First off: Happy Mother's Day Mom!! Thanks for touring DC with me, I enjoyed it.
A couple of pictures from our tour: MT Vernon's back porch, Lincoln's statue outside of his summer house (where the Emancipation Proclamation was written) and Woodrow Wilson's typewriter. Three president's houses visited, pretty cool:
What's been going on? Hmmm . . .
I am still riding to work 5 times a week, and still get kind of worn down by friday, but that is ok. Everytime I pass by a bunch of cars sitting on Rock Creek Parkway, I am happy inside because I am not in one of those cars. Everytime I see one of those miserable buses on Georgia AVE, I am very happy because I am not stuck in one of them.
I have made some modifications to my route - - I now take Kennedy street through Rock Creek Park, then hit Beach drive. There is a pretty sweet downhill (which means a wicked uphill on the way home), and the road goes right past some of the prettiest parts of Rock Creek. It also means that I have to ride with some traffic, but I will take that trade.
Part of my route takes me through the DC (Smithsonian) Zoo. There is an exhibit of Asian Bears close to the route, normally when I ride by in the morning they are just coming out of their cave for a stretch so I can check them out; I also check out a couple of families of mallard ducks that live in one of the slow parts of the creek as it cuts close to the zoo.
Around the Hood . . .
Last weekend was Brightwood Park cleanup day, I instigated it. Brightwood Park is the park that Sam, Cheney and I walk through most nights, and one of Sam's favorite spots to poop (of course I pick up after him; for the record, Cheney poops in the backyard exclusively). DC has an elected/volunteer official somewhere between regular citizen and city council person. I contacted our local rep and asked her about cleaning up the park and she contacted the mayor's office (who sent a rep) and out DC City Council person (the only one not under investigation for corruption; who also showed up) and about 10 of my neighbors showed up to spend a few hours picking up the debris left in the park. It was a good day, the park is a little cleaner, I think we will do it again in a couple of months.
Other things . . .
I am still not running, plantar fascitis is still working me over. It is getting better, I think about another month of not running will do the trick. I will report back in JUN. Biking too and from work takes care of my cardio workouts. If I am able to start running, I think it will only be a couple of times a week.
Husker update . . .
I am a little leery about the Huskers introduction into the Big 10. I read articles about how the Huskers will clean up, go un-defeated, etc. Then I flashback to the fold over the Huskers had in the second half of last season and remember how we did the dieing cockroach against the Huskies and balance it out. We'll see. I have confidence in the defense and hope the the offense doesn't rest solely on tender ankles of Taylor Martinez. So, I am optimistic, good bowl game, 9 or 10 wins and I will be happy.
Fantasy Football update . . .
I have no idea what the NFL will do this next year, and I don't really mind. I will play fantasy football and will watch a couple of games or so, but, you know, when spoiled athletes who get paid a ton start to complain to owners that are very rich (who claim they are losing money - - why keep owning a team if you are losing money???) when there are a whole lot of folks out of work, I really don't have much sympathy and lose some interest in the sport.
But, I will still try to smoke Wade in TFL.
Political Commentary (stop now if you don't want to read it) on the Death of Osama Bin Laden
I am happy that he is dead, he was the motivating factor behind some of the worst violence in the world. Not only the African embassy bombings and the 9-11 attacks, but some of the worst Sunni vs. Shia violence in recent times.
I also think that the war on terrorism isn't over. This is similar to the Cold War, a long slog against an entrenched enemy. The enemy isn't a military target that can be knocked off, it is a soft war of development and education.
There are too many motivating factors that will lead the rest of the world to continue to fall apart. When you look at a very young, poorly educated Muslim population that is growing up in a world where they are oppressed and don't have access to what the rest of the world has (education, work, quality of life, everything that they can see on the internet and can't have) you will have the roots of terrorism. If governments of the world don't pay attention to the needs of their population and continue to pay attention to their Swiss bank accounts and lining the pockets of their family/tribe/friends/political cronies there will be terrorist movements.
My hope is that the leading governments of the world don't declare victory and quit on the rest of the world. Good article:
The "Y" Article
OK, off the soap box.
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