Today, being off from work, I've decided to tackle some things around the house.

My main goal for today is getting all of my junk out of Sis's room. I put it in there way back in January for a planned cleaning up/out in my room, with the intention of ultimately cleaning out the closet and unloading tons of crap-ola that I don't ever use. Heck, I haven't even touched the closet in some years, so this ought to be interesting when I eventually get around to it. My original plan was to do all this clean-up work in February. But with the whole to-do that ultimately led to the surgery at the end of that month, the project was shelved. A shame, indeed. I still do intend on cleaning out the closet, though. Just give me time.

I've also started a few eBay auctions for old stuff of mine that I think might be worth something. They are a Chick-Fil-A Christmas cow, Lethal Enforcers for Sega CD, a University of Arkansas vanity plate, an IBM PS/2 keyboard, and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Official Fan Club Video. If you find any of this interesting, please bid.

Otherwise, life is good. I've gotten into a very nice rut at work. 7 AM to 4 PM, and off Wednesdays and Thursdays. I used to grumble at the thought of mornings, but then after having quite a few of them, they've come to grow on me. Now I like the mornings, and it's nice to get in early and get out while the best part of the day still lies ahead. I don't know what I did to get all these mornings, but I'm certainly not complaining!

I also can't believe it's been a week since I last wrote in here! I'm usually far better than that. I like to write in here every couple of days at the very least. But a whole week... goodness!

So I didn't make my goal of getting everything out of Sis's room. So sue me. But I am almost there, having gotten everything out except for one nearly-empty tub and some small odds and ends. I'll tackle that after work tomorrow. Still, I'm proud of myself. I got most of the junk out, and I placed it all in a corner of my room that would otherwise sit idle due to the way the furniture's positioned.

And then once I get the rest of my junk out of Sis's room, I'm going to start on the closet. I suggested that we just park a dumpster outside my window, but Mom shot that one down. Seriously, though, most of the junk in my closet is just that - junk - and needs to be given the old heave-ho. I think I'll start with the floor and once I clear that, I'll work my way up to the shelves.

All in all, it will be a very liberating feeling indeed to be rid of all that junk.

Note the "as far as I know" part of that. I went through Sis's room tonight and grabbed up everything that was mine that I put in there in January for my botched clean-out project that I didn't get on Friday. I did, however, stash most of it in the corner of my room here, which hopefully will give me enough space to clean out the closet. If I forgot something, I'm sure Sis will let me know. But I'm pretty sure I got it all.

Otherwise, here's a tip for all of you when handling fresh flowers, particularly roses. Watch for thorns. A customer today brought a bouquet of fresh roses to my register. I, without giving it a second thought, grabbed them to scan just like I do for most flowers - by the stem end, so as not to mess up the flowered end. And I got a handful of thorns, with a particularly sharp one poking my right middle fingertip. No blood, thankfully. But that was enough for me to quickly drop the arrangement back onto the counter and reassess how to pick up those flowers. That hurt.

Also, have you ever thought about the real scents that companies name their products for? My favorite is the fabric softeners, specifically the "Fresh Rain" scents. I remember the commercial where they say, "Snuggle's nose knows that the best scent to be found is after the rain falls down." Have you ever smelled the air right after the rain falls down? It is not a particularly pleasant smell, and it's certainly not what's in that bottle of fabric softener. If they made it really smell like the smell of fresh rain, I'm certain it would be a real stinker, both literally and figuratively.

Of course, you are looking at the person who doesn't think flowers smell like much - certainly nothing I'd go running around for, saying to everyone, "Here, smell this flower!" Shakespeare said, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Schumin says, "A rose by any other name still doesn't smell like much." So who knows. Of course, right now I can hardly smell anything since it's allergy season. But even during the other nine months of the year when I can smell things, flowers still don't smell like much of anything.

And since I mention allergy season, that's what time of year it is now. From April to June, I'm just miserable, since allergy medication doesn't do a whole lot for me. I get congested, particularly in my nose, and you can always tell where I am - just listen for the sneezing. If you've ever wondered why so many of my outdoor photo sets are done during the winter, that's a big reason right there. Springtime is allergy time. I'll be better again by the end of June. I've got the World War II Memorial and Malcolm X Park planned for this summer for Photography. I wouldn't touch either location with a ten foot pole before then, however, since before summer starts, it's allergy season, and with Malcolm X Park in full bloom, and all the trees near the Mall, I'm steering clear. I'll stay near the places where pavement is prevalent until then.

Meanwhile, I'm contemplating another vacation for this summer. Remember last year, how I went to the beach? I'm thinking about hitting Virginia Beach once again this year, though I'm going to take a longer trip this year than I did last year. Last year, you may recall, I took a two-day vacation. Go down there one day, stay the night, and then come back the next. It was a good trip, but it was too short, and I tried to pack too much into those two days, and I ended up getting perhaps four hours of sleep at the hotel. This year, I'm going to make it a three-day trip. Arrive one day, stay the whole next day, and then leave on the third day. And I'm thinking about staying at that new Travelodge that was going up last year when I went by. And if I can't get there, I'll stay at the Ocean Holiday once again, which was a lot better in 2004 than it was in 2000.

So there you go.

Yeah, this was not your average Washington DC trip on Wednesday, though not like I noticed anything different aside from the buzz of the people throughout the city.

Normal start, though. Get up, go on up to DC, and find a parking space at Vienna. This time, I actually found a pretty good one, though. As luck would have it, a woman was leaving the parking garage as I was hunting, and so I got a parking space on the top level of the garage, no more than fifty feet from the elevator. Very nice parking. I saw her walking towards the cars, and I said, "Where are you heading?" She pointed to the car, and I positioned myself to get into place. She pulls her car out, and mine goes in.

Then from there, I did my usual Rosslyn thing, and then went back into the Metro right around noon or so.

Meanwhile, in DC, the fun began, as air controllers noticed a small Cessna plane flying into restricted air space over the White House and such. This led to evacuations of the Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, and a few other government buildings.

And all the while, I was on the Metro, taking the Orange Line from Rosslyn to L'Enfant Plaza, then the Green Line to Gallery Place-Chinatown, then the Red Line to Judiciary Square. From there, I went to the Jackson Graham Building, otherwise known as Metro headquarters, to check on a job application I had submitted. All seemed well enough to me where I was, with nothing out of the ordinary.

But while I was riding on the train and taking care of some business, work was underway to take Laura Bush, Dick Cheney, and Nancy Reagan (who was in town visiting) to secure locations, and also ferrying members of Congress to their own secure locations. George W. Bush himself was out biking in Beltsville, Maryland, oblivious to the situation in Washington.

I didn't hear about it until it was all over, around 1:00, waiting for the train at Judiciary Square, when a woman mentioned it to me. We had an interesting discussion about it. She thought that the plane should have just been shot down, but I think I may have convinced her otherwise. I said that nine times out of ten, it's harmless. Nine out of ten says it's an idiot, not a terrorist. And idiots are like the story about gray hairs, where they say if you pull out a gray hair, three will grow back. You knock off an idiot, and three more spring up to take their place. And this world has enough idiots already. Trust me.

I found that interesting, and continued around on my way through DC checking off my itinerary. My itinerary was tipped toward the rails this time, with a few other things in between. So from Judiciary Square, I rode the Red Line out to Fort Totten, where on the way I took some photos of Brentwood Yard, where Rohr 1077 is located (the Woodley Park accident train). At Fort Totten, I transferred to the Green Line, and rode to Columbia Heights.

From there, I walked the four or so blocks to Malcolm X Park, where I did half of my upcoming photo set on Malcolm X Park. Why half? Well, the upper level of Malcolm X Park, which is primarily a large, tree-shaded grassy area, was as green as it was going to get - thus ripe for some photographs. See?



So I photographed all through this area, where the DAWN march started out on January 20. On a regular day, Malcolm X Park is a nice place. Very quiet and peaceful. There was also a group of kids there practicing lacrosse.

Now the lower level of Malcolm X Park, which is the feature that puts Malcolm X Park on the map, was not yet ready for photographs. At its peak, the lower level is fully in bloom, with lots of interesting flowers, as well as large fountains, and a magnificent waterfall. This area was not exactly "ripe" like the upper level was.



As you can see, the fountains weren't running, including the big waterfall, plus the plants seemed a little unkempt, particularly the yellow daffodils on either side of the waterfall. I'll probably end up doing the lower level separately in July or so, when it's all ready to go. Then I'll do the two halves on the Web site as one photo set.

I ought to do a few different parks and features and such as a little series this summer. I could include some of the more interesting circles and squares in DC, a few things around where I live, and all in all focus on some interesting greenery. I know Dupont Circle in DC is something I want to do for photos, so we'll see.

Then after leaving Malcolm X Park, I went to the Starbucks on U Street next to the U Street-Cardozo Metro station. There I had a Jones Soda and a sandwich, and read the news on my cell phone to get the full story about the plane in the restricted airspace and all the evacuations. I also found out that Washington DC Mayor Tony Williams is quite unhappy with the way it was handled from his perspective as mayor. And I quote, from an ABC News article:

"Security measures were effectively executed," Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

There was one notable exception: Mayor Anthony Williams said city officials weren't told about the threat until the all-clear was sounded, more than 10 minutes after the White House and Capitol were evacuated. A city government building that houses the mayoral and District of Columbia Council offices, located two blocks from the White House, was not evacuated.

"Critical and potentially life-or-death information about threats facing district residents needs to be shared immediately, not five, 10 or 15 minutes after the fact," Williams said.

And DC again gets left out in the cold. Again we draw the distinction - we have "Washington", and we have "DC". While "Washington", with all the lawmakers and VIPs and such for our federal government, was evacuating and such, "DC", home of roughly 500,000 people and a very vibrant community, where there is a full local government, complete with city council, a mayor (Tony Williams), and a city administrator (Robert Bobb). And no one bothered to tell them about this potentially critical situation. Not good.

Still, I'm glad to know that it was only an idiot in the sky over the White House, and not a terrorist.

Related articles:
Errant Flight Prompts Capital Evacuations
Timeline of White House Security Scare
How Could a Pilot Stumble Into White House Airspace?

After leaving Starbucks, I caught the Green Line at U Street-Cardozo, and rode to L'Enfant Plaza in order to hopefully find CAF 5048 and 5049, which had been "wrapped" in advertising in an effort by Metro to earn more revenue through advertising. The wrap was for McDonald's, advertising their new fruit and walnut salad. Arriving at L'Enfant Plaza, where I was prepared to watch for it to come via the Orange Line (which is where it was advertised as being), I looked at the Vienna tracks, and saw something bright green - it was the train! So I hopped right on, and we were heading back to Vienna!

I knew the outside of the train was wrapped, but I didn't think that the inside was, too. Along the ceiling there was more advertising for McDonald's, and all the standard ad panels matched the wrap theme.



So I spent the time between L'Enfant and Vienna photographing the insides. Then at Vienna, I got some photos of the outside.



I missed the train leaving Vienna, since I was too involved in photographing the train before the door chime sounded once and the train left. So I rode at the rear of the next train. That car ended up being Breda 4061. While photographing, someone else was also photographing the train. I said to them later that they should post them on BTCO.net, and as it turned out, they were already a regular on there! So that was awesome. A chance encounter with another rail buff.

I ended up riding Breda 4061 to Cheverly on the other end of the Orange Line, and then waited a few minutes there for the McDonald's train to come around again out of New Carrollton. Since it was the beginning of rush hour, it wasn't a long wait. And I got a movie and some other material of the train. A more complete photo spread of this will be on my Transit Center site. After all the photos, I rode the rest of the way out to New Carrollton, got a water at the Amtrak station, and then rode back to L'Enfant Plaza, where then got a Yellow Line train to Virginia.

After that, I rode down to King Street in Alexandria to work on some more DASH photos for the site, and then from there... Pentagon City, where I went to the mall, and wondered, would it be considered rude to throw peanuts at the tourists? Realize that my usual evening hangout is swamped with tourists this time of year, mostly school groups wearing matching apparel.

Every time I see the school groups, it makes me kind of wish that my high school took us on big, long trips like that. Of course, then we think about the composition of Stuarts Draft High School (a lot of rednecks), and I wouldn't take any of them on a long trip, either.

Still, I got a frozen lemonade at Mr. Smoothie in the mall, got my Washington Post, and settled in for some serious news. By the time I left Pentagon City, it was around 10 PM, and so I went back into the Metro and started making moves toward Vienna. I got a Blue Line train and went to Rosslyn, where, realizing it was still early, I got off at Rosslyn and went to see what was going on topside.

Now usually, at night at Rosslyn, there are maybe three or four people at most going up to the street with a given train. This time, practically the entire train got off at Rosslyn. Most of the people getting off were quite young, all dragging suitcases, and all wearing MATCHING SHIRTS. There were a few adults in the crowd, and from them I found out that they were from out of town (I think from Indiana), and going to their hotel in Rosslyn. I commented to the lady I spoke with that it was quite brave of them to cram all those kids onto the Metro vs. taking a bus or something. But they were going to use the Metro for everything, with each child needing its own farecard. Sounds like a pain for a huge group, but they did it. They took the Metro from National Airport to Rosslyn in this case. I know that if I were going to DC with a big school group, I'd probably forgo the Metro entirely and have a dedicated vehicle (like a chartered bus) for going places. But go figure. Metro works for me as an individual or a small group (think one or two extra people sometimes, like Sis or Mom and Sis).

At Rosslyn, I parked up on Rosslyn Center's second-floor balcony, where I often read the Express in the morning, and got even more news, this time via my cell phone. I don't like to get to Vienna before 11:30, since arriving before then makes parking a little more difficult. So Rosslyn was essentially a delaying tactic.

Then arriving at Vienna after 11:30, I headed back home. But not first before seeing this:



I've only seen this appear after the last revenue train of the night has left Vienna. I don't quite know what it's counting down to, since it appears to be a glitch of some sort. My guess is that the destination code it's counting down for is a "NO PASSENGERS" code (likely to Falls Church Yard), and probably shouldn't even show on the displays.

So all in all, it was a good day in DC for me, and interesting that major government buildings were being evacuated on a day I was in town. Most days that I go are fairly slow news days. Days that I go for big demonstrations, of course, means we're making the news directly, not just being around. But still, most days I go are otherwise pretty nondescript. So that was interesting.

I've been working straight mornings (7 AM to 4 PM) for a while now and will be working that for the foreseeable future (read: as far as the schedule goes for). It's weird, because as a result of this kind of schedule, I'm becoming the one thing I never thought I could be - a morning person! I've been getting up before my alarm clock, and turning into Mr. Sunshine in the early morning with little to no caffeine. It's weird. For years, I was like, "Oh, how I hate mornings," and now I'm actually becoming one of those morning people.

And of course the benefit is that I get off at 4:00, when the day is still in its prime and I have the whole evening. Not bad.

And meanwhile, I need to make some phone calls about my vacation, which I'm again going to take to Virginia Beach this year. Before I book, I'm going to inquire a few things of that new Travelodge, to make sure that they have the amenities that I want. That would be a refrigerator in the room, and solid sides on the balcony. As you can see from my photos from past beach pics, Ocean Holiday has a fridge, and the balcony does not have solid side walls. Ocean Holiday's balcony sides were just railings, so you don't get much privacy on your balcony.

Otherwise, I'm getting an eye exam on Wednesday, and possibly new glasses as a result. That will be interesting. Everyone at work is trying to convince me about what style is "me". One person went so far as to say my current style is "old fashioned". Still, I'll keep you posted as to what I get.

And lastly, the day after the eye exam, on Thursday, I'm going out to Lake Moomaw again! The last time I was out that way was June 14 of last year. So that will be nice to revisit.

I'm going to the ophthalmologist's office on Wednesday to get my eyes examined, mainly to see how much my vision has changed since January 2001 when I last got things checked (that's when I first started wearing glasses). My guess is that I'll probably need to get new glasses when it's all said and done. Ask my coworkers at Wal-Mart, and they'll tell you that I have occasionally remarked that I need new glasses.

So... as a result, this gives us the chance to update my look. And glasses do make quite a difference. Compare for a moment:

Glasses:


No glasses:


I think that I look loads better with glasses, too. Makes my eyes look less beady. And I still like the way my glasses look, even after nearly four and a half years together. This despite a coworker's remark that my glasses were "old fashioned" in a discussion about my likely getting new glasses. Another person said I should go for square glasses, after I quickly shot down a different recommendation from the same person: contact lenses. I absolutely refuse to wear contact lenses. I like the way I look in glasses.

Of course, glasses will make or break your appearance. You want something that matches your personality, and looks good on you. I also like it that my current glasses kind of hide or at least de-emphasize my eyebrows. For some reason, I've just never liked the way my eyebrows looked. Go figure. But that is something I found important.

Still, I'm sure in looking for a new pair of glasses that I'll find something that works for me. And it will hopefully update my look and still look totally awesome on me. And who knows... maybe I'll find something in my favorite accessory color - black - this time, rather than the "client olive" color that my current glasses are.

Either way, though, it should be interesting, but the June 2005 splash page photo (which I've already picked out) will feature the old glasses.

You know, a weekend is a state of mind, and not necessarily two specific days. My weekend is usually Wednesday and Thursday, and like most people for Saturday and Sunday, I'm so glad when those two days roll around.

It's interesting how that mindset is, too. If you call Wednesday and Thursday your weekend, then it's your weekend! So many people at work complain about not getting weekends off, yet you don't ever hear a peep out of me. My weekend just doesn't happen to match with the days traditionally designated as weekends. I've in fact asked not to be scheduled off on traditional weekend days because I like my mid-week weekend.

So I normally start my week out on Friday, and so Friday is like Monday to me. So the traditional weekend is like Tuesday and Wednesday in my week. Then my "Friday" is actually Tuesday. So for me, today was like Friday, where I know that if I can make it through the day, I get two days of freedom from that big, green building known as Wally World (our store, for those not familiar, is tan and green instead of the normal gray and blue).

And with this being an "off" week (no DC trip this week), it means I get to do stuff locally. Which means, in this case, getting my eyes done and then likely getting new glasses, and then the next day... Lake Moomaw!

I also, for that matter, need to start getting on the ball with my vacation, but I want to be certain on how much these glasses are going to cost me before I book a hotel room at the beach.

Meanwhile, I read in the newspaper today that this year's hurricane season is going to be an active one. All I have to say is that hurricanes had better not ruin my vacation. I'll be darned if I'm going to spend my vacation at home because a hurricane wrecks my trip.

So there.

I just went over to Mom and Dad's room and fished Greta out from under the bed. Today was Merry Maids day, and so they came and gave the house a cleaning. And Greta goes and hides under Mom and Dad's bed while they're here.

This goes back to a recurring thread with Greta. She thinks she's a ferocious watchdog, protecting her family from intruders. But a watchdog she is not. She barks at the TV, and when the Merry Maids show up, she hides under the bed, and barks from there. She goes under the bed on one side, and crawls all the way over to the other side, and stays there. Some watchdog. And then once the Merry Maids leave, she stays there and continues to bark. Sis tried to fish her out earlier (which involves calling her to come out), with no success. So an hour or so after she tried, I successfully extracted her, picking up the dust ruffle around the bed, and calling to her to come out. She came out the same way she went in. And she still won't shut up. Once she figures out that no one's around, she'll be satisfied.

So I went to the ophthalmologist today, and I'm happy to announce that my eyes are quite healthy. I also got new glasses, as expected. My new glasses are copper-colored, and are more more squarish than round. So I ended up going with the suggestion by one coworker who said I should get square glasses. I also hope that the other coworker doesn't consider these new glasses as "old fashioned".

So what do my new glasses look like? Let's pull out my "hat mannequin", which I acquired back in 1996 or so from a store that was going out of business, and let's model some glasses.

First of all, this is my old pair, which I have been wearing since January 2001:



And then this is the new pair:



Also note the lovely JMU hat that the mannequin is wearing.

So my new glasses are similar to the old ones, but they definitely update the look. I like larger lenses, and in going through all the glasses at the store, I rejected a whole host of them on account of the lenses being too small.

Meanwhile, with the new glasses, and a slightly different prescription, I now must get used to them. My first reaction was that I felt a touch taller than usual. I also made sure to be mindful about walking. But all in all, it's going to work out quite well, and I shall wear my new eyewear with pride.

Sometimes the "usual" greeting becomes part of the relationship. Other times, it just gets annoying. So goes it sometimes. I have officially had it with people responding to my "what's up" with "the sky" or "the ceiling". It's gotten old, and it's time to move on to something new.
However, one thing that a coworker and I do is really clever. We each say "hi", then I say "What's up?" and she says, "Ain't nothin'." That had been going on for months. Recently, we switched it up. I said "hi", then she said "What's up?" and I replied, "Ain't nothin'." It was clever since we switched our normal responses and it just came off so naturally that we both got a kick out of it. Life is interesting sometimes.

Speaking of interesting days, I went to Lake Moomaw on Thursday as planned. I got there via Lexington and Covington. It's not the most direct way to get there, but it's the only way I know (but if you do know of a shorter way to get to the Coles Mountain recreational area, let me know).

Plus I love going through Covington. It's an interesting little town. Very working-class. It's kind of dumpy looking, and you can tell that it's not an important market to various retailers, as various big-name retailers, like Food Lion, Kroger, and CVS, among others, haven't bothered to update their stores in years. Walking into the Kroger there was like taking a glimpse into retail history, since the store appeared to have not been touched in probably fifteen years.

Otherwise, though, it reminds me a bit of a dumpy little industrial town. Actually, it is a dumpy little industrial town. The biggest thing in Covington is a large factory on the north end of town - Westvaco. According to a history of Westvaco I found, that plant's been there in various forms since 1900. And that's the focal point of the town. Just about anywhere you look in the town, you can see Westvaco. It's such a thing in the town that the exit signs on the Interstate even direct you on how to get to Westvaco.

Now speaking of Westvaco, the thing that I'm interested in hearing the story about relates to two signs I've seen in prominent locations. One is white and located on a house on the north side of I-64, and the other is red, and located along US 220 going towards Lake Moomaw. They say "WESTVACO DISCRIMINATES AGAINST OLDER RETIREES" and something about pension plans in large, bold letters. Does anyone know the back-story to these signs?

On the way to Lake Moomaw, I encountered a considerable delay. Turns out that US 220 was being repaved, and the operation was going full swing while I was trying to get through. As US 220 is a two-lane road, that meant that all traffic had to share one lane. Thus the delays, since 220 is a busy road, and they let large amounts of traffic go in each direction before reversing. But once we got through that, it was smooth sailing.

Then when I got to Lake Moomaw, it was very quiet. Few people were out on the lake on Thursday. After changing into my suit, I found out why. The lake was pretty bloody cold! I did go all the way in and got completely wet, but let me tell you... I didn't do much aside from just stand there in the water, for as I said, it was pretty bloody cold. But it was fun nonetheless, though.

And from there I headed back home for the most part. All in all, not a bad day.

Seriously, I should do a black and white day. One day when I go to Washington, I should switch Big Mavica over to black-and-white and see what I can come up with. I think it will make me think differently about how I compose my photos, and kind of break the monotony.

I've contemplated doing a photo set or something in black and white before, but I've always been a bit timid about actually shooting the originals in black-and-white for fear of missing something good in color, or wishing I'd had something in color that was shot in grayscale. Since you can shoot in color and then convert to black-and-white, but you can't convert black-and-white to color so easily. But of course, that kind of wimping out really got me far. See any black-and-white photo sets on the site? Answer is that at the time of this writing, there are none there. I shot in color, and thus the photos weren't designed for black and white. Because when you shoot in color, you think in color. And thus they look funky in grayscale.

Compare for a moment, using the Photo Feature that I ran on April 20 of this year:



I consider this one of my more striking color images, and it certainly made an impression with me when I ran it on the main page. However, when you convert it to black and white, it doesn't really "work", since it depends on the color to make things stand out. What you get is a dark image on a dark background. Kind of blah.

I wonder what I can do for a black-and-white shoot. That ought to keep me on my toes, and make for something fresh and new out of me. When will I do it? Not sure yet. This coming Wednesday, May 25, which is the date of my next trip to Washington, is already planned out, and color will be important. But still, who knows. Plus it ought to be a lot of fun, getting all "artsy-fartsy" with the camera again.

I finally settled my conscience regarding a run-in with Metro's contractor on March 16 at Stadium-Armory. You may know that Metro has Lunchtalk Online chats twice a month. Last Friday's chat was with Richard White, Metro's General Manager/CEO, as well as the two new Red Line managers, BJ Jones and Bob Hester, on improving the Metro system.

So I posted a message entitled Safety practices of Metro canopy construction contractor, where I discussed what happened on that day. Mr. White responded that they would follow up with the contractor, which made me feel much better about the whole incident.

By the way, I originally wrote about this incident in my Journal, in the entry dated March 17, 2005 at 5:37 PM, entitled "All in all, it was a good trip to Washington!"

Otherwise, is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the people with all kinds of religious paraphernalia (a word easier to say than to spell) on their cars are the worst drivers? These are the morons that cut me off in traffic and drive really slow in the passing lane. These same people also drive well below the speed limit in no-passing zones on two-lane roads. I guess they figure that all the religious bumper stickers and license plates somehow give them a license to be awful drivers, since they figure that God will protect them. I know that when I get cut off by these morons and then see all the religious paraphernalia on their cars, I'm naming certain deities myself, but not in a nice way (if you get my drift).

Meanwhile, I'm going to Washington DC again on Wednesday, with the objectives being to photograph some mainline railroad signals near the Minnesota Avenue Metro station for another railfan friend, visit the Infoshop, plus check out this coffee house in College Park called College Perk. Plus I get to railfan the Green Line in the process. Who knows, maybe I'll get the operator who sounds really enthusiastic. He says, "This is your GREEN line, into Branch Avenue!" Very enthusiastic and cheerful-sounding person.

So it sounds like I have a pretty fun day planned, don't you think?

I went up to the DC area today, and, in an unusual twist of things, spent NO time above ground in downtown Washington DC.

Arriving at Vienna, one thing I quickly noticed in the North Garage was that the contractor had completed work on the first section of the garage to undergo rehabilitation, and had moved to the second section. I'm not quite sure what they did in rehabilitating it, since it looked exactly the same as it did before. Who knows. On the top level, a pickup truck was parked so badly in its space so as to make the opening for the space next to it a little too close for comfort. Thus there was this very attractive-looking empty space, but it was a little too tight of a squeeze to get in there. I ended up having to wait for the guaranteed spaces to open up at 10:00, and then parked on the third level.

Getting on the train at Vienna, I rode a mixed consist of Breda 4000-series cars and CAF cars. Leaving the station, the 4000's were in front, and the four CAFs followed behind. The operator out of Vienna knew me from a previous trip.

At Rosslyn, I did my Rosslyn thing, reading the Express and then setting out once again. My mission today was threefold. First, photograph some railroad signals near Minnesota Avenue station, then visit the Infoshop, and then go find the College Park Coffeehouse up in College Park, which I believed was where my friend Rose worked, based on what she had told me in an Email. You may recall that Rose and I first met when I was shooting my Confirmation Demonstration photo set.

So heading out of Rosslyn, I caught an Orange Line train to Minnesota Avenue. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for, unfortunately, and my photos kind of show that. I was kind of lost. I walked a ways down Minnesota Avenue and back, and then crossed through the Metro station mezzanine and up to a bridge on the other side and photographed some more. As I wasn't sure what I was looking for, I felt lost. I give myself an "A" for effort, but a "C" at best for results. Plus the photos were grayed by clouds.

After that disappointment, I continued on my itinerary. The Infoshop. I took the Orange Line back into downtown, and transferred at L'Enfant Plaza to a Yellow Line train to Mt. Vernon Square/7th St-Convention Center. There, I got out, and took the old street elevator to the surface. Taking the elevator saves a bit of distance, since the escalators are located south of the station, and open out at the Convention Center. Then in walking to the Infoshop, a few blocks north of the station, one would have to walk back over the same distance covered below ground, and pass the elevator at street level. So I just cut the nonsense and rode the elevator.

At the Infoshop, there was a girl sitting on the sidewalk by the entrance, and the door sported a handwritten sign reading, "Open at 2:30". It was now 2:40, and the Infoshop was still not open. The girl and I had an interesting discussion about demonstrations, with my talking about that which I'd participated in, and she about her own. While we were talking, two more people, who were in town from South Carolina, showed up, and we included them in our conversation. Then another gentleman who I'd met twice before also showed up before the lady running the Infoshop finally showed up close to 3:00 or so.

Inside, I pulled up Schumin Web, since I had referenced it a few times outside. Showed the pertinent information. We also had some interesting discussions while at the Infoshop. Nothing major demonstration-wise is coming up right now, though, to my disappointment. But it was a good time. I even met someone who showed up in my photos of the Million Worker March. That was interesting. I departed just after 4:00, since I still had a few more things to accomplish.

So I walked up to the Shaw-Howard University station, and took the Green Line all the way to the end of the line, at Greenbelt. There, I photographed The BUS, primarily. Got a few shots here and there.

I also made use of the restroom at Greenbelt, getting the station manager to let me in. This is notable because of the item missing from the restroom: partitions between the stalls. I wish I'd gotten a photo of it, since it was rather odd. It turned what should have otherwise been a restroom for several people at once into essentially a single-seater. There were two toilets and a urinal, all without any sort of partitions around them. And it looked like those partitions had never been installed to begin with, since there were no marks on the wall or floor to indicate their presence at one time. Weird.

At Greenbelt, I turned my attention towards finding College Perk. So I took the Green Line back one station, to the College Park Metro station. Before leaving Greenbelt, the very enthusiastic-sounding operator that I mentioned in an earlier entry walked by, and we briefly exchanged greetings. Nice fellow. Arriving at College Park station, my mission was now about hunting for the coffee house. The directions from College Perk's Web site were pretty straightforward: "Take the Green line toward Greenbelt. Exit at the College Park Metro station. Take the 83 Bus toward Cherry Hill. Ask the driver to let you off just before Greenbelt Road. Cross Route 1 and walk approximately 2 blocks North. The coffeehouse is on your left." Upon exiting at College Park, I asked the station manager how to get to College Perk, mainly to confirm the Web site's directions. According to him, it was five blocks straight up Calvert Street, and then one block right. He said it was walkable, or I could take the bus. I opted to walk, figuring I could save a few cents by not taking the bus. I did remember to get a bus transfer at Greenbelt, so it's not like I'd be paying the full fare anyway, but still, it's good to save where we can.

Not being familiar with the area, I had no idea if it was even remotely close to being right or not. I'd only gotten off at College Park station once before, and didn't leave the Metro station's premises at that time. So this was quite new territory for me. So we started walking.

By the way, I'm going to tell you up front what I would realize once I got onto Baltimore Avenue: The station manager, while well-intentioned, gave me bad directions. While he had the road right, it was certainly not a walkable distance, and I would have been far better off taking the bus.

So I walked through this quiet neighborhood on Calvert Road, the five or so blocks it took to get to Baltimore Avenue. Good deal. At the corner of Calvert and Baltimore, I found an interesting building: a former Howard Johnson's restaurant! Nowadays, it's Plato's Diner, and has been extensively redone since then. Take a look:



What tipped me off to this being a former HoJo's is the roof, which still looks like a Howard Johnson's roof.

But Plato's wasn't my focus today. On to College Perk!

So I walked down Baltimore Avenue, more than the one block that the station manager said it would be. Wondering if I'm going correctly, I asked a woman who appeared to be a University of Maryland student where College Perk was located. She said just keep going, and it was half a mile up the road. Okay, not bad. So I kept walking. Got to the University of Maryland's campus, which I estimated was about half a mile away, but no coffee place in sight. There, I asked a woman waiting at a traffic light where it was. Up the road, "near those traffic lights". This put me beyond the University of Maryland campus, but not before first getting my first view of the Shuttle-UM buses:



One day, I'll do some serious photography of these buses, mostly Flxibles, and feature them on my Transit Center site. But at least now I've seen them in person.

And we continued. No College Perk in sight. As I hadn't eaten lunch yet, I rectified that when I encountered a McDonald's. So I ate a quick lunch, though it was less-than-healthy. I also got directions from the manager on duty, who said it was half a mile up the road (where have we heard that before?). However, the manager said that it looked like a house, and there was a flower shop next to it. That was helpful.

So, after having had a quick lunch, I continued. I crossed back over to the right side of the street, and continued. I ran into Greenbelt Road, and kicked myself for not having taken the bus (there was an 83 bus sitting there). A few more blocks from there, and I finally ran into the place. And it was very nice, too. Very comfortable atmosphere, and their product is good, too. I'll definitely go again, though next time I'm taking the bus.

And then who comes in? Rose. Turns out that she was off that day, but came in for something. So she, a coworker of hers, and I all sat and talked for a bit.

When we finished, the coworker was heading out for the day, and Rose needed to go back to her apartment. The coworker offered to give us both rides, since I'd walked there, and they weren't all that familiar with the buses. In figuring out the distance of my route using MapQuest later on, it turns out I walked just under three miles from the Metro to the coffee place. Quite an unexpected walk!

So the three of us piled into the car, and we were off! We talked about all kinds of stuff, and I even got to do the lifetime-of-smoking voice while talking about my work. That was the voice I described in my April 22 "You've got to do the voice correctly..." Journal entry.

And I also got a photo of Rose while we were in the car. And so here she is:



At College Park, we exchanged goodbyes, and I got back on the train.

Now for those of you who don't know, I have some regular objectives that I try to accomplish on every DC trip. Sometimes this leads to less-than-logical use of the system, but it's fun. My regular objectives are to ride a train from each line at least once, ride each car series at least once, and to visit one terminal station other than Vienna (since I park at Vienna, the terminal objective would be accomplished immediately if Vienna counted for that). By the way, Mt. Vernon Square does not count as a terminal either, even though Yellow Line trains terminate there, since it's not an end-of-the-line station. Now I'd accomplished the terminal objective, having headed to Greenbelt. But I'd not yet ridden all five lines yet, having so far only ridden Orange, Yellow, and Green.

So at Fort Totten, I transferred to Red, which was out of my way, but I wanted to see Brentwood Yard. So I did. Rode that to Gallery Place-Chinatown, and from there transferred to a Yellow Line train to Huntington. I was headed to Pentagon City.

At Pentagon City, which was a shortened visit due to the longer-than-expected stay in College Park, I headed to my usual spot and did the news thing.

After Pentagon City, I rode down to Huntington, which is a ride I love taking in the evening. However, before catching the train, I just had to take a picture of the crowds on the inbound platform:



That's another reason I go outbound after Pentagon City - it makes for a less-crowded train. In fact, the platform was nearly clear after a Blue Line train to Largo Town Center came and went.

After Huntington, in transferring to Blue at King Street, I observed that work is now well underway in extending the canopy over the platform. I think it will be quite nice when it's finished. Pictures with the next Transit Center update.

Then from there, I transferred to Orange at Rosslyn, and then headed back to Vienna. The Vienna trip was made on Rohr 1202, though I think it would be more accurately described as "Rohr 202". Look:



Yeah, the "1" was missing from the cab door.

And from there, I headed back home. At my usual pit stop at the Wal-Mart in Woodstock, I bought the "Complete Second Season" DVD set of The Golden Girls. That will be fun.

And that was my trip! I have so much fun on these trips, and you never know what's going to happen sometimes. That's one reason I enjoy them so much. And I got some exercise this time, too, with that unexpected walking tour of College Park, Maryland.

I am SO trying to make my birthday, May 30, a non-event this year. For some reason I just don't want to be reminded that it's coming up, and want it to pass without notice.

And I certainly don't want it announced over the loudspeaker at work, going so far to say that, while admitting that it is coming up soon, it is on an "undisclosed date".

I have also told the family in the last day or so that I want NO birthday cake, and NO card. I don't know what it is, but I just don't particularly want to celebrate my birthday this year. Last year, it was a bit of a non-event, too. That time, instead of saying no cake, I said no chocolate cake, and if I found a chocolate cake, was fully prepared to launch it into the backyard, icing first. It ended up being a red velvet cake, which was satisfactory.

Needless to say, I'm not exactly aging gracefully. Why my birthday has been turning into a personal ordeal, I don't know, but it's just been a day I'm not looking forward to. To help forget about it, I didn't even bother to ask for the day off from work. I have my regular days of Wednesday and Thursday off this week.

Of course, you are talking to the person who boycotted his own college graduation. I deliberately did not attend, despite the rest of the family's insistence that I go. I put my foot down on that one firmly, stating several times that I wasn't going to attend over the course of a year and a half before the event. The final word on that went like this: "You're more than welcome to go to JMU's graduation, but I'm not going to be there."

So with that in mind, does it surprise you about this anti-birthday thing I'm going through this year? I just want it all to go away.

May 30, my 24th birthday, was awful. I wanted no attention, and had decided not to request the day off so I could forget about my birthday by just doing the work thing.

That didn't quite work out. Everyone and their mother knew it was my birthday yesterday, and no one would leave me alone. Everyone meant well, don't get me wrong, but I wanted nothing more than to not hear about it. Still, there were no less than FOUR announcements made on the squawk box - one after I specifically told the person to their face not to make the announcement. Then there was a small group of coworkers that came up behind me and started clapping and singing "Happy Birthday". I ran the other direction.

It was enough to just want to curl up and die. And so many people didn't understand why I didn't want to celebrate my birthday this year. I even mentioned how I vetoed a cake and a card this year. No cake. No card. That's how you know I'm serious, when I specifically said I didn't want a cake or even a birthday card.

Couple the relentless (but well-intentioned) unwanted attention with the fact that I hadn't quite had enough sleep the night before, and I was completely miserable on my birthday. I even got a form letter from the CEO of Wal-Mart's stores division wishing me a happy birthday. With a misspelling in it, no less. They obviously went to the Dan Quayle school of spelling, as I was wished a "greate" year instead of a "great" year. How professional.

I personally will have a much better year once I find a REAL job and get out of the hell which is Wally World in Waynesboro working as a cashier for seven bucks an hour, with a group of managers who would turn around and stab you in the back and leave you for dead if the customer asked them to. For someone with a college degree, working at Wal-Mart as a cashier is pathetic.

I was so mad by the time I got off work that on my way out, I told Sis that I was going out for a while in order to cool off, that I didn't know when I was coming back home, and that I was not going to answer my cell phone.

When you go driving in order to cool off, sometimes it seems that the distance traveled is directly proportional to how upset you are. I must have been pretty upset, because I drove a long way. I drove roughly 80 miles each way yesterday evening - to Culpeper and back, via Charlottesville. I think that 160 miles indicates that I was indeed ROYALLY steamed. According to my cell phone, I missed four or five phone calls.

But that seemed to do the trick, and I was in a good mood again when I got back.

Then this morning, I found out that despite my request of NO CAKE, the parents still bought me a cake for my birthday - a cheesecake, and that the calls I missed were to find out when I was coming home in order to enjoy it with me. What part of "no cake" did they not understand? I wanted no birthday cake. I am still dead set against celebrating this birthday, and want nothing more than to forget about it and be left alone. Why can't anyone just honor that request, that to make me happy requires no action on anyone's part? Why can't they just do that, and make me happy?

And that cheesecake is going to go. I told the parents more than once that I did not want a cake. And since I completely wanted to forget my birthday this year, Mom now thinks I have "issues" and wants to get to the bottom of it. I just want to be left alone this year and to be allowed to "miss" a birthday.

All I wanted was for the whole birthday thing to just go away. And that the fact that no one was willing to let me have my birthday wish just makes me even more upset.

In the end, I think I'll be fine. Thank you for listening as I went on a bit of a rant just now. Venting makes me feel a little better about all this.