All I have to say is please, please, please let June 27 come here soon. That's my last day at work before I take nine days off for a vacation. Because let me tell you - I need this vacation badly. I'm so in need of time off that I'm dreading coming to work each day. Yeah, it's that serious.

And what's funny is that I don't even have anything major planned for this little vacation. The key is just getting away from Wal-Mart for a while. I did make sure to carefully plan the timing on this, though. June 28 through July 6 was chosen specifically to avoid two really busy periods - the first of the month, and the July 4 holiday.

The only plan I have thus far is to go to Washington DC for the Fourth of July, because Metro runs a special service pattern on that day, and I'm going to experience it for the first time in person. Otherwise, I'm open. We'll see what I come up with.

I'm going to Washington DC this Tuesday - June 6. That would be June 6, 2006. 06-06-2006. In other words, the date is basically 666, the so-called "number of the beast".

Members of the DC Anti-War Network (DAWN) are staging a rally at Lafayette Park from 6-8 PM on Tuesday called "No Armageddon For Bush" (a play on the whole "666" thing), and I'm going to go. I've been to two DAWN events in the past. The rally and march from Malcolm X Park to McPherson Square on J20 event was put on by DAWN, and the street theater event in front of the Supreme Court that I documented as Confirmation Demonstration was also a DAWN event.

It also seems like 2006 is becoming the year of the night protest, as the World Bank demonstration this spring was at night (the photo set for that event is on its way), and now this one is going to be in the evening (though it won't be all the way dark when it's all over).

Meanwhile, today was the two-year anniversary of the June 5 anti-war protest that ran from Lafayette Park to Kalorama Road near Embassy Row. That was my first black bloc. Kinda scary that it's been two years. I've also been in five other black blocs since then.

And what's weird is that during the end of the June 5 protest, while we were confronting the counter-protesters, former president Ronald Reagan died, which I learned about later that evening. I will likely always remember the date of Ronald Reagan's passing due to my associating it with the protest. And I really don't remember much about the Reagan administration because I was so young.

Still, though, I'm excited about June 6. Might we fondly refer back to this day as "J6"? Dunno, but not likely. Doesn't seem to be a big enough event to get the single letter and number treatment.

Sometimes it's interesting what I find online. Check this one out:

The Smirking Chimp: Two activists arrested protesting torture at the Supreme Court

This is the same event I photographed in Confirmation Demonstration on the Web site. It's always neat to see the different photos of stuff. And the person in the orange jumpsuit laying on their side in one of the pictures is my friend Rose.

It's also funny... I was trying to describe the demonstration at work to a coworker in the breakroom one recent day, and ended up demonstrating the position that the participants were in. So I got on my knees, leaned slightly forward, hands clasped behind back, and head down. "That's what I'm talking about!" is what I said.

The coworker said to me, "Seeing you on your knees in a submissive position just doesn't look right." And I will admit it's a little out of character for me, since I'm as you'd expect - outgoing, and very much a hiya-hiya-hiya-how-ya-doing kind of person.

All in all, it's kind of interesting.

I recently put in a comment with Martin's (a division of Giant Food of Carlisle, Pennsylvania) through their Web site regarding the gas station out front. Currently, it's not available overnight - only until 10 PM. And considering all the late hours I've been working lately at Wally World, late-night gas from Martin's would be quite handy. And I pay with my debit card, so it's not like I'd need the attendant there.

My suggestion was to have the gas station open 24 hours, even if overnight is cards-only. Here's what I got back:

Dear Mr. Schumin,

Thank you for contacting us regarding our store in Waynesboro. We do appreciate your comments and feedback.

I have followed up with our Gasoline Department and was informed that they will take your suggestion into consideration, however, at this time, there are no immediate plans to change to a 24-hour operation at the gas station in Waynesboro.

We value your business and look forward to continuing to serve your shopping needs.

(name)
Consumer Affairs Representative
GIANT Food Stores/MARTIN'S Food Markets

So there you go. Maybe something will come of it. Anyone else in Waynesboro who thinks Martin's should keep its gas pumps running all night should also consider dropping them a line (hint, hint).

The "No Armageddon For Bush" rally went quite well, as DAWN really put on a good show. It was also strange seeing David Barrows dressed up in religious robes:



The reason it was so strange seeing David in such robes was because the two previous times I'd seen him, he was wearing the orange jumpsuit and black hood that he uses in anti-torture demonstrations:




You may remember the former from my Confirmation Demonstration photo set, and the latter is from last November 16 in front of the White House. I got some mileage from that day, as I got a great shot of the woman in the black sweater and khaki-dress in mid-argument, looking quite pissed. That became a photo feature on the front of the site.

I'm doing a Life and Times photo set about yesterday's DAWN rally to be called "No Armageddon for Bush". I was actually asked on two occasions if I would dress up in one of the striped prison outfits and wear one of the oversized heads of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condoleezza Rice. On both occasions, I politely declined, as I preferred to be among the bunch of people with cameras snapping away. I did get someone to take a picture of me holding the Dick Cheney head, though. That's a good one for the front of the site. It also gives a new meaning to the phrase, "Give me the head of Dick Cheney."

Also, a surprise: No Freepers to be found.

Otherwise, though, tonight, I'm watching The Blues Brothers and saw the mall chase scene. It was something watching these cars speeding through a mall. They certainly made Dixie Square Mall look like an operating mall for the car chase (Dixie Square had closed down just prior to its being leased for the movie). All in all, though, it's certainly an interesting movie.

Tonight, I bought a new DVD/VCR combo unit to replace my old VCR, which died a while back. I figure I got my money's worth out of the old one. It was a cheap VCR that I bought eight years ago, and it's served me well. Now, it's in the trash, as it would no longer play anything. It would start up, show a still image for a few seconds, power off, and then spit out the tape.

I was originally going to go with another cheap VCR, but the only cheap VCR that Wal-Mart had was one that I'd seen come back a lot. Basically, enough times to where one could figure out that the product is crap. I asked the associate to open the box for me so I could look at the remote, and that's when I realized exactly what VCR it was. I'd seen that interior before, as I'd fished through that model's box before at the Service Desk looking for all the right material.

So I went a notch up and bought a combo DVD/VCR. I ended up getting a Magnavox this time around (the old VCR was an Orion). Oooooooh.

I also took the opportunity to rearrange all of my wires for the cable, TV, VCR, Super Nintendo, and TV card. The old setup received interference from one of my computer monitors, which created weird effects in the TV picture. So yanking out all the cords worked out. This new setup receives no interference, and the picture is GREAT.

Remember this photo from the Outlet Village photo set?



Now that the Outlet Village has closed for good, they've changed the sign to the "closed" position for the last time. Thus now I can show you the sign in the other position:



As you can see, the "closed" position is less than friendly. I figure that the sign will sit like that until it's removed when the whole complex is demolished.

And by the way, demolition on the Outlet Village has not yet started. I drive past the Outlet Village every day on my way to and from work, so I'll know pretty quickly once buildings start coming down.

I went to Roanoke yesterday, and it was an interesting trip. I don't find Roanoke to be nearly as fun as Washington DC, but it was still pretty good.

The trip down was via the Blue Ridge Parkway for the most part, taking Indian Ridge Road (a local road from Stuarts Draft to Greenville that roughly parallels US 340) to US 11 to US 60 at Lexington to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Buena Vista. Then I took the Parkway down to US 460.

I took my iPod with me on this trip, and it did fairly well. The iPod's battery lasted all day, and all was well. However, my FM transmitter didn't do quite so well, as I had to change the batteries on it twice. I think I need to get a car adaptor for it, since I burned through four AAA batteries over the course of the day.

The Roanoke Star seemed to be having a rough night, though, as two sections of red went out.

First, a reminder… the Roanoke Star normally looks like this:



On this night, it looked like this:



And then while I was up there, another section went out briefly, reducing it to this:



That last part, though, was only out for a few minutes, and lit back up on its own.

After the star, I was going to go to the IHOP restaurant near Valley View Mall, but they were closed for "remodeling". So I went to the one near Tanglewood Mall instead. Found out from there that they were replacing the carpet at the Valley View location. So fun stuff.

I browsed through Best Buy while I was down there, since I consider myself to be about ready for a new computer (I've had this one for eight years!), but with a little cash-flow problem at this point that prevents me from doing so at this time. In order to get a good computer, it would cost me at least a thousand bucks or so. Lovely... I'll stick with this one for now and upgrade later.

And then let's talk gas prices for a moment. Cheap gas in Roanoke is a full 13 cents cheaper than cheap gas is in Waynesboro. I filled up in Roanoke for $2.56 a gallon while it's $2.69 for the same thing in Stuarts Draft. Same brand, no less. I just don't understand gas prices. Especially when gas in Lexington (between home and Roanoke) is ten cents more expensive than in Stuarts Draft and thus 23 cents more expensive than Roanoke.

June 28, as you may recall, is my first day of vacation. And I can't wait. What do I have planned? Not much. I'm planning on going to Washington twice during that time - once on both ends of the vacation.

June 28 will be a trip similar to the "accidental" DC trip, where I approached DC from the south (I-95), rather than my usual westerly approach (I-66). This time, though, I'm going to run it on local roads. Instead of I-95, I'm going to take US 1. I believe this will take me close to the Huntington station, which is one that I've never originated from before. That ought to be exciting. That would bring the number of Metro stations to which I can confidently drive up to four.

Currently, I can confidently drive to Vienna, West Falls Church-VT/UVA and Franconia-Springfield. And when I say "confidently", I mean that I could give someone good directions to drive to the station from outside the DC metro area. Now mind you, I can get to a good many stations by walking - more than I want to list. I can follow the route of the Blue and Orange Lines on foot from Foggy Bottom all the way to L'Enfant Plaza, Green all the way from Shaw to L'Enfant Plaza (and Yellow by extension), and Red from Cleveland Park to Judiciary Square, among other little station-to-station walks. But driving is a whole different ballgame, especially with the suburban stations. Trust me here.

Then in leaving the Metro, I plan on doing that drive-into-DC thing again. I plan to go over the 14th Street Bridge and find my way out onto I-66, and then go home the usual way. I also plan on checking out Fredericksburg, and making a stop at Potomac Mills on the way up. Yes, this will be more of a road trip than a DC trip.

My other DC trip will be more conventional on the approach and escape, but not inside the DC itself. That's because the other trip will be July 4, when Metro runs a special service pattern. Orange goes to New Carrollton and Largo, Blue runs from Huntington to Rosslyn, Yellow runs to Franconia-Springfield instead of Huntington, and Red and Green Line trains short-turn at Silver Spring and Fort Totten respectively. But for that day, I plan to park at Vienna and take my usual I-66 approach coming in.

Otherwise, maybe I'll finally clear my backlog on the Web site. I have a backlog of four photo sets right now - "Night March" (a World Bank protest), "Downtown Waynesboro", "Town of Motels" (Breezewood), and "No Armageddon For Bush" (an anti-war protest). I would love to see that backlog cleared.

Funny what comes up in the breakroom sometimes…

A few of us were discussing churchgoers and possible hypocrisy regarding them, and the idea came up that a particular coworker, about whom customers had said "looked like Jesus" when he had a certain hairdo coupled with a beard, should start his own church. Someone suggested that he would make one related to porn, which elicited the response, "I don't look at porn!"

What made us all turn our heads was when another coworker, who was just passing through the breakroom to get to the smoking room and caught wind of our discussion, said, "I do!"

The thought that crossed most of our minds was, I did not need to know that. Seriously, we did not need to know that. I don't think I'll be able to look at this coworker with a straight face for a while. Of course, people didn't look at me with a straight face for a while after the pants incident from a couple of months ago.

Otherwise, I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while after work. I was kind of chilling out at the Rockfish Valley Parking Overlook (milepost 2) when two park rangers came up - one in a Crown Victoria and another in an SUV. I've seen them do their weekend thing at the various overlooks before. They basically check you out to make sure that all is well, and that people aren't drinking or doing drugs on the overlooks. There were about six cars on the overlook, including mine. So they checked out everyone. Three cars were without incident, including mine. One person's reaction to the rangers' checking them out elicited a strong reaction from the rangers, who ordered them out of the car. Someone, either the man in question or one of the rangers, shouted, "Who the f--- do you think you're talking to like that?" Ooooookaaaaaay... That confrontation ended without incident, and that guy left. Two other cars left not long after this as well.

The rangers ultimately were interested in the occupants of two cars - a red Mustang, and another car next to the Mustang. Since I was standing next to my Sable staring at everything, one of the rangers came over to me to see if I needed any assistance. I guess I looked like I was waiting to speak to one of them. I was quite straight-up about what I was doing at that point. I was just watching. The ranger told me that it was something to do with "drugs and alcohol". Translated? Those two cars were getting busted. I stayed and watched for a good hour, until I looked at my watch and was like, look at the time! The occupants of the Mustang were given citations, while the rangers were still dealing with the occupants of the other car when I left.

All in all, quite an interesting evening. And I still can't wait for my vacation, since these late evenings at work suck, and I'm to the point where I'm dreading coming to work each day.

I went to Washington DC on Tuesday, and it was a fairly typical "regular" trip. I got in right on time, parked at Vienna, and then the main mission this time was to check on some jobs I'd applied for. I also paid a visit to my friend Tristan and then paid a visit to Pentagon City.

On the Red Line en route to Rockville, I encountered a person that knows how to relax on a Rohr train:



She's got the right foot up on the pole, and the left foot resting on the right leg. And she's on the phone. Note that the phone she's got is the same kind that I used to have before I upgraded last month.

All in all, I had fun. I'm just glad that I was able to park at Vienna this time. On my June 6 trip, every legal parking space at Vienna was full, meaning I couldn't park there if I did not want to get a ticket or get towed. So on that trip, I parked at West Falls Church. This time, I got to park at Vienna, albeit in the South Garage. But the South Garage is still Vienna, so I'm not too worried. And I'm also not too surprised that I had to take the South Garage. Half of the North Garage's "guaranteed" spaces that I park in after they open up at 10 AM are closed due to the ongoing parking garage rehabilitation, so it's understandable. I ended up parking in the South Garage's "guaranteed" spaces, so it worked out in the end.

And then on the way home, I found out that the Sheetz in Haymarket's going to get remodeled (again) to add a Sheetz Brothers Coffee. That will also involve closing the store for two days to do a lot of rewiring, from what I'm told. But it will be nice to have the gourmet coffee in Haymarket. By then, since I'm sometimes starting to droop by that point in the day (I usually get to the Sheetz in Haymarket between 12:30 and 1:00 in the morning on the return trip), having fancy coffee will be handy.

Then at the Wal-Mart in Woodstock, after shopping, I played Stacker, which is in the vestibule at the grocery entrance. Since they'd put it in back in January or February, I'd been trying to win the iPod that had been hanging there.

Now to play Stacker, you're lining up a group of blocks. You start with three blocks that you have to position. Then you have to stack a row of blocks directly on top of it (hence the name). If you miss a block but others landed properly, you lose the ones that missed, and continue. Land no blocks properly, and the game is over immediately, and the machine says, "Oh, no! Uh-oh... game over!"

There are two prize rows, each highlighted in white. The "minor prize" row is on the 11th row. When you hit that row, the game says, "consolation prize!" and if you choose to stop there, you get some junky little trinket. If you keep going, you complete four more rows to hit the top row, marked "major prize". Those prizes are nice. There's a low-end digital camera, a prepaid cell phone, an iPod, etc. Pretty nice stuff that costs significantly more than the 50¢ it costs to play Stacker.

Stacker's play board, with a perfect game shown on it, looks like this:



So why do I mention this? Because of the irony of it. Mom got me a 2 GB iPod Nano for my birthday, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. And now that I have the iPod, and I was playing Stacker just for the heck of it, I finally hit the "major prize" level and won a big prize. And of the four big prizes to choose from, the only thing worthwhile was the iPod. So now I have two iPods. I have my "real" iPod (the Nano), and now I have a 512 MB iPod shuffle. That thing costs almost $70 retail, and I managed to get it for only 50¢. And the ironic thing is that I only got it after I already owned an iPod.

So there you go. My next trips to DC will be June 28 and July 4.

After receiving an anonymous message through my Instant Messenger that sandals with socks were a major fashion no-no (even though Sis has told me that for years), I finally kind of had one of those what-the-hell moments. So I left the socks at home.

You may recall I did this once before - last year. I wrote about it in the Journal at that time.

The funny reaction I got was when I realized that sandals without socks is basically like going commando for your feet. No socks is like going without underwear, after all. A coworker overheard and said, "You did not just say what I think you just said!" I repeated myself, and they admitted then that they didn't hear the word "feet".

Also, a few unrelated things... first of all, the construction site where they've been rebuilding Route 608 in Stuarts Draft is now what I would describe as "drivable with extreme care". The road is technically closed to traffic, but VDOT can't fully block it off due to houses, a farm, and a business along that stretch of road that still have to have access to the outside world. So I drove it today as a little side trip. The road is definitely straighter and higher than it was before, and it will have curbs and storm drains, which the road previously lacked. Supposedly, it's to be complete in August (moved up from the original October completion date), but I'll believe that when I see it. It will certainly be nice going the regular way again, rather than taking this lengthy detour through a somewhat windy road, where people have a tendency to drive too fast.

And on a second unrelated note, I went to Charlottesville yesterday, by way of Crozet. They're filming parts of Evan Almighty in Crozet, where they've built a giant ark for the movie. I took some pictures of it with my cell phone, and I'll show you those once I get them all downloaded.

I have made it to my vacation, and I don't have to return to work until July 7 at 7:00 AM. Very nice, indeed.

And then tomorrow, I'm going to go to Washington DC by way of I-95 to do a few things on the way up.

All I have to say, though, is that I hope that when I do go back to work, that I feel totally refreshed and ready to continue, because I was about at the edge of my tolerance threshold.

If you've looked at my site updates, I just released a new photo set in Life and Times called Night March. I wasn't planning on finishing it this morning, but I got to working on it, and I realized that I was very close to completing it, so I just decided to go ahead and finish the set, and get that out there. So now you can view that protest against the World Bank and IMF that I went to on April 22, where a black bloc snaked through the streets of DC. It was fun.

My only issue with the set is that the dark and the rain, combined with the constant motion of the camera, led to pictures that I don't consider my best work. Of course, Life and Times is there to showcase events, where capturing the action, rather than creating beautiful photos, is the point. Still, I've done better. A16 and the Million Worker March are two Life and Times sets that I consider to be really nice photography-wise. On this one, with the camera having water issues during the event and the need to heavily retouch some of these photos to show the action, it leaves me wishing that the photos had come out better. Still, though, I do like the set, and the photos certainly demonstrate the hostile environment in which they were taken.

For the next set to go up, it's either going to be one about downtown Waynesboro or Breezewood for Photography, or the "No Armageddon" rally in DC for Life and Times.

As promised, here are some photos of the ark from the upcoming movie Evan Almighty in Crozet:







Pretty interesting, indeed. Considering that they also filmed in downtown Waynesboro (as "Huntsville"), and in downtown Staunton, I'll really be interested to see how it all comes together in the end.

I took a little trip to the DC area via Richmond and I-95 on Wednesday. Fun trip. I went that longer way instead of my usual I-81 to I-66 route because I wanted to visit Fredericksburg and Potomac Mills.

My visit to Fredericksburg was fairly simple. The question before the house was whether it was worth it to make a trip to Fredericksburg, which is somewhat hard to reach for a day trip, to do a photo set. My determination for Fredericksburg was that while it was indeed charming, and definitely a place to visit when I eventually find a job in the DC area and move up that way, I didn't see anything on this drive through that I would really want to make a special trip for, and that I couldn't do using a similar feature in another city that is easier to reach.

However, I did see a sign that was, to say the least, surprising.



This is a completely undoctored photo taken with my cell phone in Fredericksburg while I was driving. That sign really said $1.00 per gallon for gas for both regular and mid-grade, while gas was around $2.75 per gallon elsewhere in Fredericksburg. HOWEVER... the fuel pumps had caution tape around them and it looked like the gas station wasn't in operation. You can also tell that this wasn't originally a Liberty station just by the sign. It looks like they just slapped Liberty's logo over the logo for RaceWay or RaceTrac.

Still, that was certainly something to see.

Otherwise, though, I went to Potomac Mills, where I placed an order for some new pants (two sizes smaller!) and also bought a pair of those rubber shoes that everyone has been wearing lately. True, more women wear them than men, but I've seen enough guys wear them that I figure I wouldn't get any looks if I bought a pair. So I now own a pair of Crocs. I just can't believe I had to buy the name brand. That really cost me. But you can't accuse me of not trying. I went all over to get a Brand X version of the shoe in my size. I couldn't find one. Drat.

After Potomac Mills, I took US 1 up into Fairfax County, and successfully located Huntington station, and parked on the south side of the station. Huntington is really easy to get to, as it turns out, though Vienna is even easier.

Metro was not exactly as fun as usual this time, mainly because I had to do a lot of waiting. The evening rush period had just ended when I got in, and so headways were increasing. Add to that the fact that Metro was still a little screwed up from all the flooding. I was waiting on Breda 4006 at Huntington for a good ten minutes before we finally left, due to single-tracking between Huntington and Braddock Road caused by a malfunctioning interlocking. I presume it was one of the two interlockings that comprises the C&J junction south of King Street station. Then I was waiting for more than ten minutes at Gallery Place-Chinatown, and the platform lights were flashing continuously despite no train on the lower level of Metro Center on the Vienna/Franconia-Springfield side.

Now the adventure began after I got back to Huntington. I got back to Huntington, got in the car, and a Transit Police officer waved me down for a moment: "You haven't seen any young juveniles around here, have you?" I told him I hadn't, to which he replied that they'd received a call that some kids were vandalizing cars at Huntington.

Getting back on US 1, I prepared to go "inside the beltway" and back into DC, this time with the Sable instead of a Breda. However, I somehow got channeled onto the Beltway. I quickly, however, found an exit back onto US 1, though southbound. I got turned back around, and tried a different method. I ended up on the Beltway once again. Turns out this was the last exit in Virginia, and so I ended up going over the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Prince George's County, Maryland. I ended up taking exit 3A and stopped at a hotel for directions. I got directions, and went over the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge back into Virginia, and from there managed to catch the exit for northbound US 1, and so all was well.

Let me tell you something... it's one thing to be in an unfamiliar area. It's one thing to have road construction. And it's one thing to do it all at night. To have it all happen at once is a recipe for a headache. And I got one. However, it was all smiles again once I got back on US 1. I rode through Old Town Alexandria, and took a side trip to drive down King Street. Returning to US 1, I rode through Alexandria, and even passed a shopping center (Target is one of the stores) that I'd seen from the back a zillion times on the Metro. Then I rode through Crystal City, past the Pentagon, and then over the 14th Street Bridge. I followed 14th Street all the way through Thomas Circle, and actually all the way up to Euclid Street NW. There, I turned left on Euclid, drove past Malcolm X Park, and then drove back down on 16th Street NW. I drove through the tunnel at Scott Circle - the same tunnel that I marched through during the counter-inaugural protest.

I ended up going west on K Street to get to I-66 to head home. As I'd finally released Night March that morning, I thought about finding all the hotels we visited, but then my more practical side returned, since it was late at night, I was tired, and I was in downtown Washington DC. So I just took the tunnel under Washington Circle and caught I-66.

It was a long ride home. I had to stop and take a nap at one point. Usually if I have to take a nap, I can make it to Woodstock and then catch a couple of winks in the car in the lot there. This time, I had to take that nap at the rest area on westbound I-66 at around milepost 48. I woke up twice during the nap, and each time, looked up and lamented the fact that I was still in northern Virginia, despite its being so late.

But all in all, it was a fun trip.

I had no idea that there was a place called "Foamhenge" near Natural Bridge, which is a little ways south of where I live. And with my being on vacation this week, and with the weather forecasted to be nice all the way through the weekend, I might just have to pay Foamhenge a visit, and perhaps do a photo set on it (as if I'm not backlogged enough already).

And no, this is not some cheesy substitute for a visit to the real Stonehenge. I went there in June 1998. See?



Eight years after visiting Stonehenge, a visit to Foamhenge should be fun.

I would like to know what I was thinking back in 2003 when I was laying out these "Photo Essay Blitz" sets. Usually, I try to make the final photo numbers go in order down the page, even if the pictures aren't arranged in chronological order. This, however, is ridiculous. And it makes my current work retrofitting captions onto these older sets all the more complicated since I have to hop all around the database to find the entries for these photos.

This is why the 2003 set A Protest Against the War received an update last night. I decided I couldn't take it anymore. The numbers were all out of order, plus the navigation didn't flow logically. I fixed the numbers by renumbering all the photos. Now they start at 1 and go to 122 in exactly the order that they appear on the page. I fixed the navigation by going from the old descriptors (Freedom Plaza 1 and 2, McPherson Square, Farragut West) to straight parts (Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4). The navigation also bugged me because the descriptors were inaccurate, which I noticed in becoming more familiar with DC. The "McPherson Square" section was a block or so away from the square, and then the "Farragut West" section was at 18th and K Streets NW, a few blocks from Farragut Square, though only one block from the Metro station.

I can tell you why I did it that way originally, though. I set it like that because I picked out the photos, numbered them, and put them on the page, and then laid them out on the page like a big storyboard. Thus the numbers ended up all out of order. Compare to now, where I sort them in CompuPic, and don't pin them up on the Web site until it's nearly done.

One thing I have to say is that it certainly makes maintenance and updates easy if the numbers go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. It gets to be a real bother if it goes 1, 7, 23, 15, 12, 34, etc.

I just found out that the full report about the November 3, 2004 accident at Woodley Park-Zoo came out on the NTSB's Web site. And I've been reading the 66-page report for a while now. I'm on page 18 out of 66 total. So I'm getting somewhere.

And it's great to finally read exactly what happened in this accident. You may recall that I was in Washington the day after the accident happened, and actually got to see the accident scene firsthand. It was something.

I was amazed, though, about how the first several feet of Rohr 1077 were just plain gone. In my photos, the roof was hanging down from what remained of the car. I received an interior shot of 1077 after it had been taken to Brentwood, but it wasn't quite the same as seeing it in the accident scene. The NTSB report had a photo of 1077 in place at the accident scene:


Photo: NTSB

I was just like, whoa, when I saw this. In telescoping, the floor went UP towards the ceiling, upsetting a number of seats in the process. That is something I did not quite expect. I would have thought that with telescoping, since the train basically came apart at the seams, the floor would not have done that. Guess I was wrong.

And now, back to my reading of the rest of the report.