Been a long time

Am I Still A Blogger?

Can I still be considered a Blogger if I haven't posted anything for over 2 years? I have written things but I haven'y posted anything. I have been busy on twitter and Facebook but haven't made the commitment to sit down and write about a single subject since last April. 

I have been busy with my life but that really isn't the reason. I have lost my nerve and confidence because of a number of incidences. Maybe I have just gotten older and more circumspect. I don't know. Actually the whole world is upside down now. I think everyone has taken a step back and is wondering what is up.

In my case, someone who I thought was gone from my life forever, reappeared and has been a real and important presence in my everyday existence. I suddenly have had to literally make room for another person in my tidy little space. Everything is upside down but gloriously happy. I wouldn't have made it through the challenges  of the last year without his help. We help each other and have no illusions that life is perfect but that having a helping hand always makes a task easier. I have had health and other problems and they continue. 

Trump was elected and now we have a liar in the White House. It parallels my life where lies have played a huge part in putting me in an precarious position. Not my lies but the kind of lies I have fought my entire life. The kind of pernicious lies by people who have no conscience and lie as easily as they breathe. There is no defense against them unless you have hard evidence like a tape or eye witness or picture. 

I was like every kid. I used to lie. Then when I was 12 I found out my parents had lied to me about my brother. I adored my older brother. I found out by accident when I was 12 that he was not my full brother. My Dad had adopted him before I was born because my Mom had him before they met. He had not always had the same last name and that is why his talking books came to a different last name. That is why my mother always hid them in the closet and never brought out the cases they came in. I was devastated when they told me the truth. I swore then that the truth would be my beacon from then on. I have worked very hard since then to tell the truth, even when it was hurtful.

Telling the truth has put me in some very, very difficult positions. I am in perhaps the most difficult position in my life because of the truth right now. I have a cacophony of people around me trying to get me to recant and change my story but the truth can't be changed or spun. It is the truth. 

There are those who say that my truth may not be fact. To those people I say, that is why I pray to God every night to make my mind clear and my memory good. 

Amazing Picture of Cooperation 28 August 1963

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. [Leaders of the march (from left to right) Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice; (seated with glasses) Cleveland Robinson, Chairman of the Demonstration Committee; (beside Robinson is) A. Philip Randolph, organizer of the demonstration, veteran labor leader who helped to found the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, American Federation of Labor (AFL), and a former vice president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); (standing behind the two chairs) Rabbi Joachim Prinz, President of the American Jewish Congress; (wearing a bow tie and standing beside Prinz is) Joseph Rauh, Jr, a Washington, DC attorney and civil rights, peace, and union activist; John Lewis, Chairman, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and Floyd McKissick, National Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality.]

The Weird and Wonderful Kansas

A friend Facebooked me and said he was going to be traveling through Kansas and did I know of any interesting thing to do in western Kansas. He didn't want to see any balls of twine but like exciting and weird stuff. So I spent the next hour researching and mapping out a route. The wrong route. It is a good loop never the less. If you ever get to Kansas. Try it. It is good from either direction.

First post:

Then you definitely have to see the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas. It is just north of Wilson Lake off I-70 just before you get to Russell. It makes a nice loop to exit and go north on KS 32, cross the dam of Wilson Lake ( you can also camp there), and on up to K-18 and Lucas is 1 mile west(18 miles total). In addition to the Garden of Eden, Lucas is the grassroots arts capitol of Kansas and has a very singular public toilet. Also a good cafe. Then you can continue west on K-18 thru Luray and Waldo and see some real Kansas. Turn left on US-281. There is nothing in Paradise but the Angel farm (not kidding). After you head south on US-281 and go 11 miles, you will cross the Saline River. It is the river that made Wilson Lake and ran through our farm. Land Rd is the next left, DO NO TURN LEFT. It used to be called Russell county 8 and our farm was 1 mile to the east past the rock outcropping on the right. Our farm was on the left. by the river. I digress. Continue 5 more miles and you will be in RUSSELL, my home town. Nothing to see there but my dad, and the mural of Bob Dole and Arlen Specter on main Street and eat the best steak you have ever tasted at Meridy's Steak House out by the Highway (that is what everybody calls I-70)

Second Post

 oh, Hays just 25 miles west has a cool paleontology museum...Sternburg....fish within a fish...

Third Post

 Just realized you were going west to east. Just reverse my directions. Start in Russell, go north on 281, turn right on k-18 and go to Lucas. Then turn right on K-32 and cross the dam going south and catch 1-70 at Wilson ( the Czeck capitol of Kansas) also where Luke and Meghan got married at the hotel where they filmed the movie Paper Moon.

Sesquicentennial

Yesterday was 16 April 2015, the 153rd anniversary of the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia. In DC, we celebrate this Holiday as a District Holiday, not because of the freeing of all slaves but because of the signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act freeing 3100 slaves, which President Abraham Lincoln signed on April 16, 1862. In September he signed the Emancipation Proclamation that went into effect on 1 January 1863 and broadened the scope of the Civil war to include freeing the slaves as well as preserving the Union. Slavery continued to be legal until 18 December 1865, when the 13^th Amendment went into effect. On Monday I had the honor to participate in the ceremony at the 15^th Street Presbyterian Church to commemorate and remember the events that led up to this day so long ago. It was the first of many historical events this week.

Tuesday was the sesquicentennial of the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. I watched online because I hadn't been able to secure a ticket to the event. As I watched the subsequent candlelight vigil on the street outside, I thought to myself, ” Why not go down for the announcement of his death? “  So I did.

The announcement was to be at 7:22 am on 10^th St NW in front of the Peterson House where Lincoln died. I got up about 6:30 and caught the green line to Gallery Place and exited the 9^th Street/Gallery exit. I came out on G and 9^th. I had only 1 short block to walk past St Patrick’s church and 2 blocks south to the action. There was a period brass band playing songs Lincoln would have recognized and a huge gathering waiting for news. Some were in period dress and some were dressed as I was, casually just out of bed. Others were obviously on the way to work. Next door to the Peterson House Douglass Jamal Construction was tearing down a building. We know what that is like here in SW. Clank, Clang, scrape and dump….

Precisely at 7:22 a man came through the front door of the Peterson Boarding House and introduced himself as Secretary Stanton and said, “The President has breathed his last” and the gasp that went through the crowd might have been like that very day 150 years ago. Then he went on to say the President had been comforted at the end to rest his hand on the Emancipation Proclamation assuring himself he had accomplished something worthwhile in his life.

Next a lovely ballad was sung for the President all the while the construction noise continued. You’d think they could have stopped the construction for the ceremony. It only happens every 150 years. Several tributes were read about Mr. Lincoln and several songs played by the band. My favorite song was the Battle Hymn of the Republic and my favorite tribute was “O Captain, My Captain!” written in 1865 by Walt Whitman. As it was read bagpipes could be heard in the distance playing Amazing Grace. At some point the construction noise did cease, thank God.

At the end of the ceremony, Bagpipers of the Scottish regiment appeared and piped Amazing Grace in earnest as a wreath was laid on the steps of the Peterson Boarding House. The Sailors of the SS Abraham Lincoln had come to provide the honor guard for the ceremony and the pipers piped them off the field and back into Ford Theater.

Soon after, the bells around the city began to toll to announce the sad news. To have been there, on the same street as people 150 years ago was strangely touching. I felt a tie though the ages binding me to them both with sadness and also with hope because ours was mixed crowd. We were there for the love of a man who had changed the world. "Lincoln belongs to the ages,” said Secretary Stanton. And also lives on in the "angels in our hearts" in Lincoln’s own words.

Lincoln sesquicentennial events will soon move to the southwest quadrant of DC. The trial of the coconspirators and their hangings took place at Fort McNair. No doubt, the courtroom will be open for tours and they may have a re-enactment of the trial. More information about the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s death can be found at www.Fords.org

Fawning Sycophant or Disruptive Behavior?

What are we coming to when dissenting discourse is seen as being disruptive behavior in a group setting? Have we become the go along society that values the even keel over the truth and doing what is best for the community and the people that will follow us on this planet? Do we always have to accept every pronouncement from on high without question no matter how ludicrous or disruptive to our way of life? Are we to allow those who are new to the community and have no historical knowledge, but may have come to a position of power, to bulldoze those parts that we revere and that have worked well for us all in the name of progress? What happened to "past is prologue?" What happened to knowledge of bylaws, house rules and natural law? What happened to healthy debate?

For one thing, debate is no longer taught in schools. If the Continental Congress were held today, there would be no debate. They would all withdraw to their hotel rooms and refuse to talk to one another. Questioning is considered rude and for God's sake don't ever speak out of turn in a meeting. There is no such thing as brainstorming. Every meeting is run by strict Robert's Rules of Order, or what people say is Robert's Rules of Order because few people have actually studied the actual rules. Life must be lived by Parliamentary Procedure. Why must there be so many rules? Is it because everyone is autistic? Or maybe no one was taught manners as a child so now the rules must make up for it. Maybe they have been CEO's for so long that they are used to having their fawning sycophants hang on their every word. Sorry people, I am a real person and behavior like that only happens in Washington, DC.

Talk to an Angel

I really want to talk to my Mama today. I really need to talk to my Mama today. I want to pick up the phone and dial her number and have her answer in her sleepy nap after lunch voice and say, " What is wrong sweetheart?" 
So I can say, "Nothing."
And she will say, "No, I hear it in your voice."  She could always hear it in my voice. 
Then she would always say, "Tell me all about it....but first I have to go potty."

That would make me laugh and suddenly my problems would seem less urgent and by the time she got back to the phone I would be able to talk without crying and we would figure out the solution to anything in the world. But I can't call my Mama any more.

I have her with me now. She is in the china closet in a hand-blown perfume bottle, at least part of her ashes are. I sprayed them with the perfume she always wore, White Linen by Estee Lauder. Sometimes I take the bottle, pull out the stopper and inhale what used to be my mother. The bottle stands in front of a picture of her. I don't normally have personal pictures in my living area but I am comforted having her there watching me eat my breakfast.

It isn't as if my mother died yesterday or even last week or month.  She died on 13 March 2014. We had her service on 7 April 2014, the day between my brother Don's 69th birthday and my parents' 63rd wedding anniversary. Although she had been suffering from vascular dementia and diabetes for about 5 years, she was still a vibrant and loving member of our family. She had gradually lost the ability to read, cook, drive, figure, and keep house. The good thing is that my father did such a good job with everything that she thought she was still keeping house. My Papa would do anything for her. Theirs was such a true love that when she would have a potty accident, he would think it was "cute." Her actual death is still too raw to write about.  I thought I could but I can't nearly a year later.

So much has happened in that time. My divorce finally came through and although the financial details are still being settled, at least I am free and know where I stand emotionally. I am worth more than being second best, especially after giving up so much to move around all those years as an Army Wife. By the time it was final we had been married 34 years. Even with my mother's death, I still figured the taxes last year. Good wife to the end, eh?

My son has been out of work because of the sequestration and other reason's I don't understand. I worry about him and his marriage and his life and his relationship........you just don't want to know.

I have tried the dating game....as much as you can when your life is in  divorce limbo. I have met a couple of nice men and some not so nice men. Actually, if I could combine about 3 of the ones I have met into one man I would be golden. Alas, that is not possible so I am back on eHarmony and I hate, hate, hate it. I pray to God every night for someone I can just talk to and be companionable with.  Is that asking too much?

What would you say, Mama? That's just it.  I don't know.  Until the last time I talked to her, my mother always surprised me with her wit, wisdom, and love. It is like all the love has gone out of the world and I don't know what to do.

I killed my bird today

I woke up this morning to my bird frantically scrambling around the back of the cage trying to get my attention.  As I tried to will myself into consciousness, I idly wondered if I had given Franny and Zooey water yesterday. Yesterday had been a lost day for me.  My hip had been hurting and it had been a rainy day so I had lolled in bed for most of the day dozing and watching "Bones" and "Bar Rescue." During the day Missy Lu and Moonbeam had snuggled with me in the damp cold. I remember laughing at the birds jumping up and over their top perch over and over, chirping all the while. I should have gotten up at that point to water and feed them but I just burrowed deeper into the pillows and closed my eyes to better listen to them sing. 

Sometime around 5 I pulled myself out of bed to prepare for the coop monthly board meeting and to feed the animals.  The problem was I forgot to water and feed the birds. I got home from my meeting after 10 exhausted and went right back to bed.  Being the terrible parent I am, I again forgot to feed my birds or turn on their heating lamp.  I did watch the recording of "Dancing with the Stars" and "Bletchley Park." During "Bletchley Park" I kept hearing birds singing when people were inside.  I have this new Bose sound system and I thought,  "Wow, this is really good. They captured bird sounds from the grounds." Now I know it was the death song of my poor Zooey. All I had to do was get up off that bed and go look and I might have saved him.

This morning when I did finally get out of the bed and walk across those few feet to the desperate fluttering of Franny, I found a dry water dish, no food, no warming light and Zooey curled up on his side on the bottom of the cage in a nest of grass.  He was still warm when I picked him up. His eyes were opaque and his beak tightly shut so even as I tried to give him water and stoke him back to life he was too far gone to receive help.

 I had filled the water and seed cups before trying to revive Zooey so all the time I was working on him, Franny was devouring food and drinking silently. In fact, even now, hours later, she has not made a sound. She just sits there looking at me accusingly. I can't stand it. She is sitting up there under his body in its shroud rocking back and forth wondering what to do.  I am going to have to find her a mate to help her....

It is now hours later and I have found a bronze wing mannikin song site and played them for her. She really responded to two of them.  I am now going to try to link to the two she liked.

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Lonchura-cucullata?&view=3

XC120623

XC116734

She responded to the first with answers and movement and the second by going down and drinking and eating.  Maybe if I can't find her another mate I can play the songs to remind her to eat and drink.  Franny has never been the smartest bulb in the chandelier.  It once took us 8 hours to get her back in the cage because she couldn't figure how to fly back in even though Zooey was coaching her the whole time. 

What is a Bronze Winged Mannikin (Lonchura cucullata) you might ask?  It is a small finch found in the middle to the southern African continent. I bought them because they were the cheapest birds at Petsmart.  It seems as though they are now very rare and extremely difficult to breed in captivity.  Today after much research, I have found only a handful of breeders in the US. No chain pet stores carry them as far as I can tell. So much for finding Franny a companion. They look like this:

The little blackish spot at the top of the wing looks iridescent green in real life, hence the name Bronze Winged Mannikin. The body color looks more grey than brown as well. On my computer screen, the picture is nearly life sized at 3 1/2 inches. They are tiny, tiny birds. I have called all over asking about them and no one has any.  It is like they wee the flavor of the month and then they disappeared.  What am I to do with my little solitary Franny? Let her die of a broken heart?

So I have continued to search as I have been writing this piece in hopes I would have a happy ending but life isn't like that is it? Life is life and some days are just dark and dreary and never get any better. The management never got back to me about what to do with his remains so I think we will bury him in the big flower pot with the hibiscus in the corner of the patio. He will go back to nature soon enough and nothing will be able to get up here to dig him up. I can't leave him on top of the cage much longer and I don't want to put him in the fridge.  I am just so sad because I know this is just the first of so many losses that are so sure to quickly come. Moonbeam is not well. Parents of us all are precarious. Friends, lovers,and even ourselves are at that precipice of death.  Death happens in the blink of an eye when the choice to roll over or get up could make all the difference in the world.

Running for BOD and Southwest Modernism

Ok, we are 4 days into the campaign and things are getting NASTY!  The old man (CF) has decided he doesn't have to follow the rules set down by election committee because I think he can't remember them.  So far he has published a campaign flyer with the logo of Harbour Square in a prominent position and posted on the community bulletin board.  He has also publicly admonished me for "electioneering" at the gatehouse...which is not against the rules.

The election committee has been decimated because the only non-board member has resigned saying that her job finished after the candidates' forum.  The candidates forum went fairly well.  Although there were 10 candidates, everyone got their say.  The moderator kept statements to 3 minutes and questions and answers were kept to one minute each. Most questions were for all the panelists so there was a pass the microphone down the line kind of procedure   There was also a groundswell of hope for community involvement and openness of governance that were 2 of my main planks.  The 3 standing board members had their feet held to the fire more than once.  Only once was really wrong information given to the public by a panel member. He was corrected in due course by both audience and other panelists. (Guess who?)

Tonight we have our informal "meet and greet" where alcohol meets politics   I hate this part.  Although I probably do better at this kind of thing where I can respond to inquiries instead of get up and sell myself, the personal interaction is painful for me.  I always feel so awkward and silly looking.  What do I do with my hands? Should I drink beer or wine?  Will my blood sugar plummet and make me stupid? What if no one wants to talk to me? My back is hurting and I have to stand all night, will I be able to keep a smile on my face? How do I correct the other guy's lies without making him look like a fool?

I just want to make this a better place to live  I want to make sure that the management is doing its job.  I want to make sure that the board is organized and professional and responsive to the community. I want to give everyone who wants to volunteer a chance to contribute. Is that naive?

Harbour Square was granted Historic Status today by the DC Historic Preservation Review Board.  In their comments, they stated they would like to establish Southwest Modernist District. After hearing a lecture on Tuesday evening by speakers Richard Longstreth, of George Washington University, and Todd Ray, of Studio Twenty Seven Architecture, I feel the significance of our neighborhood deserves that designation.
Did you know this was the first planned integrated housing in the United States? Beyond that the areas of openness combined with mixed high-rise and low-rise buildings make it unique. It was a major laboratory of modern architecture and landscape design in the 1960's.  According to Longstreth Southwest is the "fullest and richest manifestation of modernist design in the world." The only other intact area left is Lafayette Park in Detroit. Unfortunately, not everyone at Harbour Square agrees and that is going to be the next big fight.....Sigh.

I forgot to talk about one aspect of the run for the Board of Directors that I am not looking forward to one bit.  On 23 August of 2010, I wrote a long blog about about a cranky old man who was giving me grief about my roof garden. Guess who is running for the Board? Thought you might want to check him out.  He hasn't improved with the years but he has managed to get quite a following by quoting lots of figures and folder-all from his time as an Army Missile contractor. Now I would call him the "Crazy F*^k".

Oh, and my garden on the west end?  VP, the Queen Bee, of the Board, another candidate, had it hauled off as being an obstruction in the dead of night and wouldn't allow the management to tell me where it was for 2 months.  All the apple trees and blueberries died and I have never gotten my trellises back.  She used the removal of that garden as an excuse to dismantle a lovely garden that had been assembled on the empty roof of the 510 Building and now the only people farming on the roof are the Queen Bee and "CF"

To see the original posting go back to the date above or copy and paste the address below.  Someday I will figure out how to do a link. maybe I did!

.http://didoesdc.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-stupid-fk.html

Now I really have to do my flyers for tomorrow

Why I Run...How to Campaign

It is that time of year again.  Harbour Square Elections are just around the corner.  I have decided to run for the Board of Directors for the 3rd time since I moved in in the fall of 2008. Why do I continue to expose myself to this kind of exquisite abuse? I have been asking myself this question all week.  I need to come up with my campaign slogan and get my letter written to the membership this weekend if I stand any kind of chance and yet my thoughts are still so muddled and confused.

I did choose my business card logo. I have been introducing myself and handing them out at the gatehouse in the evenings this week.  I have 3 owls on a branch.  I guess because I will always be watching and thinking. But that is as far as I have gotten.  Maybe if I think out loud I can make some sense of why I want to do this thing.

I know what I do NOT want.  I do not want more of what we have had for the last 2 years.  We have had a board of directors that has thrived in secrecy and absolute power.  They have abolished all volunteer committees and taken over all functions of our once thriving and cooperative cooperative.  No longer is there a feeling of consensus building and community.  All we have is fear and mistrust.  We live in a prison like atmosphere where a few, very few, rule the roost like a fox guarding the hen house. The management has driven off any kind or well meaning employee and all the rest must report any exchange with a resident to the management or be reprimanded.

Even though we are located in the District of Columbia, we were incorporated in Delaware  so our Board insists we don't need to follow the laws of either State or District.  They are a rouge entity unto themselves. They hold executive sessions where no minutes are kept and important decisions are made that will affect our coop for years to come. For instance they voted to back the waterfront development in a secret meeting   They also negotiated the contract with the management company in secret with the terms and prices kept secret from the board who was asked to vote on the contract with out the terms being know to all but the President. No copies of the contract were available for review by anyone.  The board also regularly has sessions that constitute a quorum where business is conducted that are not announced and business is conducted that have no minutes kept even though both Delaware and DC law say this is not right.

What I do want to have is a cooperative that is based on open meetings that adhere to the letter of the law. I want to have a board that welcomes input from the owners and incorporates that input into every decision. I want to be a member of the board that does my research to be knowledgeable about every issue that the board is confronted with. I would hope that instead of getting the board books on Friday before a meeting, we would get an informational book at the Tuesday working session the week before the board meeting. I would like to see more owners attend the working sessions and have break out groups where group participation could take advantage of the great wealth of knowledge we have here at Harbour Square. It could be known as brainstorming night where  no idea would be too off the wall to be considered. If it is good enough for the Army, surely it will work for us.

I am a member of CAI (Community Associations Institute), I have worked as a facilitator for the Army Family Team Building Program, I have written constitutions and bylaws for organizations ranging from Officers' Wives' groups to bringing churches current with state law, I have read and understand the DC and Delaware laws governing the common interests and ownership of real estate.

Basically, we all just want to live our lives and be left alone. Too many rules can bankrupt a community.  Look at the case in Fairfax's Olde Bellehaven community.

Feud over sign could force Fairfax's Olde Belhaven to sell square 

 All that happened over 2 inches on a sign.  I don't want that to happen to Harbour Square. With some of the shenanigans that our current and past 2 year's board have pulled, there have been distinct opportunities for exactly this kind of action to have happened here. With 6 openings on the board due to resignations and departures, Harbour Square has a  unique opportunity to go a different direction. We have got to go forward into the future.  Our best assets are our grounds, our roof, and our people. Although the new landscape master plan is a beginning, in past years we have neglected our grounds, squandered our roof , and lost a bunch of people. Let's not continue.

Snow

There is a little snow fluttering down this afternoon. Not enough to disrupt anything and not enough for my tastes. I love the snow. I love the way it blanks out all the evil and ugly things in life. Eva Cassidy is playing on the radio. "The balm that heals the sin sick soul."  That is how I feel about snow.  It covers the earth with its healing cover and all looks whole and bright again. Anything is possible on a snowy night. There is a luminosity of light captured that emanates from fresh fallen snow.  Is it hope? Is it peace? 

Eva Cassidy is one of my favorite artists. She was born here in Washington, DC in 1963 and passed from this life in Bowie, Md in 1996, the year I moved back to DC. . Yesterday would have been her 50th birthday.  She had a lovely voice.  Her recordings continue to be released. You can find out more about her at her webpage: http://evacassidy.org/eva/.  As is usual with many artists, Eva was revered in the UK and Australia.  This web site in England is also a wonderful tribute. www.oaksite.co.uk/bioblue.html 

OK, I think I successfully added a song by Eva to the blog as well. I'm learning.  I meant to do it after this posting but it may appear before.  I'm learning.

Eva Cassidy - What a Wonderful World

Field Mouse on the 8th Floor?

Yesterday I was reading my email when a little brown something caught my eye. I looked over to the pillows by my air vent and saw a field mouse moving with purpose toward the water container I had placed there to try and get some moisture in the air. I saw Miss Mouse ( I always anthropomorphize animals I see) just as she saw me.  Our eyes locked and she scurried back around the leg of the coffee table, under the writing desk, behind The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and disappeared behind my Grandmother's shapely divan. I got up to look for her but she had vanished as quickly as she had appeared. 

Where had she come from? Where had she gone? Had she come in the day before when I had left the patio door in the next room open for some time while I was watering the plants? But if she had, how would she have gotten to the eighth floor?  Had she been living all this time in my Christmas tree? It is now that I must confess that I have not yet taken down my gorgeous tree. It has petrified in place with it's all red decorations that are entirely appropriate for view until Valentine's Day. 

Then I got this horrible thought; she was living in the bottom drawer of the linen chest.  She was living in the drawer that I hadn't been able to open since I moved into the apartment over 4 years ago. She probably had a lovely nest with her babies and had lived there for years and for some reason she had just come out yesterday because it was such a dismal dark day that she had been confused into thinking it was night. She must be subsisting on the bird food that is thrown out by Franny and Zooey, the birds, with their messy habits. If I were to keep the bird detritus clean, I would have to be on 24 hour duty. As it is, I am doing good to sweep up once a day. I bet Miss Mouse has a deal with Missy Lu and Moonbeam that she won't bother them if they don't bother her. After I saw her, I took Moonbeam, the cat over to where she had run. Moonbeam just sniffed and looked at me like,"So what do you want me to do?" Missy Lu, the dog, was laying on the divan watching the whole thing take place. She never moved a muscle.

Anyway, I immediately called the Harbour Square Management office and reported my sighting.  They promised to get right back to me. This being Harbour Square and the fact that our Maintenance scheduling has been taken over by a machine, I was given an appointment for resolution of a week from yesterday ( 6 February).  I guess mice in the building are no big deal to HS Management. I found out about my scheduling from a form email I received late in the afternoon.  I wish that Dolores, the wonderful lady who used to handle maintenance issues, was still here. I guess I will have to handle this problem myself. A good night's sleep always clarifies issues. So this morning I decided I would have to get the bottom drawer out of the linen chest. 

The linen chest had originally been the changing table for my son, Luciano. I found it in a second hand store in  Lawton, Oklahoma in the spring of 1982. It came covered in multiple layers of ugly paint but it was just the right height to change diapers and had 2 wide drawers and 2 small drawers at the top. I got it cheap, cheap, cheap. I used Formby's Paint and Poly Remover to get the paint off because it was supposed to be all natural and gentle for a pregnant person to use.  It turned out to be the best thing I could have done.  It turned out to have been a early American Cherry piece with inlay of a lighter wood and is probably one of my most important pieces. I always thought if Antiques Road show came here, I would take it to be appraised. But time has not been kind to the changing (linen) chest on four spindly legs. It got worm wood when we took it to Germany.  One of it's legs got broken on the move from Kansas to Oklahoma. The final indignity came on the 18th  and final move from 2038 Pierce Mill Rd NW, DC to here.  The bottom drawer got jammed in so tight  that I couldn't get it out.

This morning, I determined that I had to get that drawer out so I could see if Miss Mouse was nested there.  First, I had to remove the top two smaller drawers. That was simple.  I placed them on the Chinese bed in the next room.  Then I got the middle wide drawer out and put it in the other room. The middle drawer is the same size as the bottom drawer. It is 37 3/8" across and 15" wide and 5" deep. Full of table cloths it was no mean feat to pull it out of the case. I accomplished it with some exertion   There would be no way I would be able to get the bottom drawer out with the linens in place. Fortunately., the divider was partially gone. I could  remove the remaining piece and see that Miss Mouse had not built a nest in the bottom drawer.  In a way, I was kind of disappointed. I remember as a kid finding a mouse nest in the kitchen drawer at the farm and how upset my mother was.  Would I have been as upset to find Miss Mouse this morning? Now my job became just another menial housekeeping job.

Later this afternoon, the Orkin guy came and decided that the mouse came from the air vents in the building and that mice are probably all over the place. Great...now I am breathing mouse and will probably get Hanta virus.  And I thought my biggest problem was learning how to upload pictures to my blog.

New Year, New Inauguration, New Feeling

I was waiting for the new year to really get started in my new discipline of writing every day.  I have been doing very well with the twitter regimen.  I tired to write something relevant about my southwest DC community everyday last year.  Even though I wasn't always all that relevant, I did manage to put down a thought or two in 140 characters or less every day.  But Twitter is really a mind killer for writers.  Distilling thoughts to such a fine point, makes the creative juices just dry up after that 140 characters.  My mind is now reduced to the 140 character sound bite. I no longer seem capable of thinking past a certain number of letters to expand on my thought in any relevant way.  Even as I type this I am unconsciously counting the characters.

The other thing that has really bummed me out about my blog is the fact that everyone now has darling pictures and/or sketches to illustrate what they are writing about.  No longer can a person just bare their soul with the written word.  Now we must entertain with cute illustrations and pictures of our surroundings.  I still am having trouble learning how to text pictures I take on my phone.  How can I be expected to upload pictures to a blog or make drawings that I then scan into the computer and upload?

I must say I was totally relieved when President Obama was re-elected in November.  I was one of the few in my family who was happy about the outcome of the elections but I know he is what is best for the country at this time.  I am not naive enough to think that the President is the one who really runs the country.  He is just the one who stands at the head of the country. People look to him for leadership. I personally like his calm manner and steady deliberate way.  He will have to contend with a Congress that was elected from a Gerry-rigged country that sent a majority Republican Congress to Washington from the same counties that sent the President here.  It is a real recipe for disaster, unless....those representatives represent the wishes of the people and not the rhetoric of their party. I think the chances they will do that is slim.

The Inauguration is always a new beginning and I volunteered to work this time as I did in 2009. I was just as excited as I had been when I stood on the Mall in 2009 from 4am until after noon and heard President Barack Hussein  Obama take the oath of office for the first time.  This year I was assigned the Commander in Chief's Inaugural Ball.  I was to be on Access Control and make sure only the right people went the right places.  To get the gig, I had to fill out a long detailed questionnaire online.  I also had to attend a training and walk-through at the convention center where the ball was to take place.  I had to report several hours before the ball began to receive my credentials and final assignment  Everything was very secret and last minute supposedly for security reasons. There is one reason I think it is because they didn't know what the heck they were doing.  At no time during any training, check-in, or before credentialing, did anyone ask for identification, ask me any identifying questions, or in any other was identify that I was the person who had applied for the job or taken the training. I COULD HAVE BEEN ANY JOE BLOW TERRORIST ROAMING FREE IN THE CONVENTION CENTER WITH FREE ACCESS TO THE PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT. Fortunately, I wasn't and neither were any of the other 10,000 or so volunteers who the Presidential Inauguration Committee let loose on the public on Monday.....but it does give one pause. Thank God for the Secret Service.

                                                            The view from my balcony

So, I would like to be more active in 2013. I would like to bring a few illustrations to the table. I would like to finally settle my personal conundrum. I hope I can help my community.

DCmud - The Urban Real Estate Digest of Washington DC: Hoffman-Madison Details Second-Stage Plans for Southwest Waterfront

     This was in DC MUD this morning and I can't 
     let it go by with out comment. 

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Testimony in Opposition of SW Waterfront Development at Zoning Commission

Opposition to SW Waterfront Case No. 11-03

I would like to thank the Zoning Board for this opportunity to testify in opposition to the proposed development on the SW Waterfront.  I am not anti-development I am just against this development as it is stated in the currently proposed PUD I.

I am a resident of Harbour Square Cooperative, Inc. I moved here 3 years ago from Columbia Heights, another area of the city that has been developed beyond its capacity to handle the number of people, buildings, and traffic that has been dropped there.  In the beginning, we were so hopeful and trusted the developers to do the right thing: to build great buildings, move traffic, and make living there a great experience.  We were naïve and sorely disappointed. The area is an urban nightmare with high crime, horrible traffic, and ugly buildings.

I moved to SW and Harbour Square because of the serenity and beauty of the midcentury architecture and landscaping.  Chloetheil Woodward Smith designed Harbour Square. She also was the architect for Capitol Park I and II and Waterside Apartments and Townhomes.  Her forte was integrating pastoral settings with large apartment blocks and townhouses focused on bodies of water. She was always drawn to the water and in conjunction with landscape architects, Dan Kiley and Hideo Sasaki, designed award winning gardens like Harbour Square’s reflecting pool (Kiley-Illus.1) and Waterside Park along the Washington Channel (Sasaki-illus.2) that the developer wants to obliterate.

Views were also important to Chloetheil Woodward Smith. There is a picture of the current waterfront from my apartment below (illus. 3).  It is vibrant with activity every hour of the day and night. I think it is beautiful. It was designed by the firm of Smith and Assoc. The current developer has referred to it as ugly and underutilized.  Perhaps if all the plans Miss Smith designed had been carried out, it wouldn’t be quite as stark today as it has become. She designed a place to gather and shop.  She even designed a “Ponte Vecchio” type of bridge that was begun in the late 1950’s and intended to house restaurants and shops but never came to fruition (illus. 4.) What we are left with is the base of that bridge; brutal and plain.

Now the new developers come in and make grand pronouncements about huge buildings and what the neighborhood needs, but once again they don’t live here.  They have barely visited here.  They say they have had hundreds of meetings but with whom? Is it like Columbia Heights all over again?  They talk to people who will agree with them or people who want something from them.  But do they want to talk to the 16,000 or so regular people who live and work and fight the traffic and walk to the fish market and run by the water and want another grocery store? Do they consider our elderly women who love to sit in the breeze at the aforementioned Waterside Park?  Or about how great it is to be able to walk the lower promenade with your child on a tricycle and not have to worry about being run over by a car?

Alleys of 25 feet do not a grand vista make and there are too many unanswered questions in this submission to make me comfortable with endorsing it. A veggie stand once a week is not going to make up for buildings that will block my view of the Washington monument or taking away the sun at 3pm on a winter’s day. Please have them review Chloetheil Woodward Smith’s original plan at the Library of Congress (Smith & Associated Architects Architectural Drawing Archive-Waterfronts-Washington(DC) 1950-1980-Library of Congress) and come back to you with a more humane plan with current residents and buildings in mind.

Speaker Boehner working to solve financial crisis?

Last night I went over to the only place in Southwest DC where you can get a drink and dinner on the water, Cantina Marina.  It is a lovely neighborhood place where a everyone gathers and bring dogs, kids, and parents to socialize, eat, and unwind.  All types come there and when you walk down that ramp, rank and fame are usually left behind.  Last night all of that was blown out of the water.

About 8:45, the manager of the Gangplank marina and his assistant came in and said that Speaker Boehner was on his way.  No big deal, he came often when a certain bartender was on duty and sat down with the rest of us around the big square bar.  I thought it was kind of odd he would be coming last night when all the leaders were supposed to be working day and night on the debt ceiling.  Then it turned out that it was not just the Speaker on his way.  It was a whole boatload (literally) who docked on the Celebrity after nearly running into the crowded dining deck.   In the meantime, a couple of secret service looking guys came in a swept the place looking very official.

 Then all of a sudden it was just crazy.  Everyone who had been upstairs were told they had to vacate immediately, even if they were in the middle of a meal. They started coming down and were trying to get a table or space at the bar and service.  Then crowds of people started coming in off the boat and down the ramp.  They were mostly old goats and youngish girls and where shown upstairs.  At some point, Boehner arrived surrounded by a phalanx of suited men and a couple of women.  The guards then withdrew to the front of the building.  After the crowd arrived, no one downstairs could get service to save their souls until everyone upstairs had been fully covered. The staff at Cantina did yeoman service to try and cover the influx of people and the now less than satisfied regulars.

To add insult to injury, when I left about 45 minutes later, out front there was his large SUV suburban parked blocking the handicapped access from the restaurant.  The engine had obviously been running the entire time because there was quite a puddle of water from the condenser. The six goons just laughed when asked to turn off the motor.  "The no idling law does not apply to the Speaker of the House," I was told.

So I guess, it was bad enough that they played that little baseball game last night. I guess the reason they couldn't make it to meetings this morning with the President is because they all had heavy heads from their big party last night after the game.  I live right above Cantina.  They were there well past midnight. The speaker is really taking things seriously.  He really takes DC law seriously. Maybe he was just prematurely celebrating what he is anticipating to be a victory.

I am now the other woman

I have now become the other woman in my own marriage.  It seems kind of funny only it isn't. I'm not laughing.

Sold down the river by the National Capitol Planning Commission and Commission on Fine Arts

According to our Friends at the National Planning Commission and the US Commission on Fine Arts, nothing in SW  Washington is important enough to save from their great vision.On 2 April 2009 they adopted a plan that will, among other things, make the SW Waterfront the means to "transform federal precincts surrounding the National Mall into vibrant destinations and to improve the physical and visual connections between the city,the National Mall,and the waterfront while achieving the highest levels of livability and sustainability incentral Washington" all at the expense of the SW Waterfront.

The plan is to "transform the Southwest Rectangle into a distinguished and pedestrian friendly workplace, a cultural hub,and an exciting and welcoming visitor destination." I kind of think that already discribes the SW neighborhood that I live in. I can walk by the water, watch the boats, see and talk with my neighbors and people from all over the world.  We have recently reopened Arena Stage and several thousand workers come to Fort McNair and city offices on 4th St SW each day.  According to the plan they would like to add tens of thousands of workers, thousands of residents and unknown numbers of visitors that would arrive on enhanced streets and bridges to form "multiple linkages" that would span the channel from P and N streets"that improve access" to Potomac Park.

This plan is being used as the basis for the PUD filed on 10 Feb 2011by PN Hoffman et all for their plan to develope the SW Waterfront with their wall of 11 and 12 story buildings and the elimination of Water Street,even though NCPC has just begun the first of their 10 planned studies on the Monumental Core Framework Plan.  The Washington Canal and Channel Study was deemed to be number 4 in priority.

I think this raises enough questions that the closing of Water Street should be put on hold until the Washington Canal and Channel Study has been completed. This plan's first objective is to celebrate the city as a symbol.  "Washington's iconic urban form and skyline are recognized around the world as symbols of American democracy."  If Water Street is closed and 10 tall buildings are built there, our skyline will be unrecognizable fom the water, from the land, or from the air.

I want my Mommy back

I just got off the phone with the lady who says she is my Mama but that isn't her.  That is a whisper of my mother in a body that used to look like her.  That was a sick complaining old woman who can't remember from minute to minute who is coming with me for Christmas or most days when Christmas is.  That woman was whining about nobody helping her do the housework when everyone does everything for her.  Where has my Mama gone?  Even last year at this time, Mama would apologize and say, "I'm just not myself today."  We could then kind of laugh and I'd repeat what I had said and she would get the idea into her mind and we could go on with a conversation.  In the last year though, she has failed to the point that we can't do that any more and any reference to the fact that she might not be perfectly all right infuriates her.

 She has no concept of time or travel and that makes living across the country quite difficult. Mama doesn't understand why I can't just pack up and come over every time she needs me and then go home again like my brother Dean does.  Dean lives 26 miles away. Poor Dean.  He is hounded daily to come over and do things that people in Russell are perfectly capable of doing.  He does hold his own pretty well and manages to keep it to one or two trips a week.

My son is getting married a few days after Christmas but I dread the entire process.  My mother has become so self-centric that I fear she will be terribly uncomfortable in the crowd of new people.  Even though there will not be many there (about 50), she will need someone by her side at all times.  I won't be able to watch out for her as I usually do.  She is going to get her feelings hurt and will end up withdrawing and lying down. If she could just come back for a bit and follow the proceedings and join in the fun and be Mama.

Everyday I think of things I would like to talk over with my mother.  I have been fortunate to have the kind of relationship that allowed me to talk to her about nearly anything.  When we talk now she still wants to have that sort of intimacy but when she can't even remember that my husband and I are separated some days, it is kind of hard.  I try but I always come away with a crushed heart. The conversations are like talking to someone else in a Mama costume.

So sometimes I just cry. And since this is Christmastime and I do believe in miracles, maybe I ought to ask Santa...."Could I please have my Mommy back?"