Month: January 2005

I’m just going to avoid the mess that is south of me celebrating the great Darth Lord. Of course I did enjoy the firework display for a full 3 seconds last night, then I decided it was cold so I headed back into the house. I am really enjoying the day off. I can clean the house, do some more census work and curse the name of long dead Irish immigrants.

I have already shoveled my sidewalk. And my neighbors’ sidewalks. Mind you I didn’t do a good job on theirs because, they’re healthy, they can shovel it. As an experiment this morning I tested the usefulness of table salt as a de-icer.



I used about 1/4 of a cup of Giant brand iodized salt and spread it around the neighboring sidewalk, where I had done some minimal shoveling. I went back in, ate a bowl of fruit loops, watched some really bad TV, and came back out and took a picture of the result. See people salt works. Any old salt. Even table salt.

Okay today is supposed to be a tad bit warmer today. But yesterday, I couldn’t feel my face. I wore the wrong shoes and thin hose and my feet were ice blocks.

The good thing about the frigid cold is that it prevents surly teens from hanging out on the corner. You know your block is bad when the dealers are still standing on the corner and it is 15F outside. I don’t know how Truxton/Florida Park looks but it is cold enough that it should be wino free tonight. If it is not wino free then it is time to call the hypothermia hotline (800) 535-7252, so they won’t freeze to death.

Also there is a snow advisory until 6pm today, Wednesday. I hope you bought your $8 shovels from Giant along with your bag of salt.

Thursday, January 20th, DC government will be closed, as will the federal government.

Schools- Closed

Libraries- Closed

Sunday traffic regulations will be in effect and there will be street closings around the Convention Center. Also roads south of Shaw and some roads in Virginia will experience restrictions.

Trash collections will be picked up except on blocks that are closed off. BUT regular trash collection is off one day because of the Monday holiday.

1. The streets around Convention Center will be 7pm Wednesday till 4am Friday. Meaning no buses, no cabs, and as far as I know, that might include bikes and bicycle rickshaws.

2. The Mt. Vernon Square Metro will be closed from 3pm Thursday to 1am Friday. Meaning you can’t metro to the Convention Center, or home if you live around there.

3. The Democracy Ball being held in the Convention Center’s Ballroom and several rooms from 7pm to whenever.

Okay I gotta logistics question.

How are people supposed to get there? If people are going to try to get a cab I see all sorts of traffic evil tying up the Mt. Vernon Square roads that aren’t closed to traffic. In my crystal ball I see a man screaming in Arabic to another man cursing in Hindi to move his cab, blocked by an older white couple in a Ford Expedition who didn’t get the memo that there is no parking around because all the residents who normally park on the closed streets took up every viable and semi-legal parking spot they could find elsewhere.

As I see it if you take the metro to Gallery Place that’s about 4 long blocks. In the cold. Provided that the entrance is on the Mt. Vernon Sq/K Street side. If people have any sort of walking handicap, as I’ve noticed people from suburban areas do, this will be a hardship.

Update

Nora Bombay and I came up with the theory that the security plan was created by a Democrat because there is no friggin’ way to get around and you force people on death marches to the parade area in the cold. Also you could be banned from bringing anything to make sitting through the parade confortable, like chairs. So the plan seems to be to make anyone who supports Mr. Bush, who isn’t a billinaire with a limo, suffer.

I looked again at the Washington Post map in the Metro section and then had to pencil in some road closures for smaller areas and it looks like there is no way to get around the old city in a car. If your coming from the conservative bastion of Virginia, the only way to get into the city is via Georgetown and maybe 395 (wait a road that goes under the Capitol? Isn’t that the greatest security risk EVER?).

My neighbor is an architect and for whatever his reasons were he designed a garage for the Discovery Channel’s Garage Takeover. This will air on the 19th at 4:00pm. I’m gonna have to have someone TIVO this for me as I a) don’t have cable & b)can’t break into my friends’ houses with cable before 4.

When he was doing the job he hinted that the TV people were creating drama and conflict. Okay, can we have a design show without the fake drama? Anyway, Discovery Channel. January 19th. 4PM.

Enjoy your holiday

Lift Every Voice And Sing

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,

Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.

Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.

Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,

True to our God, true to our native land.

Courtesy of the CyberHymnal

And for those of you totally confused by this post, the above is the ‘Negro National Anthem’ and it is my way of celebrating the birth of this great civil rights leader.