The Year That Was
Part 2
The ANSWER march arrives at Lafayette Park.
At Lafayette Park, after the ANSWER group had arrived, I ran into Rick Hohensee, who was allegedly running for president.
Returning to Vienna after all this on May 20, I found out that the work crew had been busy with the rehabilitation of the North Garage. So much so that they’d blocked me out. I had to push the fences out of the way to get from the elevator to my car, which was parked next to the elevator.
On June 6, I saw this sticker on a person’s car at New Carrollton, which reminds us that “W” also stands for “Wiretap”.
On July 2, a Sunday night, I photographed in the Corner District of Charlottesville. It was fairly quiet, but there were still some UVA students out and about. This group posed for a photo. Based on how many of them were acting, I’d guess that they’d had a few drinks while they were out.
On July 4, Code Pink held a large demonstration in the street in front of the White House. Here, they gave Bush a giant “pink slip”, which you can partly see in the bottom photo.
This was also a great photo opportunity, and many people were taking pictures of this assembled group.
After checking out Code Pink, I went railfanning, which was the main reason for taking the trip on July 4, since Metro runs a special service pattern on that day. Note that this Rohr at Largo Town Center is signed as an Orange Line train. Also note the weather. Perfect, clear skies.
Fast forward a little bit – the amount of time it takes to ride from Largo to McPherson Square on Metro – and it was raining hard, plus thunder and lightning (I wrote about it here). That’s one storm that just came up out of nowhere, but it did serve one beneficial purpose. It broke the heat.
Returning to Vienna after dinner, I experienced this crowd leaving the station. I’d never seen Vienna this crowded before, ever. Usually, when I return to Vienna late at night, the place is deserted.
And that is the one sign I don’t want to see when I’m parked on the top deck of the North Garage. The North Garage’s elevator was busted, so I had to take the stairs…
On July 18, I ran into this group, which spent each day in Lafayette Square for some time as a protest against the Iraq War.
The fire alarm is going off at the Hecht’s (now Macy’s) in downtown Washington! Besides the slow-whoop of the fire alarm, you can also hear the camera jostling around in its bag, and me talking to a store employee. I shot this movie covertly, with the camera in the bag the whole time, because I was really only interested in the sound.
Meanwhile, in Silver Spring, Discovery Communications adorned its building with a giant shark as a promotion for “Shark Week”.
I also found this stop sign, where a sticker turned it into a message: “STOP WAR”.
Returning to Vienna, I noticed an oddity: grass growing out of the platform!
I also noticed another oddity: The train was signed as a Red Line train to Fort Totten. There are a few problems with this. First off, this train had just finished a run as an Orange Line train to Vienna. Secondly, a train leaving Vienna cannot reach Fort Totten’s upper level in one shot. The A&C connection at McPherson Square is the only track connection to the Red Line from the Blue and Orange Lines, and it’s pointed in the wrong direction for that to work. It links westbound to westbound, and so it would require turning the train (i.e. changing cab ends) twice. Once after changing tracks at the McPherson Square interlocking, and then again at the Farragut North pocket track.
On July 27, while I was in Northern Virginia visiting Matthew Tilley, we finally got the kitchen counters replaced at home. What a strange sight it was to see the old kitchen sink sitting out in the driveway as I was leaving.
On August 1, I took my regular DC trip with Mom and Sis in tow. Here, they struck a pose on the Metro at Vienna.
Our first stop this time wasn’t Rosslyn, but rather Union Station. There, we met Mom’s friend Arlinda. Mom and Arlinda got together for a while, and Sis and I went off on our own for a while.
Leaving Union Station, Sis and I got Breda 2008. You may recall that I had a rather well-known photo of me taken on that car prior to its rehabilitation. So we redid the shot, now that 2008 has been rehabbed.
When Sis and I arrived at Largo, we saw a large group of firefighters in the station! If not mistaken, they were there learning the station’s layout.
After visiting The Boulevard at the Capital Centre, we took a photo to mark the occasion, as Sis had now visited her third terminal – Largo Town Center. This was also her first trip into Maryland via the Metro.
I do one of my little interviews with Mom and Sis at the Crystal City Metro station. I found out after doing this movie that they hate my little interviews.
On August 9, while in Roanoke, I noticed this ride, designed to resemble the Space Shuttle. Upon closer inspection, it appears that it was based specifically on Columbia, based on the black “chines” on the wings, and the “USA” marking.
On August 17, I went past the Navy Memorial in DC, and found out that the water was blue in order to get rid of algae growth. DCist called it the Ty-D-Bol Memorial.
The blue water of the memorial was a bit of a tourist draw in its own right, as people had their photos taken in front of it.
On my August 30 trip, I first noticed this installation on the sides of Pentagon City station. It turned out that this was the first part of the installation of a new sound system in the station.
September 3 in Charlottesville: Look at the clouds… dark and threatening, but ultimately, nothing came of it.
On September 12, I visited Camp Democracy in DC. Camp Democracy, operated by a number of DC anti-war groups, including DAWN, was basically a DC extension of Camp Casey, which Cindy Sheehan had founded in Crawford, Texas in 2005. Due to other commitments, however, Sheehan herself was unable to make an appearance at Camp Democracy.
