling, if you know what I mean. It's weird.

I highly do not recommend trying to find out for yourself. Trust me on this one. Plus, in the course of life, you, too, will eat something that's too hot and burn your mouth.

And also, this is a distinctly different feeling from when I've burned my tongue in the past, usually on hot soup or hot coffee. Burning the roof of your mouth is a different, more intense feeling. But it's still quite similar as well. And still a weird feeling nonetheless.

I've been cleaning out the tubs in the floor today, and my father came by. Now we know why I'm such a pack rat. I inherited that trait from him.

Here's how it came about. He says, looking in one of the tubs, "The garbage can is your friend." Then he goes into Sis's room, which I'm using as a staging area for junk. He looks at the stuff. "You're getting rid of this?"

I eventually put it to him nicely, this way: "Now I know why I have so much junk. Now shoo before you get me to keep something else I don't need."

The garbage can is our friend. And I haven't even gone near the closet yet.

And on an unrelated note, I visit DC once again on the 9th. This marks nearly three weeks since J20, the last time I went to Washington DC. My friend Katie and I had to cancel our February 2 trip because of an emergency that came up, and so we didn't get to go. Katie and I will reschedule. I'm going on Wednesday. I know I'm going to go to Union Station again, if nothing but to reminisce, since besides being a fun place to go for the railfan, the shopper, and the architectural buff, which I first photographed two years ago in my appropriately-named Union Station photo set, I've now been to a demonstration there! The Freedom Ball was held at Union Station, and I was outside with Code Pink demonstrating. So Wednesday ought to be a fun DC trip. We'll see what I do this time.

I went to Washington DC on the first-regular-trip-after-a-big-demonstration trip on Wednesday. And yes, this being the first trip after a big demonstration is significant. I've always found that those trips, which I've experienced three times in the past, always feel a bit odd. On those trips, the most recent DC memory is of a big demonstration, and not whatever regular antics I get into. Who knows. Hard to describe, but it always feels a little strange.

Anyhow, the trip could be best described as a day of meeting old and new friends. But before meeting anyone, I first took some close-up photos of 1117 19th Street in Rosslyn, which is currently undergoing demolition. Recall, from my J20 Life and Times set:



Since that picture was taken, the building has come down a bit more, with nearly all of the exterior curtain wall now gone, with only the steel-and-concrete frame remaining. I'm considering doing a Photography set with this material. We'll see what happens.

After photographing that demolition work, I hopped back onto the train and rode to Capitol South, where a demonstration protesting Alberto Gonzales's confirmation was underway. This event was being put on by DAWN, which is the same organization that spearheaded the counter-inaugural march that I attended on January 20.

As I arrived, a number of people, wearing either all-black clothing or orange jumpsuits, and Abu Ghraib-style hoods, were kneeling on the sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court.



As I was arriving, two people were engaging in civil disobedience. This involved stepping off the sidewalk and onto the steps leading up to the Supreme Court building. One person was arrested, and another was briefly detained and released. I got a movie of the arrest:



Not long after this first arrest, another act of civil disobedience took place. This involved another man, as well as the first man who was previously only briefly detained and released, stepping off the sidewalk and onto the steps. They were both arrested.



Note that you can actually hear the clicking of the handcuffs as they are put on the arrestees in this movie.

After some time, and after those directly participating answered many a question from people passing by, the group and I marched around the Capitol to the west side of the Capitol. There, where tour buses were loading up, more people asked questions of some of the participants. Finally, that was that for the demonstration, and we were done. We all shared a group hug, and then went back to return the jumpsuits.

I also intend on making a Photography set of this event, with the possible title of "Confirmation Demonstration". We shall see.

I also made a new friend at this demonstration. I met a girl named Rose, who wore an orange jumpsuit at the demonstration. We got to talking, and it turned out that she was new to the DC area, and also fascinated by the Metro, since the area she had previously lived in had no rail system.

After going up to the Folger Shakespeare Library, outside of which the car was parked where we returned the jumpsuits, Rose and I headed, with another participant from the group, to Union Station. At Union Station, I quickly showed them where the Code Pink demonstration took place on J20, including the traffic island where Lauren and I moved to later on in the demonstration, and also the location of the woman holding the black flag. It looked so weird, not only with it being daylight, but also with it being completely empty, unlike on January 20.

After that, the other participant descended into the Metro, while Rose and I went to find a restroom. After that, we went down into the Metro ourselves. Rose had never been to the Infoshop before, and so we were going to rectify that. So from Union Station, we caught a Red Line train to Gallery Place-Chinatown, and from there, a Yellow Line train to Mt. Vernon Square. While waiting for the Yellow Line train, we did see this message about an eight-car train:



We weren't there long enough to see this car arrive, but I was fairly certain it was most likely a six-car train. For some reason, Metro's displays have been incorrectly showing eight-car trains when they're actually four or six cars long as of late.

But back to our story. So after getting off of our train at Mt. Vernon Square, Rose and I headed up to the Infoshop, where I treated her to a cookie (the Infoshop sells the best cookies!), and we used their computer to pull up my site and exchange contact information.

After the Infoshop, we returned to Mt. Vernon Square station, and headed to Fort Totten, for a transfer to the Red Line. From there, we headed to Silver Spring, where we both got off, and parted company, but not before sharing a hug, and partly planning a trip where I could show her my favorite DC area hotspots like Pentagon City, plus past protest locations and such.

So after we parted company, I took a bunch of bus photos. Silver Spring is a big bus hub, with the area jam-packed with not only Metrobuses, but also buses for Ride-On, which is Montgomery County's bus service.

From there, I rode back to downtown Washington via the Red Line, getting off at Metro Center. I got out and took a little walk - another "protest nostalgia" walk. I walked through Freedom Plaza, which was hopping with skateboarders, past the Hotel Washington, past the Treasury Building (across from which we had a "drop the debt" rally), past the White House, through Lafayette Park, then went up to follow the final few steps of the January 20 DAWN march. I walked past the Vermont Avenue entrance to McPherson Square station, and then past McPherson Square itself, albeit across the street from it. From there, I descended into the Metro at the other entrance to McPherson Square - the one with the coffee shop adjacent to it. I was now headed to Pentagon City via the Blue Line.

At Pentagon City, the plan was to meet up with my friend McCarthy Council, whom I had met nearly three years ago in a chance encounter outside Pentagon City Mall, on the day I did the Old Town Alexandria and The Metro of Tomorrow Photography sets.

We ended up meeting up in the center plaza at Pentagon Row, and went to a nearby Starbucks.

As you can see, my day was very much a day of friends, both old and new. What an exciting day!

It's interesting what my friend Katie and I ended up doing after work this evening. We ended up going to her house, and worked on getting the treadmill that she recently bought working correctly. It's one of those push-it-yourself models, and the belt wasn't moving very well. It seems that the belt was not properly lubricated, after I took a test walk on it. It took me considerable effort to get it moving, and then once it started, it practically flung me right off.

So I got on the floor with this silicon oil that came with the treadmill and went to work. I put "a few drops" on the surface beneath the belt as the directions specified. Still no luck, after a test run.

So I tried a plan B, which was to put some more drops of oil on there. In squeezing the bottle, the dropper thing came off the end. I guess you weren't supposed to squeeze like that. No problem, though. I got some oil where it was supposed to go, and we gave it another test run. No go. Still wasn't running smoothly.

Meanwhile, Katie's laughing her head off, watching me practically fly off the back of the treadmill whenever it unexpectedly started.

My next plan was to use a Q-tip to spread the silicon oil. So Katie showed me where they were, and we did that. It bombed. It was a good idea, but wasn't effective.

So I went in for the kill. Since the thing that makes you squeeze it in neat little drops had popped off, I just straight up poured a small puddle of the oil under the belt. Then I took my hand, and rubbed it all around under there. After washing my hands, I gave it a test run. Beautiful. I walked. I ran. I operated it with me on there as long as I needed, not only to make sure the oil spread around a bit, but also to make sure that it wasn't going to jam up.

It's amazing what we end up fixing sometimes. Like how I ended up fixing Katie's hair with a comb later on that evening, after her mother noticed it was sticking up.

Still, I was pleased with my work on the treadmill.

This snippet from the Olsen twins' movie It Takes Two basically describes my reaction to finding a picture of me from J20 on not one, but two Web sites.

About finding pictures of me, it's interesting the way I see it. First of all, simply having a picture of me on the Web is no longer a big deal for me. I have a bazillion pictures of myself on the Web already - most of them on here, and taken with the intention of using them here. Finding pictures of me on other people's Web sites that originated from my site is interesting, but still not as interesting, since it's nothing new photographically. I've already seen all the photos from my site, thank you very much.

However, the occasional spoof is amusing, such as that which was done on Spinnwebe, which used an exaggerated version of my style to create a photo set about a trip to Starbucks. There, they used original photos. On that topic, though, I still find it amusing to read this line: "About the most interesting part was what wasn't there, which is who the hell am I and how the hell did I get his phone number." Reason that wasn't in there was twofold. First of all, I already knew who Spinn was and knew about that which was Spinnwebe for some time, having first discovered his site via Dysfunctional Family Circus (the DFC). I thought it was funny as hell, too. Twas a shame to see the DFC go away, though I understand why it did. And as for how did he get my number? This was in my Potomac Hall room at the time. At that point in the year, there was only one place to find my number: JMU's Web site. Kind of narrows things down, doesn't it?

But anyway, end of tangent.

What I was saying, though, was that it is one thing to have a picture of me on my site, or to find a photo of me that was lifted from my site elsewhere on the Web talking about me.

It's something totally different, however, to find a photo of me at a demonstration, taken by someone else, on their Web site. I'm just like, Oh, my gawd! The first time I had this reaction was looking at one person's Million Worker March photos, when I found myself in two photos. One is entitled "Crowd at the Hotel" and the other is entitled "Larry Holmes Speaks". In the first one, Jess is visible next to me, and in the second one, the other guy is visible near me. I included the second picture in my own Million Worker March photo set.

This time around, I found two photos of me once again, but on two different sites with J20 photos on it. One is j20.lbox.org, and the other one is CarolMoore.net. I'll let you hunt around to find them.

Still, I was just like, oh, my gawd when I found them. It's interesting to see me out of context. In this case, this is not Ben Schumin who makes Schumin Web. In this case, I am just another face in the crowd. And it's neat to see. Kind of adds a touch of reality to it, to remind me that yeah, I was there.

And, true to form, in the Carol Moore photo, I'm holding Big Mavica (my camera) in my hands.

Today was a day that I could have easily pulled my hair out. Today was Singles Awareness Day, more commonly known as "Valentine's Day". And I could have pulled my hair out not only because this is the holiday for lovers - and with me being totally single.

First of all, about being single - I don't mind it. See, I saved money by not having to buy any of the Valentine's crap we've been selling. The only thing I bought was a heart-shaped box of chocolates for the box design. For ME. I thought it was cute because it says "Choo Choo Choose Me" and there's a picture of a train. I bought it because it reminds me of the classic Simpsons episode where Lisa Simpson gives Ralph Wiggum a Valentine that says, "I choo choo choose you".

Now, about today. I was ready to pull my hair out because it seemed that everyone and their mother was buying flowers and cards for their significant others. And flowers don't like to scan. Seriously, they don't. I was surprised when I could get a flower to scan. This is when we wish flowers were sold a different way, like by weight or something like produce. Just toss 'em on the scale and put in a number and voila - flowers.

Then combine the self-checkouts with the problems with scanning flowers, and you have a recipe for disaster. It was enough to where I was about to lose my patience. And it takes quite a bit for me to lose my patience. And I was on my last nerve.

Stupid bloody flowers...

It might also be worth noting that after this stressful Singles Awareness Day at work, I found a gray hair in the bathroom mirror as I was leaving work at the end of the day. I plucked it.

Otherwise, I'm in pursuit of something sturdy that will replace my little wire shelf that I have in my room. You see, up until a little more than a week ago, my scanner sat on my desk next to the monitor. And then my printer sat on that little wire shelf, above the scanner. Then on February 5, I finally got a second monitor. Thus the problem: I had to rearrange my desk. The new monitor sits where my printer and scanner used to be. The printer has a new home on top of the VCRs, which is where it has lived on and off for years. The scanner is currently disconnected and sitting across the room from the rest of the computer, since I can't figure out where to put it.

I went to Staples today after work and looked at a few monitor lift devices. All either weren't tall enough, or weren't big enough. Disappointing, to say the least. I'm going to shop around a little more before officially declaring the commencement of "Plan B", which is going to take a little thinking.

Somehow, I managed to make it work. So now my second monitor is a good eighteen inches higher than it used to be, and the scanner is hooked up beneath it. And it only cost me about seven bucks.

So what, pray tell, did I do? Well, after work today, I went hunting around my own Wal-Mart to find something. I'd previously gone hunting in the Wal-Mart in Manassas on my way up to Washington DC the last time I was up that way, and found nothing. But that store is a "regular" Wal-Mart. Mine is a Supercenter. So it's a bit bigger. And I found these plastic shelves in the Hardware department. So I bought them.

For those of you who are interested, this is the Durashelf 9133-01, which is an expandable shelf design. So I took one out of three shelves, and attached four legs to it, and there you have it. Then I just put it under my monitor, and it worked! Perhaps it's a little high (my father made that comment on it), but it seems to work. I'm actually writing this Journal entry on the second monitor, which isn't bad.

Also, now that my scanner's hooked up, I can show you that box of candy that was so funny:



So reminiscent of The Simpsons.

I'm in Blacksburg today, taking photos of the BT, formally known as Blacksburg Transit. I'm also visiting my sister later on in the evening.

I've been really successful today with my BT photos. Only disappointment is that Blacksburg Transit doesn't run their Flxibles in regular service anymore. They run their New Flyer low-floor buses on regular service, and only pull out the Flxes for special events. Still, I've done fairly well, taking a huge amount of photos of the BT's buses that are running. I also got an interior photo of one of the buses (can't remember the bus number offhand, but it's in the photos). So that's good.

Meanwhile, I recently found out that a long-time fan of mine, Rodney Anonymous, found the Web site A Little About Everything, run by a Mr. Randy N. Townley. I can see why he'd say "evil twin", but I tend to disagree. Though it seems that the "evil" part fits. I quote from his response to Rodney Anonymous's original message:

Never having heard of this guy, I clicked on the link and read through the corny, half-baked, and dim-witted stories on this guy's site. Now, I don't know Mr. Schumin, but I hardly think that anyone who has half a brain could even remotely lump me into that category -- especially after having read the articles that I tenaciously prepared on my site.

I've been dissed! And it continues...

To begin with, this guy is a non-conservative retail store (Wal-Mart) employee who rants about everything Wal-Mart -- with pictures to boot.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I do spend 40 hours a week in a Wal-Mart store - of course I'm going to talk about it. Then there's the term "non-conservative". I like the word "liberal" much better.

And the icing on the cake:

I am unapologetically a strong Christian Conservative, who rights [sic] about world events that deal with Faith, Culture, and Politics. I think the name of my site should lend some credibility "A Little About Everything."

I've been dissed by a right-wing Christian funadmentalist!

Needless to say, this person's not on the list of people I'm going to go out of my way to help. Still, I thought it was amusing to see this little online going-on between Rodney and Mr. Townley. And with me in the middle of it somewhat.

And I usually don't comment about these things, either. But this one amused me.

Anyway, back to the buses. The sun's coming out (it's been rainy), and so I'm going to see what Big Mavica can see...

What would you say? Well, I can't say you'll be seeing me driving a bus any time soon, but I did get someone to take a picture of me behind the wheel of a Harrisonburg Transit bus on Friday. That will be my cover photo for March on the site.

Otherwise, though, photographing in Blacksburg on Wednesday turned out to be quite successful. I got a whole load of bus photos, and also various other non-bus photos. Plus I got to eat dinner with my sister, which was nice.

I also discovered that Coca-Cola is coming out with a new flavor - Coca-Cola with lime. This is regular Coke, with the lime flavoring. This is NOT a diet soda! This is regular Coke. I tried it. It's got a good flavor. It's not like Pepsi Twist. This is like Vanilla Coke - it's there, but it's not obnoxious, and you'd think that the two had been together for ages. Pepsi Twist honestly tasted like Pepsi with some strange-tasting lemon flavor in it. Only place I've found the new Coca-Cola with lime so far is the Wal-Mart in Salem, where I stopped to make a pit stop on my way down. I'm sure it will be around elsewhere before too long.

Otherwise, I have confirmed that my sister is coming with me to DC on April 16! Though it might be more appropriate to say "A16", considering what we're going to a big demonstration on third-world debt. This will be my sister's first big DC demonstration! Awwww...

Speaking of protests, on my way into Blacksburg, I stopped in at the Michaels in Christiansburg. Reason I stopped there is because on January 20, I learned that this girl got her solid bandanna (something I'd been looking for) at Michaels, and so I stopped by. Still, I went in, and hoo boy... not only did I find the solid bandannas, but I found all kinds of other cool stuff, too. Talk about a protester's dream. I found feather boas (think Billionaires for Bush for a moment), paints, big heavy board that is suitable for signs, and my favorite - foam fingers! If I can figure out something to put on there, I might just have to get a foam finger or two to take with me. And it's high-quality foam, too. A lot hardier than your typical foam fingers.

But anyway, then on Friday, I went up to Harrisonburg, specifically to photograph Harrisonburg Transit. That was successful. Watch for updates to my Transit Center site for Harrisonburg and Blacksburg updates. I also went around a bit visiting people and places. Checked in with Card Services again. They're still doing quite well, and we all have our stories. Also visited other people. Stuck a "hello" note under the windshield wiper of the car of one of my former residents. I also saw a former Potomac-er, who said, "Schumin, please tell me you've graduated." I was able to say, "Yes, I have graduated."

I also swung by the Valley Mall. That was interesting to see. See, the Valley Mall I remember had a Wal-Mart at the eastern end of the mall. It looked like this:


Photo: Wal-Mart Realty

Now this Wal-Mart has been closed since May 2003, when they moved to a huge Supercenter down the road. But the building was still there. Now, look at the eastern end of the mall:



I was just like, holy crap, as like a third of the mall is just totally gone. Not only has the Wal-Mart been demolished, but the old food court, otherwise known as "Cafe Commons", has also been demolished. So the mall now has essentially reverted back to how it was before it was enlarged in 1991. That's when the food court and Wal-Mart were built onto the existing mall. The 1991 addition is now completely demolished. The mall now ends at The Shoe Department. My understanding is that a few new retail spaces will be built onto the end of the mall, as well as a new anchor store that I consider quite a surprise: Target. Yes, Target. In the former Wal-Mart location. Go figure. I'm just like, I just work here (you get the point). Still, ever since Wal-Mart left the mall, Valley Mall's been hurting. The food court was looking particularly dismal (and that was before Wal-Mart left!), thus why it's just as well that it's gone now. So a new anchor store will do the mall well. Hopefully it will be at the same level as the rest of the mall this time, and not at a higher grade than the rest of the mall like Wal-Mart was. Part of the food court's reason for existence was to serve as a ramp from the mall up to Wal-Mart. Maybe this time we'll get a nice, flat approach.

Otherwise, though, my day was good.

And now I'm looking forward again. I'm going to Charlottesville on Wednesday, and then on Thursday... DC! On Wednesday I'll be going to yet another institute of higher learning, this time the University of Virginia, to photograph the buses of UTS. Perhaps I'll also get some more CTS and JAUNT photos while I'm at it. Then Thursday in DC is still up in the air as to what I'm going to do. My intent is to go out to Largo Town Center to see how things have come along since my last trip out there just before Christmas. Additionally, I want to get more New York Avenue photos. I rode past there the last time I went up to DC, and a lot more signage was up this time around. All I know is that I have a lot of objectives and not a whole lot of daylight to do them in. So we'll see what we get.

Yes, I had a woman literally fall into my arms today at work. She was a little stiff, though, I must admit. However, having a woman falling all over you is still a wonderful thing. I even had a picture made of the woman and I. Check it out!



Okay, now I admit - it was a picture of a woman that fell into my arms. We on the safety team at our store were doing a walk-through, and I noticed that the woman in question was hanging kind of oddly. So I bumped the sign to test its stability, and it came on down. Needless to say, that made for some interesting conversation at work today, though. I was amused.

But at least no one was hurt when the sign fell down.

In the "What kind of show are you?" quiz, I am a pair of sandals. In the description, it says the following: "You're very outgoing, and maybe a little bit too much at times." That's fitting.

Meanwhile, the weather forecast is making me a touch nervous. They're calling for snow, and backing that up with a winter storm watch. I am scheduled to go to Washington DC on that day. This had better not ruin my trip, or else I'll be quite upset. So far, I've only had one trip to DC cut short by snow. That was January 17, 2004.

Oh, by the way, the reason I can pin my dates like this for these trips with so many of them, is because my regular DC trips are referenced by date for just about everything in my records for photos and movies and such. Thus it sticks to you.

But January 17 was interesting. The day started off just fine. In reviewing the photos from that day, it was gorgeous weather when I showed up at Vienna. My next photos taken outside were from a couple of hours later, at Huntington. That day, I rode from Vienna to L'Enfant Plaza and then up to Mt. Vernon Square. From there, I checked things out and then rode the entire length of the Yellow Line, to Huntington. That is where I have the next outdoor photos showing the sky. Cloudy. Then I rode Breda 2075, my first rehab, back to L'Enfant Plaza. Then I went to the police memorial outside Judiciary Square station, and then Chinatown. It was really cloudy then. And then by evening, when I went to Pentagon City Mall, the clouds opened up, and it started sleeting. That brought my trip to a halt, and I headed home.

Let's not ruin another one of these trips by getting snowed out!

If 2005 is the year of bad luck in the DC category, I'm going to be really mad. Out of a total of five planned visits to Washington, I've made a total of three, and one of them had a problem.

For the first DC trip of 2005, I overslept. As a result, I was 90 minutes behind where I wanted to be. Somehow, though, I managed to shorten that from a 90-minute delay to a 60-minute delay, mostly through shortening and elimination of my pit stops on the way up. Other than that, it was a good day.

Then the next trip was J20. Except for encountering some snow on the way home (and I was expecting this), that trip was absolutely flawless beyond my wildest dreams.

My third trip, as I mentioned in this venue in late January, was supposed to be with my friend Katie from work. There is a good reason why I discussed it, the day of the event came, and then you never heard about it again. Reason is that we didn't go. That trip was cancelled due to my having an emergency come up.

The next trip was February 9, one week after Katie and I were supposed to have gone. That trip ended up being a resounding success, as I got out on time, got into the Metro on time, had an absolutely wonderful day, and even made a new friend.

Then the next scheduled trip to Washington was supposed to be today. As you can tell, it didn't happen. Why? Snow. It was snowing here pretty hard this morning as I was checking out the weather outside. Looking it up for DC, they were getting it even worse. So my entire trip would be hell from the time I left until the time I got back. So I cancelled it and went back to sleep. And based on the weather maps I've looked at, it seems that was the right thing to do.

But I did get to Charlottesville yesterday as planned and got those UTS photos. I got lots of photos from there, of a good amount of their buses. Most of their buses are Orion I's and Gillig Phantoms. There is also a small amount of Thomas-Built buses. One thing I found out is that the drivers, who are mostly UVA students, either really like driving the Orion I buses, or they really like driving the Gillig Phantoms. The Thomas-Built buses are pretty much universally despised. And it seems that UTS management agreed, as there was only one shipment of Thomas-Built buses.

Speaking of those Thomas-Built buses, it's amusing... stepping off of one of them, after talking with the driver about the system and such, I accidentally got the door closed on my arm. "Can I have my arm back, please?" The driver was apologetic. I was amused, since this was not the first time I've had a bus door closed on me. The last time was in 2002 or 2003 on a Harrisonburg Transit bus, when the driver inadvertently closed the rear doors on me, catching me in the shoulders.

And then after coming home from Charlottesville, I changed the backgrounds on my two monitors to something really cute. Since I showed you my two monitors before, I lifted one of them up so I could put my scanner back in. So now one is higher up than the other. And many of you may know that I have the Metro as my background - generally some station. Since March 2004, I've had Glenmont on there. From March to July, I had a platform view of it. Then from July to this month, I had a view from the mezzanine. When I got two monitors, I used both images together - one on each monitor.

Now, with one monitor being higher than the other, specifically the right one being higher up, I figured out a good station to use - Rosslyn! Rosslyn is a bi-level station, and, looking inbound, the upper level is on the right, and the lower level is on the left. So... I took a photo I have of the lower level and put it on the left monitor. I then took a photo of a Breda leaving the upper level and put it on the right monitor. It's so clever, having upper and lower level photos like that.

And the common fashion what-the-heck at UVA is this... people wear a winter coat, gloves, hat, and long pants, but flip flops on the feet. I don't get it. And the men as well as the women do this. Again, I don't get it. Maybe I'm not supposed to. Who knows...

I did actually get something accomplished today! Inspired by the umpteenth Email about pictures not working, or the odd state of multimedia on the site, I finally pulled out all my Webmaster's tools and went to work hammering out that long-deferred new design for the Today's Special site. In order to keep things neat, there will be a strong influence from the current version of The Schumin Web. To keep its Today's Special character, the color scheme and a number of other stylings will remain from the existing site.

So let's compare old to new:


This is the old site. It's got a classic layout and look, but it definitely needs an update. But it is indisputably Today's Special. Note the inclusion of details from the Children's Department on the show along the top of the screen.


On the new site, as you can see, things are still VERY incomplete, with the text being "Lorem ipsum" filler text. However, the inspiration from The Schumin Web and the old version of Today's Special is evident. I liked that menu-in-a-box look and carried it over. I also retained the same details from the Children's Department in the new site. But do you notice anything different about them? They've been redone!

To make things more accurate, I popped in a tape of Today's Special and watched it for details regarding the striping on the false roof in the Children's Department. I knew there was more detail than my original design from 1997 (when the site was first created) had on it, but I wasn't sure about all the intricacies of it.

On the T.S. site originally, it was simply pink-red-pink-red-pink-red etc. Just straight striping. And kind of wide. I also included crudely-drawn replicas of decorative details on top of the false roof, and also the columns supporting it. Plus we have the windows. Of course, all the choices of color came from the appearance of the sets from 1984 to 1987.

Now, in this new design, I simplified things quite a bit. Decorative details around the false roof itself, as well as the windows, are gone. However, the striping and coloring now matches that of the show more closely. Note the skinny stripes along with the wide stripes. Interestingly enough, I found the right color match for the pink by doing a Google search for "pastel pink" and ended up taking the color off of an image of pink crib bedding. I also re-scanned the Today's Special signs in a much higher resolution. So now the logo reflects this most recent scan.

Other than these obvious design changes, a lot of other stuff is still up in the air. For one thing, I'm going to rewrite a lot of articles (since some date from 1997 when the site was first done) and get a lot of new video captures, both stills and movies. I am also considering dropping some features and adding others. I'm also adding a dedication to Sarah Lanthier on there, as she was a lifelong T.S. fan. You may recall that we visited the store together in 1999.

I think it's great that I'm finally giving my T.S. site the royal treatment. After all, it deserves it, having been in a state of neglect for some years, with any changes being done hastily and not related to the content.

My friend Katie was working a table in the front of the store today getting people to sign up for a Wal-Mart Credit Card, instead of working in her usual spot back in the Garden Center. So Katie was right near me, in my usual spot somewhere along the front end. So as I was passing by, I borrowed a line from J. Wellington Wimpy, better known simply as "Wimpy" from the Popeye cartoons, saying, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a credit card today." Of course, Wimpy used to say, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

But it was still amusing. Some people got my Wimpy reference and were amused by it, and for others it went right over their heads.

Otherwise, though, my day was good. I read in the newspaper in the breakroom that NASA has figured out a way to prevent the Columbia disaster from reoccurring. If the shuttle is damaged so as to make reentry dangerous, the crew will wait in the International Space Station until another shuttle with a four-man crew can arrive. For this first launch, Discovery will be the shuttle going on the mission, and should something go wrong, they'll send Atlantis after it. Then should something go wrong, they'd undock Discovery from the station and dock Atlantis. They would then ditch Discovery by remote control and send it to a watery grave in the Pacific Ocean. Then Atlantis would return with eleven people on board - a world record.

I think it's odd to hear them talking about ditching a Space Shuttle. The thought of this huge, expensive vehicle having to be "ditched" is just someting that struck me as strange. But it is a possibility, and it must be considered. I'm sure if they could do a rescue mission and then ditch Columbia, those seven astronauts would still be with us today.

This is a quandary, indeed. And one I've been wondering about for quite some time, since it's a puzzlement. I've found a few locations online, including the usually-reliable Emporis that refer to a building called "Rosslyn Center II" that was completed in 2002. It lists the address as 1800 North Moore Street.

I'm wondering just what the deal is with this building. Since a few sources that I've found insist it exists, and according to Emporis, Rosslyn Center II is a 27-story building. So it should be quite obvious on the skyline, particularly from my usual vantage point when I go up there, which is Rosslyn Center, at 1700 North Moore Street. And it should be the tallest thing around, too. Definitely taller than Rosslyn Center, and would also be taller than the 24-story 1801 North Lynn Street building, which is the tallest thing around that I can find.

In fact, considering the similarities in height and age for 1801 North Lynn Street, and the alleged Rosslyn Center II building at 1800 North Moore Street, I wonder if Emporis or someone got some things mixed up, and that 1801 North Lynn Street is what they meant. Since that building was completed in 2002. I remember when that building went up, and have a photo of it as a steel frame somewhere...

Either way, it's one of those things that makes me wonder. Since I know my way around Rosslyn to an extent, having explored it by foot a bit.

And for those of you who are wondering what I'm talking about, let me show you the area in question...


This is Rosslyn Center, which is the building that contains the entrance to the Rosslyn Metro station.


This is 1801 North Lynn Street, which was completed in 2002.

Rosslyn Center II? Who knows. Anyone who does know, I'm interested in finding out what this building's story is, since it's intriguing. Kind of like "Find the missing building". That or I've been staring at it all this time and didn't realize it. Again, who knows.

Today I had a small surgical procedure done at Augusta Medical Center. Let me tell you... they've got quite an operation going in there for outpatient surgery. But it was quick and relatively painless. So that was good. And I arrived at AMC at 6:30 and was out before noon. So that was really good. And now I'm at home once again.

It's interesting... it's like a television studio to an extent. They have all kinds of furniture that they change out in your little cubbyhole throughout the time you're there. We got to AMC and they called me and took me into the outpatient center, and we went to one of many of those cubbyholes. It was fitted with two chairs. There, they wheeled a little computer over and verified all of my information.

Then I went to a second little cubbyhole. This had a stretcher in it, and a chair. They gave me the hospital gown, and it was time to change into it. They closed the curtain and I changed. I did pretty well for the most part, but had quite a time with the sleeves, mainly because I had no idea what I was doing with them. As it turns out, the sleeves snapped up the sides. I don't know what I was thinking when I was trying to put that thing on. Of course, I also had to figure out which end was up in the first place on that thing. But I managed to get it on, tie the string in the back, and then screw up the sleeves. If you can imagine this, I had my arms sticking out the sides of the sleeves. I thought maybe this thing was supposed to look like a Roman tunic. I had no idea. Then, figuring that didn't look right, I unsnapped the upper snap and put my arm through the two snaps (vs. the top of the sleeve and the first snap). I was satisfied that it was right. Or so I thought.

Then the nurse came in and fixed up the gown for me. Turns out that they were real sleeves, and you weren't supposed to stick anything through where I stuck my arms. All of a sudden, a resounding "DUH!" went off in my mind, when I realized how the sleeves were supposed to go. But we gave it a good try. The nurse also said I needed to move over to the stretcher.

Now as it was snowing today, and heavily, too, things were a little slow. And since my surgeon was coming from Charlottesville, which is a good 30-some miles away from the hospital, it took him a while to get in, since you've got to go over Afton Mountain to get there, which is always treacherous in snow.

So I had to wait a bit for the surgeon to show up. Meanwhile, the anesthesiologist came in and discussed what they were going to do and got the IV started. It took them two tries to get that in place. And for the anesthesia, they did a spinal with sedation. But first we had to wait for the surgeon. Once he showed up, it was showtime.

When he showed up, we were on our way! They rolled me on the little stretcher down to the operating room. While we were underway, I asked the surgeon how his trip went. It went well for him, but he said there were a lot of accidents, and one vehicle flipped over. When I asked what kind of vehicle it was that flipped, he told me it was an SUV. Figures. I've seen so many cases where these people in their SUV's think that just because they have a car with four wheel drive that they're invincible. And then they drive like they think they're invincible. And these morons end up flipped over on the side of the road.

So then we got to the operating room. Okay. Now we rolled off the stretcher and onto the operating table. My biggest concern was falling in between the stretcher and the table. As I told the hospital staff, it reminded me of the phrase used on the London Underground (the Tube): "Mind the Gap", which is intended to encourage patrons of London's subway to use caution in stepping from the platform to the train. A photo of this in use can be found on Oren's Transit Page.

So after we got me on the table, I was sitting up on it with my legs hanging off. Here, they administered the spinal. Didn't even feel it go in. Then they got me all positioned on the table how they needed me, and then administered the sedatives, and did their thing. To me, it felt like I was in and out of the operating room in five minutes. That's a good thing, since it had to be longer than that. That meant that I was out for it, and did not feel a thing. Yaaaaaaay. I even asked them when I awoke, "That's it? You got it out? All right!"

So after surgery, they put me back onto the stretcher and wheeled me off to the recovery room for a bit. From there, I was in there for a bit while they made sure I was stable. Checked my blood pressure. Checked my blood oxygen levels using a finger clip (pretty neat!). Took my temperature in my ear. Good deal. Then once they were satisfied I was stable, and after the spinal wore off, it was back to the first little cubbyhole again. Now the second chair was gone, which made room for the stretcher. Good. So there I was. They also got my father to come back in. He was the one who took me to the hospital, in the snow.

Now, after not having anything to eat or drink for a long time due to the procedure, they gave me a Coke, and some crackers. They also later gave me a ham and cheese croissant, which really hit the spot. And then I retrieved my cell phone and earpiece from Dad, and got on the phone. First person was Mom. She was glad to hear that I made it through all right. Next was Sis down at Virginia Tech. She was glad to hear that I made it through all right. Then I called Katie from work, and told her I was all right. She was glad to hear that I made it through all right. Then I called Donna Sue at Wal-Mart to let her know that I made it through the procedure all right and to let all others concerned about it know that it went swimmingly, since I'm off work for two weeks because of this procedure.

So yeah, that was good. I talked with Dad a bit and I watched some TV (CNN, of course!). All in all, not bad. I was a little sore, but not bad.

Now they came back with a rolling recliner. And so they got me off the stretcher, and on two feet. From there we went over to the restroom. I did my thing. When I got finished, they had removed the stretcher and got the recliner in place, which they put me in and put the foot rest up on. Very nice, indeed. After a bit in that, where I talked with Dad some more, got a call from Mom on my cell, and also played Ms. Pac Man on my phone and also IM-ed my friend Susan via my Schumin Wireless screen name.

Then they said it was time to go home, and I was ready. So they retrieved my clothes, and they helped me get back into them while Dad brought the car around. Then they got a chair to wheel me down with. However, they soon realized that it was a pediatric chair that they pulled out. I asked if it was necessary to wheel. So we walked. No big deal.

All in all, it was an interesting morning. And they've got it together, let me tell you. One thing I noticed was the fire alarm situation. First of all, AMC has a voice-evacuation system, due to being as large as it is. But what I found strange was that in the place where all the outpatient surgery patients go to be prepped and then for afterwards, they had Gentex strobes. In fact, that whole second floor area near the outpatient center was Gentex. The reason this was so weird is because down the hall where they did the surgery, it was all Wheelock, which was also the case for the rest of the parts of AMC that I've been in. Go figure. But the Medical Office Building has Wheelock, the first floor was Wheelock, the place where they did all the lab work was Wheelock, but the one area was Gentex. Strange.

Now, though, I'm home, and in very little pain. So life is good.